Fishing Log

Joseph C, can you still park in the lot at the canal head where the fish ladder is? I haven’t been there in several years but I thought that was part of the Delaware Canal State Park?

What a difference a day makes. Only caught one in 3 hours of fishing.. water temp 60.5, wind excessive

Only 4 today. 3 were very big roe 1 buck. All very healthy looking clean fish.

One fish every 4.5 minutes?

I've posted this before. I'm only passing on my experiences - 80s and 90s had good shad runs, A typical run below Easton started late March with the end of early run fish being caught. This varied slightly according to water temperature. I recall shivering my butt off fishing below Lambertville catching shad with 10 inch thick chunks of ice stacked behind me on the bank. Mid April was the main run, lots of shad were caught from Trenton to the Gap. Late April catches would vary, good days and poor days for a week or so. Then in May Loads of large roe came up mixed with hearing. My guess is a lot of these fish spawned in the lower river and were returned spawners. Approximately 2006 to 2009 had poor runs. If I recall correctly, 2010 was the come back year. But; The large roes in Mays never returned. From what I read online, it appears to me that only people above Easton are saying that they have had good runs in the past 3 to 5 years. Possibly the loss of the May return spawners is also the reason the smallmouth declined.

Rob Wright - that’s amazing. Congrats. Not surprised by the action - just surprised by the method. Drifting spoons?

Fished Zane Grey today from shore 3:30 - 7 pm caught 6 shad water temp. was 61.8 deg.

Caught one from shore before the rain. We need the River to come up about 2ft for these fish to spread out more for us shore guys. Hopefully the rain stained it up a bit.

Fished north of Dingman's Saturday. Early but slow bite. Saw a few fish caught, shore fishermen caught a few. Boat fisherman caught a few. Nothing to write home about. Will be at it again during the week.

forgot to put my name see my post below @ 10:50 PM

Dave D, the three-fish limit goes back further than 2017 although I am not certain what year it was. It was the DRSFA that lobbied for the six-fish limit sometime in the 80s. No one on the DRSFA Board of Directors had an issue with lowering a “no limit” daily creel status to six fish. One of the factors that helped the six-fish limit become enacted was the change of Shad from just a fish to a recognized gamefish. Once it became a gamefish, a daily creel limit could be established. Back then Shad were a lot bigger on average, so six fish represented at least 15 pounds a day, which is plenty for anyone. Further lowering the daily limit to three was not that big of a deal because 1) three fish is still around 10 pounds a day, 2) most guys release their Shad because they refuse to eat them, and 3) people were beginning to realize the population was having difficulty because of increased commercial pressure, increased predation from a growing stripper population (as you have noted) and other predators. Not having state fishery departments conducting population surveys as they did in the past doesn’t help us gauge a given year’s population, which leads to guessing games and conjecture. This year, for instance, the fish are again small overall but there must be an awful lot of them in the river given some of the reports I read here. Also, we seem to have warmer weather earlier in the year and less snowfall in the Delaware watershed, which means the river warms earlier and the fish enter it sooner. A lot of them are upriver before we know it, and because the river temp. Is low 40s when they begin to move in, they’re not aggressive and people don’t catch them. But look what’s happening now. All of a sudden we have river temps in the mid 50s and the fish are going bonkers. And it’s only April 15. You’re never going to know what’s in the river unless PA, NJ, and NY re-implement data compilation through population survey studies. And if there are going to be decreases in daily creel limits such as there was this year from 3 to 2, at least get press releases out so the public knows what’s going on. There is a beautiful boat launch in Riegelsville, NJ with a large glass-encased bulletin board. But there is nothing on that board to indicate the current creel limit. C’mon, New Jersey, post fliers up and down the river so anglers know what’s going on. By the way, I thought this board was for communication of information and ideas, not for slinging mud at each other, without even giving names. Pretty childish and unnecessary.

One fact that is not being discussed here is striped bass preditation In 1991 they were declared a gamefish which prevented the commercial fishers from harvesting them. I can tell you from experience that that 10 years later the bass population exploded in the tidal river. What a lot of folks don’t know is there is a resident population of bass in the Delaware that never migrate back to the ocean. I used to fish the cove in the Trenton power plant for The End of October to The middle of April and landed many bass in the 40+ pound class. These fish have decimated the herring populations as well as the shad. In addition it is my opinion that this caused many of the commercial fisheries to overfish the shad in the early 90’s as we saw a sharp downturn in their population just a few years later. Now 32 years later the striper population is declining due to lack of forage fish! This is the mismanagement I am referring to. This is what happens when politics get in the way! The striped Regis should have been loosened to allow for additional harvest both on the surf and in the river to manage population overgrowth. This was thought when I took my hunter safety course back in 1982 - overpopulation of any species will lead to dessamation of the available food source, then the entire population is a risk! Problem is that this is not taught or discussed anymore.

Rich; Anybody remember what year the 6 fish limit was instituted, what year the 3 fish limit likewise?

Possibly genetics may be playing a role. Scale studies to assess fish age would be helpful. Maybe weighing in 9 pounders at Andys sport shop instead of releasing them to reproduce more large fish contributed....

The dams on the Lehigh river, Easton, chain dam etc and the associated infrastructure like the canal are a ongoing financial and environmental disaster. The cycle of blaming the commercial fishery for shad declines and them blaming communities along the river for not restoring habitat isn't going to get you anywhere. The problem is right in front of you as well as the solution.

RCN, that’s a good question. My neighbor is a fisheries biologist who used to help monitor Shad in the Delaware. I’ll ask him today when I see him if he can lead me to the proper people in PA and NJ. The DRSFA was responsible for the two fish passageways on the Easton and Glendon dams on the Lehigh. Those dams aren’t passing as many fish as they were intended to, but they could if they were cleaned out every year prior to the run. DCNR is responsible for that and if it’s a manpower issue, the DSRFA could offer volunteers. The ladders’ chambers need to be kept clean to have a high velocity of water entering the Lehigh. That’s the magnet that attracts the fish. Maybe next year; too late now. Local Politics plays a big part in those dams remaining where they are. So, let me talk with my neighbor and I’ll see what I can post.

Good ideas,but dams are coming down,at least in NJ. Who are the anadromous fisheries biologists for either state and what are their projects currently?

Boated 24, lost several from 4 to 7. Water temp 61, river low and clear, no debris or snot. Many large schools on fish finder

Caught more fish from shore this year than any since the 90s. Boat guys I know reporting large numbers. Yes the fish size is down but if this is 1 year class then they are going to have number the limit of graduation tickets because it is HUGE. I think your doomsday machines are working overtime lol

Dave D - I fished alm through the 80’s and weighed 2 fish 9.5 lbs on a certified scale from one trip! I think it was 1984 or whatever year the 11lb record was taken. 7# were all tok common. I cannot imagine bringing a $# roe to the bi-state contest scale these days - people would sh@t themselves.

Launched close to water gap and started slow but my cousin and I ended up with 54 landed and waaaay more than that in terms of short hits. Went to best historical spot but scratched our 6 and a walleye there from 2:30 to 4:30pm. Not good enough. Went to find faster shallower water in 7’ and it paid off. 54 landed and more than that in short hits not landed. Quit with them biting hard at 7:15pm. Started with 3 spoons on divers and candy corn small darts and a few pink and white. The spoons caught 5 in very small purple crush but by 5 pm I was running nothing but 1/16 and 1/32 hot pink head and glow white darts with white UV tails and it was a lot of doubles and a few triples until we quit. 7-8 were roe up to 4# the roe get smaller every year which bothers me - a lot. Water started 57 ended 58.8. That’s when hot pink replaces chartreuse green for me. We did get some on candy corn but eventually swapped them out. This was “old time” shad fishing except for the size.

Fished Zane Grey from shore 5-7:30 pm. got 0. Saw some other guys catch some so it wasn't all bad. Water temp. was 57 deg.

Fished Zane Grey 4 - 7:30 pm. tonight caught 2 shad had 2 more hits all after 6 pm water temp.was 54 deg. Used a double dart rig 1/4 on top 1/32 on bottom caught both on the 1/32 dart chartreuse color.

How is shore and wading fishing at Eshback? Non boater. Thanks