Year of the Mullica?

      Here's a question that keeps re-surfacing in the either of the truck as we drive to our fishing destinations: Is this a known/good fishing spot because there is access here, or is there a trail or road here because it has traditionally been a good place where fish hold?  I won't be too specific, but truthfully I don't think it matters.  

    We're not catching tons of giant fish when we go out anyway.  

    And as I said, the places I wonder about are all well known, and well trodden.  So I wonder, has this road in the past been a trail used by the Lenni-Lenape to get to the Atsayunk (the real name of the Mullica) river to fish?  And if so, did they establish the trail because it was easy, or has the fishing been good here since the Neolithic era?  The road, the trail, the spot which came first?  

     

     When on a river I can really feel the history.  I always get a sense of the geological time frame rather than the European or modern.  I imagine all of the people who have paddled in dug-out canoes along these banks before me.   I imagine that they knew well when the perch would awaken from their slumber.  And that perhaps, maybe because all of the undergrowth of the forest is gone, this path to the Mullica (named after Eric Mullica, a Swedish explorer)  river was easy access.

This week we will try to go from one end of this picture to the other in two days

      As we start a new season discussions abound about where to be and when.  As far as goals, meeting goals.  What a successful trip means.  Some readers may think the goal is always the same: catch fish.  But that's just not right.  Sometimes we want to target certain species, or fish of a certain size, or early season fish, or any fish in a new place, or simply have a good old adventure.

sod banks

     And so, as the season gets rolling our banter tends towards the Mullica river.  An area we briefly fished last year we are thinking of studying in detail this year.

more sod banks

  This time of year on the Mullica river there are very few other boats.  We've never been here in the summer.  Is it like everywhere else?  Full of  jet-skiers and day-boaters?  We will see.

Spring Sunset

     A river is more like a road than any other body of water.  And this time of year it is like an old abandoned road.

Steve and I are pulled over to the Sods because the perch
were after stationary bait, and we haven't gotten our
anchors set-up ...yet... 

    And yes, some fish were caught despite the cold water and air temperatures....

Perch

Tagged Striped Bass