Took advantage of the nice weather today. Kids have been bothering me for some time now to get out fishing and with classes being done, I figured it was a good time. Hit up Dick's this afternoon and picked up an Ugly Stik Junior in pink for my daughter, a small spincast reel for the rod, a new bait bucket and a license holder. Cashed in my Dick's Gift Certificate I won at the Banquet...thank you Dick's, Bob & NJSWF. Had to wait for the oldest to get out of school then "made" bait at Capt'n Hippo Bait & Tackle. Sandra was in, so I introduced myself. I thanked her for her support of NJSWF and grabbed 2 dozen shiners (large and lively) and a dozen night crawlers! The shop is great and they were happy to have my 3 kids there, letting them peak into the bait tanks!
Headed off to Bamber Lake and lines in the water by 4:30! Northwest wind was pushing their bobbers and bait into the shore, but that's where the fish were hanging too. Had a handful of small pickerel which took forever to eat the big shiners. Lost a bunch of hookups by pulling the bait too soon. Wind switch out of the southeast and then it started pushing the bait towards the "waterfall." The bigger fish were sitting over there. They were all hooked up at one point with some larger pickerel this time. We had a good amount of fish, but not as many as we normally catch around this time of the year. The water is much colder than normal and I think that was part of the reason.
The younger two didn't fish constantly, but the older one, Kyler, stuck it out all day. He was casting and hooking his own fish now. He is even thinking like a fisherman, telling me how the fish are probably in the lily pads and fishing right along the outside of them. My middle son, Keagen, felt the need to yell "fish on" every time someone hooked a fish...he watches too much TV! They didn't do too bad considering we were sidelined all last season because of my surgery.
It was a good day, with enough action to keep them occupied and happy! We started packing up around 8PM or so and left the fish biting.
