Lakewood

Lake Shenandoah is part of Ocean County Park in Lakewood, NJ. I've been to this lake many times in my past and haven't visited in over 4 years. This lake makes a claim to have residents of lake trout, brown trout, largemouth bass, crappie, perch, and an occasional snakehead. Snakeheads are an invasive species and this is the first place i ever ran into one in real life. Shenandoah is not a solid producing lake for shore fishing, it's a disappointment most of the time. There is a spillway with a shad ladder preventing you from fishing in a 100ft radius of the ladder. Shenandoah was made in part of the Metedeconk river and fishing seems better in the river sections behind the spillway and further down. This trip was no exception to the non-producing aspects, perhaps a boat would be better.

After the disappointment at Shenandoah we hastily moved to the lesser known Lake Carasaljo. Less than 2 miles away and upstream of the Metedeconk this lake was a major surprise. On small homemade jigs we were landing perch hand over fist. Also landing quite a few bluegill and a slab of a crappie. This is a dark cedar water lake and brighter orange colors seem to pull them out from the deep. After only fishing the south side of the lake we scouted the north side with a pavillion and a childrens play park. The pavillion over the water looks like a great habitat for anything from crappie depending on the depth, to largemouth and bluegill. This lake certainly deserves a more serious trip.