March Fishing Sessions: 03/15 - Exploring Ocean City and Atsion Lake (NJ)

Hello, Blog Readers!

First of all, here are a couple updates and reminders:

-- I've uploaded 2 more photos to the Facebook Public Fishing Album: a nice Largemouth Bass (Micropterus salmoides) from the North Hudson Park Pond and a Chain Pickerel (Esox niger) from Linden Lake. :) As a reminder, anyone can submit photos to that folder! If interested, please click here for more information.  

-- EPF is back with its non-profit Catfish competitions: the 6th Catfish Tourney on the Banks is scheduled for May 31st, 2015. For detailed information, rules, and registration procedures, click here. I'll post a reminder for this event every 3 posts.

-- I've uploaded another old video on Youtube. It's a video of Mike "Ike" Iaconelli's 3rd day weight-in of the Bassmaster Elite Series at the Delaware River. I've attached that video to this post.

Now, here is my fishing report for March 15th:

--- March 15th, 2015 ---

Location: Great Egg Harbor Bay/Mullica River

Time: 7:45-10:00a.m./12:15-2:00 p.m.

Fishes caught:

-- None

My friend Bryan KL and I went down to Ocean City, NJ, to explore the 9th Street Bridge's fishing pier. We arrived there around 7:30 a.m.. It was cold, windy, and the tide was going from high to low. On an initial glance, the place looked really neat! 

One of the fishing piers at the 9th street bridge in Ocean City, NJ. If you Google map this place, you will see that the fishes (multiple Species) will eventually have to cross this spot to enter the bay from the surf. 

We set up four rods with frozen Bunker (Brevoortia tyrannus) as bait. Unfortunately, that was all we had at the time. The plan was to eventually hit a tackle shop and purchase some additional bait (i.e. clam, bloodworm); however, we found out that 7:30 a.m. was too early for any tackle shop to be opened during the Winter. 

We ended up fishing the pier until 10 a.m.. The wind picked up a lot around 9:30 (~15 mph), so we were pretty much freezing to death! After packing our stuff, we decided to stop by the closest tackle shop around us:

The closest tackle shop happened to be Tackle Direct: 6825 Tilton Road, Bldg C, Egg Harbor Twp, NJ 08234

We spent about 20 minutes inside the store. Bryan bought some fishing gear and I ended up purchasing three neat books on fish Species and one pack of sabiki rigs for Micro-Fishing. I have to say: I was quite surprised to see the huge variety of items inside the store! Therefore, I would definitely recommend it.

Finally, on our way back home, we decided to make a quick stop at Atsion Lake in Shamong, NJ. After scoping one end of the Lake, including some parts of the Mullica River, we decided to fish a very enticing slow pool. 

A nice view of the Atsion Lake. Very cloudy and very windy! 

Bryan and I found this great slow pool at Mullica River. The place was so enticing that we just had to give it a try. 

Upon arrival, we immediately looked inside our bags for small jerkbaits and in-line spinners. After all, both Atsion and the Mullica River are well-known for its good populations of Chain Pickerel (Esox niger). That's when we realized that we were totally unprepared for some fresh water fishing: all we had was Bunker and salt water stuff! Thus, once again we went for the Bunker! Heh.

We ended up getting skunked for the day; however, it was still a very pleasant trip. We got to scope out two wonderful new fishing locations that will hopefully be very productive later this season. 

Here's a bonus photo for you guys. :)

"Things that you don't see when you stay at home:" the remains of a turtle by Atsion Lake. Whatever ate it did a good job.

Tight lines, fellas!

Best of luck for all of us,

Long Days and Pleasant Nights,

Sincerely,

Leo S.