Summer
Smallmouth Bass on the Delaware River
By
Bruce Edward Litton
During summers the past decade, I’ve
taken my family float tripping on the Delaware River. Me, my son, his uncles,
and also friends never failing to catch plenty of smallmouth bass. Warm water
means smallmouths gorge on a smorgasbord of forage, including crayfish
(especially molting), hellgrammites, other insect larvae, hatched insects,
terrestrial insects, leeches, nematodes, other worms and a whole host of forage
fish. Unlike summer largemouths, smallies fiercely hit lures or bait throughout
the day, but if you’re keen on a big one over three pounds, the hour around
sunrise and sunset makes a difference for wise old fish.
A wide variety of river habitat holds
Delaware smallmouths in quite abundant numbers, the average size about a pound,
fish over two pounds fairly frequent, a bass over three pounds an unusual
event, although until the state record seven-pound, two-ounce smallmouth came
from Round Valley Reservoir, the record held at six-pounds, four-ounces from
the Delaware. On occasion I hear stories of six-pound smallmouths getting
caught. While plenty of bass come from shore or by wading, float tripping
involves classic river outings. Primitive camping is allowed some places along
the river, Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area permits available. If
you don’t own a canoe or kayak, rental agencies exist, and arrangements for
inflatable rafts work also, just be sure to bring a 10-pound mushroom anchor to
make fishing more efficient.
Floating for smallmouths involves pace.
Anchoring allows thorough coverage of a promising spot, and catching as many as
half a dozen bass before action fades happens frequently. Newcomers to floating
should keep river mileage to a minimum and get a feel for how long they like to
linger on spots. We’ve rafted as many as seven miles in about eight hours,
taking a leisurely lunch onshore. A southerly wind, however, challenges headway
especially for rafters but even canoeists. Typically, we take our time doing
about half that distance I mentioned.
The closest the river comes to real
wilderness in New Jersey locates Sussex and Warren counties as perhaps the best
smallmouth bass fishing, but Hunterdon and Mercer counties offer very good fishing
for bronzebacks all the way down to Trenton. Introduced to the river’s fishing
just north of Trenton during my middle teens, as soon as I earned my driver’s
license, I started fishing with friends north of the Water Gap, but I fished successfully
around Titusville, Lambertville, Bull’s Island and Byram in Mercer and
Hunterdon also. In recent years, the Phillipsburg and Belvidere areas have
proven their worth.
Everywhere myriad river structures hold
bass, but during the summer months, the best spots situate between the heads of
strong rapids and deep holes or slow stretches well below the fast water. Current
seams and eddies with depths of six to 10 feet complicated by boulders—smooth
and jagged—give bass staging points to ambush forage awash in flow. Crankbaits
such as the Storm Hot ‘n Tot, Flatmaster Tournament Series EBS, Bandit
Mid-Range and Deep Diver among dozens of other choices all produce in a variety
of colors, although for sunny days, I prefer chrome finish to provoke reaction
strikes. Cast upstream and especially fish directly downward along seam edges,
where bass anticipate forage coming to them.
Very effective for the same sorts of
spots and deep holes, jigs allow a subtler approach, and after I catch an eager
bass or two on a crankbait, I like to grab a second rod and fish very close to
the subsurface eddies and seams boulders create. These less obvious meanderings
of current hold picky bass loyal to little lairs, and during the middle of the
afternoon, the biggest bass may be least likely to lurch away from staging spots
to charge a crankbait. Get a jig right on the nose and you may catch a
reluctant taker. Berkeley Gulp! Leeches prove extremely effective as trailers
for eighth to quarter-ounce leadheads.
Thousands of boulders and rocks have space
underneath them to protect bass either wary or eager to ambush. We’ve caught
jet-black smallmouths from slow stretches two feet deep; from riffles and
mid-size rapids; from seams and eddies and from the hidden mystery of deep
holes. Each of these camouflaged fish shot out from darkness to take the lure.
Slow stretches with just enough current flow to make the water surface look
appealing often hold quite a few bass you can’t see because they hug the rocks
or hide beneath.
Many of the transitions between
stretches you may float will be shallow. I’ve never lost the thrill of innocent
surprise catching bass as we pass boulders left and right with barely enough water
in the eddies behind to cover bass’s backs, and it seems as if every summer we
catch a few of these fish with no thought to anchor. Rapala floaters will catch
bass in shallows—whether of riffles, eddies behind rocks or of slow
stretches---but as we rough and tumble quickly downstream towards slower water,
we just toss eighth-ounce jigs about. And sometimes we don’t have to cast. We
just pitch the lead behind a rock as we pass and pull the bass aboard. (These
fish have always weighed a pound or less.)
In contrast to sun-heated shallows,
the best deep holes on the river drop off from steep shale ledges. Some of
these underwater cliffs develop concave shapes from current erosion, and bass
position in the shade. Casting a jig right against the rock face and allowing
it to fall to bottom may result in a hit on the drop, so keep the line taut
enough to feel the tick if it happens, but not so tight that the descent angles
the jig back towards you. If the distance cast were the same as the depth below,
a tight line would mean the jig coming to rest on bottom directly under the
rod. You want to fish against the wall all the way down, which requires an open
bail and index finger control.
Like jigs, Senko-style worms catch so
many bass, it’s possible to fish nothing else all day. Light colors with sun,
dark when overcast, fat-bodied Senkos five inches long cast far and get
gobbled. Almost all of the river structures serve them. Some of the holes reach
great depths and quarter-ounce or heavier jigs can plumb the very bottom, but
Senkos sink fast unweighted and will prove effective as deep as about 15 feet.
Casting far upstream of a deep belly and allowing current to carry the worm
into the hole is a deadly imitation of forage at the mercy of the river’s
sweep. Line control in such situations is not a straight affair, but by keeping
six-pound test monofilament loosely taut, you’ll know when a bass takes. Just
make sure to reel line and use the rod tip to judge a tight hookset.
Longer six to seven-foot, medium power
rods cast further than shorter rods of the same strength, though with some loss
of accuracy. For crankbaits, a fast action tip is needed, which also helps with
feel when fishing jigs and to work topwater plugs during the memorable magic
hours early and late.
