When it comes to summer fishing, knowing how to fish vegetation is the key to the fishing Malaga. Years with decent amounts of rain will produce plenty of open-water pockets to fish with surface plugs and weedless-rigged plastic baits. Most of the better fishing is with topwater baits fished early and late in the day and with weedless-rigged worms and lizards.

Malaga is very susceptible to changes in water levels from rains. The lake is most productive after a heavy rain, which increases water levels and lifts up the vegetation. This creates a layer of water between the vegetation and the surface. Bass will hold in these regions, smashing at anything that moves along the surface.

Malaga Lake has a decent boat ramp and is an electric-only water. Shoreline fishing is excellent, however. Because of the vegetation along the sides of the lake, the better fishing is for those with boats.

DELAWARE RIVER
One water that really produced some hot fishing last year was the Delaware River. As stated before, the last five years’ weather patterns had a real impact on the bass fishing in the state in 2007. The Delaware is a prime example.

Most anglers expected the years of high-water conditions from 2003 to 2005 to hurt the river’s smallmouth bass population. However, it seems to have had the opposite effect. Cooperative shocking studies by New Jersey and Pennsylvania showed not only good numbers of smallmouths, but also an excellent mix of year-classes.

This past year, water conditions in the river were perfect from late spring into fall. Anglers encountered plenty of smallies, some tipping the scales to 5 pounds.

Early-season fishing is strictly live bait, mainly jigs tipped with minnows fished in the deeper areas and larger eddies of the river.

The river abounds in structure that ranges from eddies, dropoffs, points of land, bridge pilings, flats, finger structure and deep pools.

Summer fishing -- once the spawning is over -- is a different matter altogether. Early morning will provide super surface-plug and swimming-plug fishing. The nice thing about the river is that it has plenty of rapids and eddies that keep the water well oxygenated during the summer.

The Delaware River offers plenty of shoreline access for waders and shoreline fishermen, along with plenty of boat access on both sides of the river.

So there you have it -- a look some of the best bass fishing in New Jersey. Any and all of these waters should offer you excellent fishing during the 2008 season.

Hope to see you out there this spring and summer!