The Lower Susquehanna River 11/22/09

It was quite cold this morning. The weatherman on t.v. claimed it was 36 degrees at 5:00 a.m. and was suppose to rise to 53 degrees. My wife and I had ice on our windows. So, we know it was below freezing here in Willow Street, Pa.

My wife was working today and I got up with her at 5:00 a.m. I had made the decision last evening not to fish as a rider with my bass club since I have had some luck the last few weeks in these tough conditions on the Lower Susquehanna. I didn't want to put myself in a weaker position by being a rider. So, I turned down the opportunity to fish with them and chose to fish by myself instead.

After hooking up the boat and putting drinks in a cooler, I headed to the gas station and then to our local restaurant by 7:00 a.m. I needed to stop at the local Weiss Market to pick up lunch.

I eventually got to my fishing destination by 8:40 a.m. and was on the water by 9:00 a.m. I'm never in too big of a hurry to get out on the water in these cold temps. The early morning water is at it's coldest of the day and will warm to it's highest temperature by 3:00 p.m. Today was no exception.

I initially traveled to the east shoreline and found the water temperature to be a chilly 46.8 degrees on my Lowrance. I failed to catch any bass in the two and a half hours I spent there.

I decided to head back to the west shoreline around noon where the water was warming nicely from the morning sun. I found the water temperature to be 50.6 degrees. As the day progressed, the highest temperature reading was 51 degrees at 3:30 p.m.

It was a sunny morning with a slight hazy fog hanging in the air (see pics).

After trying spinnerbaits, tubes, and jerkbaits, I finally connected with a small 14" bass on a 2.5" tube. A few minutes later, this nice 15" bass hit the same exact tube.



So I decided to take a quick pic of it because I wasn't sure if anything bigger would come into the boat today.

As I drifted the shoreline, I saw a bass chasing a shad into the shallows. I tossed my tube at the spot of the commotion without success. I reeled back in as quick as I could and gave it another try. This time, my cast was slightly upriver from the last cast. Wham! This was the result of that cast.



Look at how fat this 17 1/8th in. bass was! I got my scale out and weighed her at 3 lbs. 4 oz. What a chunk!

Okay, it was time to try the CWSD that I had tied on a baitcaster. I was sitting in about 9-10 feet of water and casting into 6 feet. After several casts, this Hawg nailed it and dug for the bottom.



She was 19.25" in length and weighed in at 3 lbs 12 oz.

The day was certainly warming up nicely and turning into a great outing.

I ended this autumn day with 11 bass in the boat with the that 19" momma being the largest.

I was a bit concerned with the slow start this morning, but that's so typical of these fall days that start out so cold and warm up nicely as the day wears on.

dad

Best Laid Plans of Mice nd Men

Today started out really well. I made a lunch for on the water, hooked up the boat to my truck, and my youngest son and I headed over to our local greasy spoon for a hearty breakfast at and some good conversation about life in general.

He had no interest in going fishing on a cold morning (36 degrees) so I drove him back home before heading to Safe Harbor. I took my shorter route through Conestoga hoping to catch a glimpse of deer, but I saw none.

The drive went well until I neared the Pequea Ramp and saw that the Pequea Creek was low, real low. In fact, the ramp was totally out of the water making it virtually impossible for me to get my boat into the river!

What the hey! There are only two accesses to this section of the river (Lake Aldred)and we couldn't access the river at either one. That's approximately 7 miles of river or 24000 acres that the public cannot access when PPL decides to drop the water... What a shame that the government allows a private business to control a public resource.

Therefore, I had to change my plans for the morning and headed upriver and fished an area that Josh and I only spent about an hour in yesterday.

Today, I was able to catch 6 bass on 2.5" plastic tubes. I tossed spinnerbait, jerkbait, and crankbaits without success. The smaller profile seemed to be the ticket once again today. To prove that, my final fish was this beautiful 18.25" smallie... What a chunk!


I can tell the weather is about to change. The tendon of my right elbow that I had worked on in June and right hip region are bothering me today. Dang arthritis! Setting the hook on that 18'er was a chore, fer shure.

dad

Fishing the Susquehanna River

I was able to hit two different sections of the river these past two days. Yesterday, I fished alone and caught 7 bass. While today, I was with Josh and caught 5 bass. Josh pulled in three nice bass all on tubes.

The bite has been off a bit. Although it wasn't a stellar day, it was a decent day during a tough bite.

I have been able to catch bass on both a 4" and 2.5" tube in two different colors. Three smallies came on a 3/8th oz. short arm spinnerbait that Al Winco and I are field testing right now. He has named it the "Bronze Bushwhacker" ("Boyd Fantasy" model) and it caught my largest fish today... a 17 3/4" smallie that was hiding in and among some boulders in about 4' of very clear water.



The morning air temp was much colder today than yesterday. I had 37 degrees this morning when I left home at 6:15 a.m. Yesterday's air temp was 45 degrees at the same time. However, yesterday I had the wind to contend with and today was a lot calmer.

The water temp in both locations ran from 49.7 degrees and, as the day progressed, rose to 53 degrees. We had high and low level clouds both days with the sun playing hide and seek with us. When it was out, it was nice and warm. :)

Over the past two days, we threw tubes, jerkbaits, crankbaits, and the short-armed spinnerbait.

We hit a favorite fall spot today and landed only two smallies. However, my two favorite moments for today happened there. I was using a 2.5" tube and cast it along a large lay down. I played the tube for a bit and started to retrieve it. Out of the depth (14') came a nice big smallie following my tube. I let the tube die immediately, but the bass caught sight of us and quickly retreated back into the darkness by the tree.

About 30 minutes of fishing this area and only catching a 13", Josh was ready to move on. As he stowed the TM and headed back to the console to sit, the boat drifted towards the lay down. It was like the tree was calling to me trying to entice me to make one more cast and I, of course, did. We actually settled onto the lay down and it held us in place. I slowly jigged the tube once and then twice saying to Josh, "Wouldn't it be neat if we nailed a fish while sitting here on this tree? Wait, there's one!" Josh thought I was pulling his leg and said "No, you don't have one!" Just then, the bass took a flying leap into the air and we both had a good laugh. :D

It's always fun to fish with Josh. These types of things seem to happen to us a lot and make for good memories.

Right before we caught that fish, we spied the second mink of the day swimming in our fishing hole. I told Josh that that one was our "good luck" mink and I guess she was. ;)

I ended yesterday with 7 bass with the biggest being this 16" chunk. She came just off the shoreline in about 5' of water among chunk rock.


Al has been fishing the NB since Sunday. He called me yesterday to tell me he had his first JB and Bronze Bushwhacker, All other smallies had come off plastics. SO he encouraged me to try the short armed spinnerbait once again. Here is the result of those efforts.


I am still hoping for a nice jerkbait bite to return. The water temp is almost perfect, but the bass may be off a bit because of the fluctuating temps(?).

dadTB

Time to Fish!

The fall bite is definitely on. This past week on the NB and several reports from locations nearby are very promising. Tomorrow, I plan to hit the river alone and see what I can stir up. The water level gauge in Harrisburg, Pa. is still reading above 4' which is a prime level for me.

Basketball tryouts for the junior high school level starts on Friday. There are three days of tryouts for nearly 100 boys in grades 7 through 9. It is a major undertaking to narrow the school teams down to about 13 players per team. That is close to 70 young boys that will be heartbroken by Tuesday. I hate it, but they do have a great recreation league in our district.

I will start preparing the majority of boys for the let down as early as Friday. My story is an example of how, if they continue to grow and improve, that they can make their varsity squad. I never made my junior high school team, but I made my high school's JV and Varsity squads. My persistence and drive eventually paid off. Theirs can, too. Boys grow into young men as they advance into high school. Some that are big in middle school may slow in growth and others will pass them as they mature. Maturation is a wonderful thing when and if it happens. :-)

I plan to hit the river again on Tuesday with Josh. He was out fishing a few hours today in the Marietta, Pa. area. So, I'll be getting a report soon from his day on the water. It will help me determine my location for tomorrow's outing.

Hang tough and get out there and fish! What a fantastic few days ahead here in Pennsylvania. Our buddy Al of Winco's Custom Lures is back up on the NB today. He returned for a few more days on the beautiful waters of the NB. He called me tonight and said he caught 38 smallies on that new laminated color I showed him last week when we were all up there. He should have a better day tomorrow since he'll be on the water for a full day of smallie chasing

Land of Oz - North Branch of the Susquehanna River

Well, folks were back from our trip to the North Country. The flatlanders invaded the North Branch of the Susquehanna River from Nov. 8 to Nov. 11, 2009. Not only were Josh and I there, but Al Winco (Winco's Custom Lures) was camping just down the road from us with his good buddy, Mike. We spoke to one another each day to keep the other informed of going-ons. We also ate breakfast together on Thursday morning. Those two guys are a hoot! :D

I met Josh on Sunday morning around 7:30 a.m. and we picked up his boat at the storage shed. Instead of our usual greasy spoon in Mt. Joy, we headed up the road towards Fort Indiantown Gap to eat at a nice restaurant called, The Farmer's Wife. Great breakfast and it was packed!

We made it up to our motel room around 12:30 p.m., unpacked our clothing and food, and headed to the ramp for a half day of fishing.

The water was perfect and the level was just right. It was nice and warm for this time of year... 64 degrees air temp. The water was a nice 46 degrees, clear, with a nice green tint to it.

We ran down river from our launch site and didn't catch a fish at our first stop, but our second and all others afterward gave us nice NB bass. We finished the afternoon with 38 bass which all came from jigs.

We had a nice supper and planned our strategy while eating at the Bonanza in Wysox, Pa.

We were up at the crack of dawn, watch some SportsCenter, and showered and shaved. We made our lunches and packed the boat, then off to breakfast.

After a good hearty breakfast, we headed to the ramp. This was Josh's day. He caught 44 bass and I had 26... total in the boat, 70! We tried many different lures on our first full day on the water... tubes, jerkbaits, spinnerbaits, short-armed Winco Bronze Whackers, and cranks. But the fish cried out for jigging soft plastics and that's what we caught all our fish on.

The second full day brought us the biggest bass of our trip. We were able to land several 18+ bass with a lot of 17+ smallies thrown in. It was my day to shine from the back of the boat with 38 bass and Josh pulled in 25... Total, 63!

Our final day was a half day. It was 33 degrees air temp when we launched. You will see in the slideshow that we were dressed rather warmly. Josh and I looked like Nanook of the North. All bundled up in our winter fishing garb. Check out the pic of Josh running his G3 up river. He's all decked out and trying to keep warm... face mask, layered clothing, and ski goggles for the long runs.

This day brought us our highest half day total. I had 28 and Josh had 25 for a total of 53! All bass came on jigging tubes once again.

As you can see, "The Land of Oz" came through again. It gave us a wonderful four day adventure that I will not forget. What better time than with a good friend, great food, and a lot of smallmouth fishing!

Prepping For NB Continues

Only two days to go until Josh and I head north to the North Branch of the Susquehanna River (Sunday, November 2, 2009). The weather reports are very promising and the river level should be almost perfect. Now all we need is for the fish to cooperate like they did in 2008.

We hit a very warm spell on our 2008 trip and it looks like we are going to hit another one this year... Perfect!

Josh's father and brother were on the NB this past week and had a wonderful time. His father said that the river should be primed for our stay. I hope he's correct.

I have my clothes pack and ready to go. I've been slowly doing grocery shopping for our lunches and snacks. I'm covering the cost of the lunches, snacks, and drinks. Josh will pick up some of tabs for supper or breakfast. It works out well that way.

I still need to pick up the lunch meats (ham and sweet bologna) and cheese tomorrow. This far, I've bought mayo, pickles, bread, 10 for 10 bags of Utz chips, fun fruits, baggies, sodas, and water.

As you can see, we are going to enjoy ourselves no matter what!

I've picked up a few more 2.5" tubes in different flavors and more 1/8th oz. ball head jigs to go with them. I want to grab a few hair jigs from my hair stash, too.

I like a challenge when fishing. I'm not so much a numbers guy as I am a "let's see how many lures will catch fish" guy. Let's say we have figured out that 3.5" tubes in Black Neon are nailing smallies. Well, I put that lure down for awhile and start throwing, let's say, a spinnerbait or jerkbait. I want to just see if I can entice the smallies to hammer that lure, too. Some days, I have caught fish on a handful of different lures... from bottom, to mid water range, to topwaters. I love those days!

I'll be writing again once we return. I hope I have good stories to pass on to you all. Hang in there and get out fishing!

dad

Working Our Way North on the Susquehanna River

Josh and I are heading to the North Branch this coming Sunday for four days of fishing. So, we decided to start working our way north today by fishing above Harrisburg, Pa.

I was super impressed with some of the fishing reports I've been hearing from friends on our fishing sites and with their help, we had a fantastic day. Thank you to all of them.

We met at Josh's apt. at 5:00 a.m. and headed to the garage where he keeps his rig stored. By 6:00 a.m., we were enjoying our breakfast in the Mt. Joy Diner.

We took about an hour drive north and above Harrisburg, Pa. It was 7:45 a.m. when we reached the ramp. There were only two other vehicles with trailers in the parking lot.

It didn't take us long to have the G3 ready to launch. I walked down the ramp before launching the boat and noticed that the east shoreline was still rather dirty. But through the morning fog, you could sew that from mid-river west was clearing very nicely.

We headed straight across the river and then north to a few main eddies that held some super nice smallies. Once we arrived at our first stop, Josh needed to take a call on his cell phone. This allowed me to run the TM and before long, I was able to catch my first two 16" ers and also dropped one. What a great start to a very foggy morning!

By the time Josh finished his call, I had already boated five smallies decent fish. :) But it didn't take Josh too long to catch up to me and we stayed pretty much in pace with one another throughout the day... Cool Beans!

We were fishing an eddy that was tight along the bank with a rock protruding about 15 yds away. Josh and I had the same thought. Since he was in the front of boat he had a better shot at the small eddy behind the rock. I looked at him and said, "Why don't you toss that tube just aside of the rock and let it slide into the small eddy behind it." He looked at me and laughed, "I was just about ready to say that, too!" :D

Check out this 17+" that Josh pulled into the boat from the eddy created by the rock.


Around 10:00 a.m., we made a pretty long trip further north in search of smallmouth. What beautiful river scenery greeted us along the way. We had some very active water to negotiate on our trip, but Josh handled it just like a pro. Here was our reward for that long scenic trip...


She was a gorgeous 19" 4+lb smallie. I wish this pic was in 3D so you could get the full effect of the size of this fall smallie. What a beaut!

We caught several smaller fish (14-16" range) to round out the run before heading back downriver and returning to our morning starting location.

As Josh was heading across the river on our way back, he crossed path with a surprised swimming otter. I knew that Josh was too focused on the run to catch sight of this little guy. His jet rig ran right along side the otter which caused him to take a very quick dive to get safely away from us. :eek:

We caught quite a few more bass upon our return. Check out this 16" porker that Josh brought to hand. It was shaped like a mini-sized football and seemed disproportionate to the average 16" Susquehanna River smallie.


The wind started to howl around 11:00 a.m. It was a strange wind coming in gusts and then settling for several minutes before hitting us again and again. The bite was starting to slow and it became harder to detect even with heavier jig heads. We were quite fortunate to still land a few more smallies in the worst of it all.

Thank goodness for a good anchor!

The water temp was 50-51.7 degrees. The water clarity was clear on the west bank and dirty on the east. The skies started as foggy and slightly overcast until the sun broke through around 9:00 a.m. Then the sun went in and out behind clouds all day long. There was a NE wind blowing that turned to a WNW as the day progressed. Winds were howling in the river corridor and seemed to be gusting up to 15+ mph at times... flags were straight out on some poles we saw!

We tossed many different lures today... Tubes in 2.5", 3.5", and 4" varieties. Rigged mostly on 1/8th oz. jig heads. I did toss a 3/16 oz once the wind picked up... helped a lot! Josh caught only one bass on a JB and that was his first fish in the morning. We also tried 1/2 oz spinnerbaits, 1/2 short-arm spinnerbait, and crankbaits w/o a single bite.

Accuweather is calling for a decent day tomorrow. But on Thursday, the showers will be moving and and the winds will be returning up to 17 mph gusts! Great... horizontal rain! :(

Get out there tomorrow, if you can, and enjoy the day fishing. I'll be starting to pack for our annual trip to the NB. It's never too soon to start planning!

dad