ober51
Well-known member
Well it's not the most sought after place to fish in NJ, lol, but it sure was fun! My brother was pestering me to "float the Hacky" and convinced me to look at the tide schedule - 11am was high tide and the website stated the ramp was inoperable in low tide. This gave us a couple hours....so we thought. We put in behind River Edge Swim Club in River Edge, NJ at around 10:45. We went upstream for a while then decided to come back down. I decided to fish some spinners (mepps, rooster tails, etc), but nothing too seriously, as we were really enjoying the time together and the scenery (believe it or not it was nice despite the residential/commercial area; my brother knows a lot of local history and he said the channel was deep because they used the Hackensack River as a method of transporting goods to the Dutch settlements).
We passed a guy fishing from his dock who said he was having good success with worms. I didn't care too much but my brother said, "We need to dig some up." So he trolled us over to a makeshift landing area and we tied up and got out. I said we didnt have anything to put them in, lets get out of here. He insisted and spotted a bottle in the water and said to me to get the net to get it and get my utility knife to cut it to put the worms in. So I went to step in the boat, had one foot in, and one on the bank, and didn't realize it was slippery and BOOM! The bank gave way, and I was half in the drink and mud, and half in the boat. The back of my leg SLAMMED the boat. I heard him say, "Whoa!!" He came running over, but I was kind of laughing by then. It sucked, I was wet, but we had a great laugh, an all-time moment for us.
My brother and I (he's in the video, which kind of shows the stability of the boat - he gets up and the boat doesnt move at all) have grown up in this area and never knew anyone that ever boated the Hackensack River so we had to give it a try! We didn't fire up the 9.9 until we started coming back down and passed the boat ramp where we put in. At some point my stomach started growling and I said, "Isn't White Manna right on the river? Let'***** it." We that was all we needed - off we went. We went about 3 miles down river, tied up at White Manna in Hackensack, and ordered 8 burgers. For those of you who don't know the area, White Manna burgers are likely the best burgers in NJ, and maybe anywhere. They have been featured on Diners, Dives, and Drive Throughs, among other tv programs. We often go there, but never from the river. You should have seen the looks when we tied up (especially from the guy pounding beers on the river's edge)!
We ate the burgers as we floated down stream and then fired her back up and ran back to the ramp. It took us about 17 minutes to run that stretch, and I took a small video to show you the stretch I kind of liked. Well when we got to the ramp at 2:30, the ramp was basically inoperable. We looked at each other and said we need to move fast. It took us 10 minutes to get the boat past the silt, and then I backed the boat down the ramp, then down the rocks. There was no way we were getting this boat on the trailer....until I remembered I had the tilt function! I unscrewed and the trailer dipped just enough to get the bunk tips in the water. We tied on the rope and started winching. We JUST got the boat on. I almost lost my sandal in the muck, lol, but we got it out. I had to throw my Suburban in 4 wheel drive and we hauled out of there. Next time we will put in BEFORE the peak tide and take out closer to high tide!! What an experience.
No fish, and a huge bruise forming on the back of my left thigh, but a great day and great memories!! Below is a short video I took on my cell, hence the poor quality.
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We passed a guy fishing from his dock who said he was having good success with worms. I didn't care too much but my brother said, "We need to dig some up." So he trolled us over to a makeshift landing area and we tied up and got out. I said we didnt have anything to put them in, lets get out of here. He insisted and spotted a bottle in the water and said to me to get the net to get it and get my utility knife to cut it to put the worms in. So I went to step in the boat, had one foot in, and one on the bank, and didn't realize it was slippery and BOOM! The bank gave way, and I was half in the drink and mud, and half in the boat. The back of my leg SLAMMED the boat. I heard him say, "Whoa!!" He came running over, but I was kind of laughing by then. It sucked, I was wet, but we had a great laugh, an all-time moment for us.
My brother and I (he's in the video, which kind of shows the stability of the boat - he gets up and the boat doesnt move at all) have grown up in this area and never knew anyone that ever boated the Hackensack River so we had to give it a try! We didn't fire up the 9.9 until we started coming back down and passed the boat ramp where we put in. At some point my stomach started growling and I said, "Isn't White Manna right on the river? Let'***** it." We that was all we needed - off we went. We went about 3 miles down river, tied up at White Manna in Hackensack, and ordered 8 burgers. For those of you who don't know the area, White Manna burgers are likely the best burgers in NJ, and maybe anywhere. They have been featured on Diners, Dives, and Drive Throughs, among other tv programs. We often go there, but never from the river. You should have seen the looks when we tied up (especially from the guy pounding beers on the river's edge)!
We ate the burgers as we floated down stream and then fired her back up and ran back to the ramp. It took us about 17 minutes to run that stretch, and I took a small video to show you the stretch I kind of liked. Well when we got to the ramp at 2:30, the ramp was basically inoperable. We looked at each other and said we need to move fast. It took us 10 minutes to get the boat past the silt, and then I backed the boat down the ramp, then down the rocks. There was no way we were getting this boat on the trailer....until I remembered I had the tilt function! I unscrewed and the trailer dipped just enough to get the bunk tips in the water. We tied on the rope and started winching. We JUST got the boat on. I almost lost my sandal in the muck, lol, but we got it out. I had to throw my Suburban in 4 wheel drive and we hauled out of there. Next time we will put in BEFORE the peak tide and take out closer to high tide!! What an experience.
No fish, and a huge bruise forming on the back of my left thigh, but a great day and great memories!! Below is a short video I took on my cell, hence the poor quality.
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