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SJBCA Meeting 1/20
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| Crappie Jon |
Posted on 01/22/2016
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Veteran Member
Posts: 530
Joined: 14.12.10
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Since BN wasnt around to attend this meeting and construct one of his 10 chapter novels. Im not usually one to post novels, but heres a copy and paste of what I reported for RBC, mainly because the meeting was much more informative than normal.
Last night I drove down to the edge of the universe as usual to attend the monthly sjbca meeting. One nice thing about this months meeting was that Chris Smith the nj f&w biologist made an appearance to be grilled by mostly everyone in the room about various lake issues and projects going on in the state. Some of the things that came up are below.
DOD Ponds:
There is a thriving population of Snakeheads in dod now. Chris believes they washed in through the pipe to the river in the back of the ponds. He believes this is verified by the fact that all the snakeheads are almost the exact same size, hinting at being fish of the same year class. He mentioned that in an hour of electrofishing this year they harvested 4 snakeheads. Whereas in the popular snakehead lakes such as Newton and Stewart's they have never had more than 1 in a electrofishing session.
He mentioned that the largemouth population is some of the best ever for DOD and they are very happy with its quality. On the other hand, in the 2 year smallmouth stocking excursion. They have not seen a single smallmouth in any electrofishing session. They will not be continuing the DOD smallmouth project.
South Vineland Park
In the same type of 2 year smallmouth project in DOD, they have seen the same results with the SVP stocking project. They will not be continuing the SVP smallmouth project.
Lake Audrey
Lake Audrey remains in the same state as before. Resting at a ph of around 4. For people that may not know ph scale goes from 0-14, with 7 being neutral water. There is a decent largemouth population still in there, but last year showed no signs of a successful spawn. The fish laid eggs but the eggs didn't survive in that low of a ph. It would cost 20,000 dollars every 5 years to keep the lake a productive fishery. So as of now. The lake will remain the way it is.
Chris also described how heavy spring rains can affect ph of a lake and spawning. A lake he used for example was lake Lenape. Heavy spring rains can cause a sudden drop in ph and cause a spawn season to fail. This is usually the case when you see a lake that's full of say 12"ers and 3lbers, but no ~2lbers to be found. It takes about 3 to 4 years for a spawned egg to become a 12"er.
Union Lake
Chris says that Union lake is in one of the best states that it's ever been in. There is a significant population of 4 and 5 pound fish. He says that the fishing is back to where it was around 2004, before it was plagued with lmb virus around 2006-2007. He also stated an interesting phenomenon that they believe but have not officially confirmed that some of the largemouths have started to breed with the smallmouths in the lake, forming some largemouth /smallmouth hybrids (meanmouths ive heard it called?). It will
be interesting to see if these fish develop
Salem Canal
Salem Canal continues to be fishing great. Chris believes that the insane amount of tournaments have thinned out the previous plethora of small/medium fish, which has allowed for the medium fish to grow bigger. He does believe that the constant tournament pressure will be a possible long term issue for the canal.
Sunset Lake
Sunset lake seems to be progressing great. The lake was stocked with 5 times the normal stocking rate to get the ball rolling again. The most recent electrofishing session resulted in a harvest of all the normal lake species doing well, just small. The biggest bass seen was around 14". The lake just needs a couple years to progress and should be back to its old ways. Remember that rainbow was just as empty as sunset was in 2007-2008. The ramp still sucks, but so do all sj ramps.
Moving on, lakes were nominated for this years bass bowl. They will be voted on at next months meeting. They are:
Nanticoke River
Delaware River
Salem Canal
Beltzville Lake
Union Lake
Finally, angler excellence awards were announced. They will be presented at the next meeting
Lunker award. 6lb 13oz - Swiftwik Lake (I think that's the 6 flags lake?)
3 fish limit at lunker lake- 13lbs. Assunpink
5 fish limit (one person)- Joe Franzwa, Canal, 16lbs
5 fish limit (two people) 20.5lbs. Flats
6 fish limit - Fred Lentz & Joe Nemeth - 9.65lbs
10 fish limit- Jackson Fu & Dan Fitzpatrick - 20.33lbs. Flats-Bass Bowl.
Edited by Crappie Jon on 01/22/2016
"2nd place is just the first loser" |
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| ram1212 |
Posted on 01/22/2016
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Admin
Posts: 844
Joined: 08.11.09
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Thanks for posting Dan. I honestly always thought it was just Prospertown lake at 6 flags...Don't see a ramp at that Switlick and it looks to be in the park? Very interesting. Prospertown is row only. Maybe new member Matt knows a little more about this lake? I think we are spelling it different now that I look closer.
Edited by ram1212 on 01/22/2016 |
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| topgunmatt1 |
Posted on 01/22/2016
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Member
Posts: 79
Joined: 08.01.16
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Switlick lake is private and is part of six flags property. You can see it through the woods at the very end of prospertown.
It is like no other lake in NJ with the quality fish it produces. I have been allowed in there twice since my parents business (TopGun Paintball) boarders six flags. Both times I went there was three of us on the boat. Both times all three of of caught a fish over 5.5lbs. On top of that we were catching fish just about every 5-10 casts.
People talk about places like this, but normally it's not true. Good to hear that a big one came out of there this year. I haven't been there for about 6 or so years and i wasn't sure if the Prospertown damn failure affected Switlick as well since they are connected. They wont grant permission anymore. My dad's connection retired 
As for the ramp for Switlick we had to drive through the park and put the boat in where they do the fireworks and water show. Because of this we were only able to fish fron safe light in the AM and then had to be out of the park before they opened.
Edited by topgunmatt1 on 01/22/2016 |
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| BASS HOPPER |
Posted on 01/22/2016
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Senior Member
Posts: 337
Joined: 09.11.09
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Thanks for the report Dan. |
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| BigNasty06 |
Posted on 01/23/2016
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Super Admin
Posts: 2193
Joined: 09.11.09
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Excellent synopsis Dan. Thanks again.
BN06
BN06, President |
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| jiggin den |
Posted on 01/24/2016
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Veteran Member
Posts: 697
Joined: 09.11.09
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Thanks Dan, very interesting to hear all the variables at the different lakes. Thanks to Matt also for your input.
Jiggin Den |
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| BigNasty06 |
Posted on 02/01/2016
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Super Admin
Posts: 2193
Joined: 09.11.09
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Now that I've fully ingested Dan's report. JK! LOL!!
Good stuff.
That lake that the Lunker came out of... I wonder how that was even nominated outside of a club sponsored event? That's like someone fishing Palantine (which is super off limits to non-residents and clubs) catching saying a 8lber and submitting to SJBCA. Who was the person and Club affiliation?
If anyone has the answer, then please explain or I'll just make an inquiry about that.
I'm just curious.
BN06
Edited by BigNasty06 on 02/01/2016
BN06, President |
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| Crappie Jon |
Posted on 02/02/2016
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Veteran Member
Posts: 530
Joined: 14.12.10
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BN, I missed the name for who won it because I have the attention span of a goldfish but my guess is it was someone from Gloucester county bass club. Looking at the ever so secret and holy conflict list they have a club tourney scheduled there in March. I guess they are a small club and someone has clearance to get them in. Idk...
...I wonder if there accepting members for 1 t  lol
"2nd place is just the first loser" |
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| BigNasty06 |
Posted on 02/02/2016
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Super Admin
Posts: 2193
Joined: 09.11.09
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Crappie Jon wrote:
BN, I missed the name for who won it because I have the attention span of a goldfish but my guess is it was someone from Gloucester county bass club. Looking at the ever so secret and holy conflict list they have a club tourney scheduled there in March. I guess they are a small club and someone has clearance to get them in. Idk...
...I wonder if there accepting members for 1 t lol
Yeah... I wonder too. Quite Interesting on there access to a Great Adventure type Lake.
BN06, President |
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