Mike Burton and I decided to hit the water at daybreak. I picked him up at his home around 5:00 a.m. and we made it on the water by 5:45 a.m. The air temp was 64 degrees and the water temp was 70.4 degrees. A small creek was pouring muddy water down past the ramp, but the rest of the river looked fine.
We headed north and fished a nice grassy island. We both tossed topwaters... Buzzbait and Tiny Torpedo. I had smallie pull the buzzbait under, but she didn't hook up. I followed with a tube. After three casts, I hooked into a nice 16.5" bass.
We fished four different and distinct areas and found smallies on all but one. Quite a few smaller fish (10-14" bass) were caught in and around the grass which was surrounding this rocky grass island. We were quite pleased after landing a dozen within an hour and a half.
We were extremely pleased with the amount of 12" bass we caught today. It's a very good sign.
Our largest smallie of the day was a nice and healthy 17.25".
The water temp continually rose throughout the day and was at 71.5 degrees by our departure at 1:45 p.m. We had mostly cloudy skies with an occasional period or two of bright sunshine. Towards the end of our trip, the haze had settled back in and the storm clouds were building. It took me about an hour to drive home and once I arrived in the driveway, I could hear the thunder of an approaching storm.
Today's lures: Buzzbait, Ting Torpedo, Tubes (most productive), Magic Stick, crankbaits, and spinnerbaits.
The tubes were fished rather slow and most bites came on the bottom. we did have a couple hit the tubes on the retrieve. We thought that maybe the fish would chase more today after seeing them attack a swimming tube, but that didn't hold true.
Saw two bald eagles today. One was an immature. It's nice seeing the eagles returning all up and down the Susquehanna River Basin. It wasn't too long ago when DDT was doing a number on the egg shells and we were losing so many.
We also had a bunch of crayfish grabbing on to our tubes today and hanging on for dear life. We weren't sure if they were the Rusty Cray(?). We saved a very large crayfish from certain death. Mike pulled up some braided line that was left on the bottom and wrapped in that line was a huge crayfish. It already had lost on of it's claws and the second was wrapped tightly in the braided line. Mike performed a claw-ectomy and the crayfish scurried off to live another day. Without his claws, it's anyone's guest how long it will survive. Depending on temps, diet, and age, it may take a few molts before he regenerates his claws. The warmer the water, the younger the crayfish, and the amount of food source available will determine how often it will molt.
dadTB
