Hello Folks,
Josh and I planned a getaway fishing trip for yesterday. The fishing has been so uncharacteristically slow down in the southern end of the main stem and lower Susquehanna that we decided to take a little trip north.
We knocked around going to the "Community Pool" at Fort Hunter, but felt that we wanted a little more out of the way location. So, we started to look over the various launches up and down Rt. 11/15.
I have been out a couple of times over the past month with Pete Hanford and knew that we had caught fish in and around the Selinsgrove, Pa. area. But I also know that it's been several weeks since I made the trek that far north.
I reached out and contacted DRY1 (Bill) who wrote back to me to saying that the fishing had really slowed down up his way. He gave me a few tips to try, but wanted me to check Al Winco's report on Fort Hunter before deciding where to fish, which I did. Al's report didn't convince me that I wanted to be among the masses at Fort Hunter.
Josh had to work all evening and returned home from his milk run at 6:15 a.m. I arrived at his house at 6:30 a.m. and loaded my tackle and gear into his boat. We took a short ride to Mt. Joy, Pa. to eat at Gus's Family Restaurant before taking the hour plus drive north.
After a great breakfast, we were off to Selinsgrove, Pa. The drive doesn't seem as long when you are taking it with a good friend and the conversation is stimulating.
We arrived at the ramp around 9:00 a.m. There was only one other truck and trailer in the parking lot.
Our first "hot" stop didn't produce a single fish... Oh, no! About a month ago, this same spot gave up some pretty sweet mommas. Now, we moved on to our second "hot" spot.
The second stop only produced one fall fish and a one smallmouth. "What's going on here!?" Before moving on, we spoke to a fellow angler who had just caught a small bass as we approached and he told us that he had spoke to a couple of anglers who had a couple of nice fish in the boat, but not many. Geez! :(
Okay, now I started to worry a bit. It was a long drive and the fish were not cooperating in our "usual" fall spots.
Putting two and two together, we decided that the smallies were now on the move to their deeper wintering holes after gorging at all the familiar fall "hot" spots. We needed to tack them down.
Taking Bill's advice, we moved on to a third spot. "Bingo!"
Josh was fading fast on me and he decided to lay down on the back deck to take a power nap... which lasted two hours! :)
In that time frame, I was able to boat 11 smallies ranging from 14" to 16". I was super pleased with the results and very thankful that Bill had given me that tip.
The air temperature was 31 degrees when I left home and hit 40 degrees once we arrived at the ramp. It climbed throughout the day and reached well into the 50's by the time we "trailered" the boat at 2:00 p.m.
The water temperature ranged from 45-47.5 degrees in the areas that we fished. Most the water we fished in the morning was gin clear except for the a few areas below islands and towards the middle. I concentrated on this colored water in the afternoon to give myself a bit of an advantage... and it paid off.
We caught the fist bass and fall fish on a single dipped tube. The remaining 11 smallmouth were caught on the Winco's Chillee Willee with a 1/8th oz. ball head jig. Al had sent me three samples a couple of weeks ago. So, the Chillee Willee I was using got pretty torn up by the bass. It was producing so well that I began gluing it together. I also glued onto the shank of the hook to hold it tightly in position. LOL!
As soon as Dad has some cash flow, I'll be buying more of these, for sure!
It was a gorgeous fall day. The winds had let up and the temperature rose to a more expected fall level. It seems like after we had those 70 degree days a few weeks back that we just passed by the 60 degree days and fell quickly into the 40-50 degree days with high winds and even greater gusts.
This great weather looks like it will continue into this coming weekend. Just keep in mind that if you head out on the water, the water is cold. Please be careful and wear your PFD at all times.
This past weekend, we had a boat sink on Lake Clarke just below Long Level, Pa. Thank goodness both anglers are safe.
Take care,
Dad
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