Place: Stone Tavern Lake, Stone Tavern, NJ
Time: 6:00am-1:30pm
Date: Saturday, August 07 , 2010
Weather: Cool 67 Degree morning start, Warming up to respectable 86 Degrees with bright Blue Bird skys.
Water Temps: At Start 81.4 degrees warming up to 84.6 degrees towards Northern section.
Water Clarity: Less 1.5'
Wind Gusts: Sporatic 5-10mph winds..really Wished for more.
Best Lure: Power Team Lures Finnicky Tickler DS'ed; Rattletraps, crankbaits, finesse jigs.
Depths fished: 2.0'~10.0'
Bass Limit: 3
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What happened to all of the Big Stone Tavern Lunker size Bass? This is what many SJHT anglers and guest stated as dink after dink afte dink were caught all throughout the day! On what started out as a somewhat chilly morning... boaters were lined up as if they were siphoning oil down in the gulf!!!
Today, SJHT had 17 members and 2 guest come out to conquer the Roman legends at Stone Tavern. Not to be shaken, previous guest Pete Anderson served as NetMan#2 on the back of Jimbos yacht. SJHT member Rob very own lady Kelly also made a guest appearance. Thanks for coming out!!
Alright here we go! Prepared with a Buzzbait, shallow to mid running crankbait, and of course a rattle trap, my game plan was to work the shallows and then DS out towards the middle as the sun rose steadily. Well the top water bite was pretty much Non-existant. Burning a trap didn't produce for me, however slow rolling with intermittent pauses the crankbait...did the trick. Only problem everything I caught only measured about 11.50" up to 11.75". That was my day! When the wind did blow.. and that was on occasion, the action towards the bottom of the water did heat up a bit. I could not for the life of me get on anything bigger. While others were culling before 7am (mostly smaller bass), most ended up catching many shorts.
Without further adieu, give a big shouts out to that dude called Jimbo for taking 1st place and Lunker with 3 bass weighing 4.50lbs with Lunker going only 1.98lbs! WTF! Second place was won by Rookie new comer Kyle "I shot the sherriff" Serduk in only his second SJHT tournament with 3 Bass weighing 4.14lbs. Third place was a two way tie with Jay "SmellyHooker" and Bill "The Hammer" L. both catching 3 bass weighing 3.78lbs. Way to go Men!!!
Jimbos 1st place Bag:
Kyle's 2nd Place Bag:
Jay's and Bills 3rd place Bags:
Stone Tavern Tale of the Tape:
Rest of the SJHT members Bags:
Dales "Lipprippers" bag:
Trappers Bag:
Tim "RawDogBail" Bag:
Rob's "Ram1212" Bag:
Justin's "BassSteeler" Bag:
Jiggen Den's Bag:
Brian "BassHoppers" Bag:
Big Al's Bag:
Bonus Photo's of action on water:
Note: The full parking lot.
I believe that is enough pics... right? LOL!
So.. in a nutshell, as one can see many anglers caught bass. The size and weights are very much down from what we're use to. Can anyone explain this phenom? Overall, 27 bass were weighed in. 5 out 19 anglers had a limit of 3 Bass while at least 13 out of the 19 anglers weighed at least 1 bass. Total weight of all bass weighed tallied up to 34.40lbs. Thus the avg. weight per bass was 1.27lbs! Not too impressive if ya ask me but what do I know. I've been in such a slump that I cannot even bring a keeper to the scales!!! Oh..such is life!!
Thanks for a great turnout guys and gals. Hope to see the rest of the members come out for our inaugral 2010 SJHT Tag Team Championship event
at Newton Lake.
Congrats Jimbo on first and lunker!!! I know you were happy when I saw you doing your famous dance!!LOL and patting the livewell lid! Did you find a pattern so to speak in the shallow water near the drop?? Most of my fish came in about 31/2- 5 feet on finess worm. Congrats to Kyle on 2nd, way to go., and Jay and Bill on the tie!! Any reports from the rest of you guys???
jiggin den wrote:
Congrats Jimbo on first and lunker!!! I know you were happy when I saw you doing your famous dance!!LOL and patting the livewell lid! Did you find a pattern so to speak in the shallow water near the drop?? Most of my fish came in about 31/2- 5 feet on finess worm. Congrats to Kyle on 2nd, way to go., and Jay and Bill on the tie!! Any reports from the rest of you guys???
Jiggin Den
Thank you Den... I did find a lil pattern. I was planning on DS'ing some of the deeper water, but found myself caught behind a line of anglers who where fishing the flatts and catching fish! After they cleared out a lil. I managed to find the dropoff I was looking for and Bang lunker! There was a spot where it went from 4-5ft right down to 10-12ft! Off that one spot i pulled up 3 bass from 1and half to 2 lbs, we did have a net malfuction wich cost me one of them... But I was lucky enough to pick up a keeper on top of the flatts too! I know I had a chance to win, cause I saw a lot of guys catching fish off the flats, that where just keeper sized...
I was also hoping that the fish I lost wasn't going to bite me in the ars, because i was really giving to my buddy about the net malfuction!
I think having the tunes, helped me relax a little wich in turn kept my fustation level down, when I didn't get any early bites!! I kept to my game plan and it payed off!! I also think that place gets to much pressure from the bucket brigade... Could have something to do with the lack of bigger fish??? Jimbo
I think having the tunes, helped me relax a little wich in turn kept my fustation level down, when I didn't get any early bites!! I kept to my game plan and it payed off!! I also think that place gets to much pressure from the bucket brigade... Could have something to do with the lack of bigger fish???
Thanks for the input.
Jimbo..those tunes were definitely different. I guess the fish must have enjoyed them too as they were attracted to your boat!!! When I heard you scream, I thought you had caught Moby Dick!!! Not realiziing...you had a Net Malfunction. I found it very interesting (and the one picture I snapped) somewhat illustrated how anglers were positioned up on the flats and casting out towards the deeper water. I think I must have counted 7~8 boats aligned similiarly and having mixed success.
Regarding the bucket brigade, I truly hope that is not the case. Another club "BRRC" had similiar results like we did earlier in the season. I don't feel too terrible but with the reduced schedule this year, we may have to tweak a couple of things in the off-season (but that is a discussion for another day)
Kyle, Bill, and Jay....Any distinct patterns on how you guys caught your keepers?
Hey BN06 the only thing that really produced for me was a red eye trap in 1/2 oz. i probably caught 25-30 fish with only the 3 i brought to the scales being keepers [no culls]. i tried ds, shakey, senko, and pitching a jig with no bites. hope this info helps.
Kyle wrote:
Hey BN06 the only thing that really produced for me was a red eye trap in 1/2 oz. i probably caught 25-30 fish with only the 3 i brought to the scales being keepers [no culls]. i tried ds, shakey, senko, and pitching a jig with no bites. hope this info helps.
Thanks for the reply Kyle!!! Man 25-30 fish with only say 3 keepers!! At least the action for you was pretty consistant.
I heard someone out there catching pickerals. I wonder who that was?
Thanks for reports guys, seemed like we were shying away from posting any reports whether good or bad, that's how we all learn a little more, and besides it's interesting to see what works for others.
I found it very interesting (and the one picture I snapped) somewhat illustrated how anglers were positioned up on the flats and casting out towards the deeper water. I think I must have counted 7~8 boats aligned similiarly and having mixed success.
At least the action for you was pretty consistant. 
