Saturday, July 27, 2019

Laurie Murphy Emphasizes that the lake is OPEN

And it never was closed, though word certainly got around that it was closed, completely false information. They closed the State Park swimming beach; no one was swimming at Lee's Cove, as far as I know, but beaches aren't the lake.

My wife told me minutes ago the advisory against swimming has been partially lifted.

As I related in an earlier post, Laurie told the newspapers people were swimming in the lake when the algae was at its worst, and Joe Welsh worked his herring nets--getting wet--the whole time. No rashes.

Laurie Murphy:


Lake Hopatcong is OPEN for boating & fishing, but still has an advisory in effect for no swimming due to the blue green algae bloom. Several private beach communities have opened back up with  swimming at your own risk due to lower #’s of the bacteria counts.  For the few fisherman that have continued to venture out, fishing has been great. Lots of fish & not alot of boat traffic. Jared Hackney landed a 4 lb largemouth bass along with several nice channel cats while fishing the Nolans Point area. Jim Welsh, fishing with herring off the points, managed  quite a few Hybrid Striped Bass in the 6 - 8 pound range, along with walleye weighing up to 4 pounds, smallmouth & largemouth bass, several pickerel and nice yellow perch & crappie for the week. Todays catch included a white Cat weighing  3 lb 9 oz. The Knee Deep Club will be holding their Catfish Derby on Saturday August 10th at 6 pm until noon on Sunday August 11th. We are open 7 days with bait, boat rentals & tackle. Have a great week !