<b>North Jersey</b>

A bright moon on Sunday, after the full moon on Friday, might have slowed walleye fishing that night aboard a lake, Capt. Dave Vollenweider from <b>Live to Fish Guide Service</b> from Montvale wrote in an email. But the trip bagged one healthy-sized, 4-pound walleye and hooked three more walleyes that got off. Herring began flipping along the water surface at midnight, and walleyes sometimes exploded on them.  The lake was 72 degrees, and Live to Fish is casting plugs to walleyes at night in the shallows of lakes. The fish in the dark push into the skinny water, where they can be plugged. Walleyes swim there to forage on spawning herring this time of year. The plugging is great sport, drawing the fish to explode on the lures, and walleyes are large and good-eating, a member of the perch family. Sometimes Live to Fish is also fishing for other catches, any that will bite, including muskies.

The local Delaware River ran high and muddy, said Andy from <b>Stokes Forest Sport Shop</b> in Sandyston. So nothing was really caught from there, but previously smallmouth bass and catfish started to be slugged from the river. Shad fishing slowed on the local river for the season. The Big Flatbrook fished well for trout at the catch-and-release stretch. Anglers cast mostly dry flies to them in evenings, and the river’s hatches included sulfurs, sometimes blue-winged olives, and midges. At lakes, largemouth bass, not a lot, started to bite. Mostly rubber worms were fished for them. Sometimes spinner baits were tossed to the bass to draw a reaction strike at spawning beds.

Largemouth bass still spawned at lakes, but some of the fish began to bite, said Brian from <b>Ramsey Outdoor</b> in Succasunna. Warming waters helped make the bass active, and mostly Keitechs and Senkos were fished for them. Trout streams ran lower, after the high waters of spring, and that improved trouting. Flies that match sulfurs that are hatching should catch them, and light Cahills started to hatch. Isonychias should come off in a couple of weeks, and tricos will hatch afterward. Fishing for muskies seemed to pick up at Lake Hopatcong.

Rainstorms kept reports scarce from the lake last week, Laurie from <b>Dow’s Boat Rentals</b> in Lake Hopatcong wrote in an email. “Not much going on,” she said. But a few hybrid striped bass to 6 pounds were fought on livelined herring. At night, walleyes and hybrids smacked top-water lures. Crappies were nabbed on fathead minnows or small jigs. Largemouth bass and smallmouth bass could be kept starting Monday, after fishing for them was catch and release previously for spawning. The Knee Deep Club’s Stu Lant fishing tournament will be held on the lake Saturday and Sunday. For further info, visit the club’s website or telephone Dow’s:  973-663-3826.

A bunch of catfish were tugged from Passaic River, said Cheryl from <b>Fairfield Fishing Tackle</b> in Pine Brook. Nightcrawlers, chicken livers and Gulp chicken livers tied into them, and one angler talked about landing northern pike from the river last week. But that was all that was mentioned about pike in the river. Largemouth bass were socked from lakes and ponds everywhere. Jigs with swim baits and Senkos hooked them.

<b>South Jersey</b>

Good catfishing was busted from Delaware River, anywhere from Trenton to Philadelphia, said Karl from <b>Sportsmen’s Center</b> in Bordentown. The cats milled along the flats, sniffing out nightcrawlers, fresh chunks of eels and chicken livers. The eel chunks caught the biggest. The river was dirty, like chocolate milk, for smallmouth bass to hit.  Largemouth bass were on a top-water bite in mornings at Assunpink, Rising Sun and Stone Tavern lakes, in Assunpink Wildlife Management Area, on white or chartreuse buzz baits. During daytime, 10-inch rubber worms, in red shad, black and June Bug, clubbed them along Assunpink Lake’s submerged road bed. Anglers at Manasquan Reservoir hung largemouths to 5 ½ pounds “in the wood” on flipped ½-ounce jigs with a trailer.

The shop was busy with anglers during the weekend, said Ed from <b>Creek Keepers Bait & Tackle</b> in Blackwood. Not a lot was heard about catches, and everybody kept asking the shop where to fish. But largemouth bass were active at just about any lake. Good reports about them came from Clementon Lake. A few customers fished shiners for them there, and one worked a jighead with a rubber worm, pasting the bass. Sunnies nibbled at all the lakes they swam. Chain pickerel were wrestled from lakes like New Brooklyn, always a place to catch them. Ed in the last report mentioned snakeheads, the invasive species, banked from the spillway at Blackwood Lake. No customers talked about the fish this past week.

Union Lake was the hot spot for largemouth bass and smallmouth bass, said Steve from <b>Blackwater Sports Center</b> in Vineland. Shaky heads and rubber frogs latched into the largemouths. Good or decent reports about largemouth bass rolled in from South Vineland Park Pond. Not much was mentioned about chain pickerel and crappie catches. But bluegills seemed to bite well at all different lakes that held them on nightcrawlers. In saltwater, plenty of summer flounder crammed back bays, and Delaware Bay’s flounder fishing seemed spotty. Delaware Bay’s drum fishing seemed to be slowing down for the season.

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