2016 Susquehanna River YOY SMB Survey

[afishinado]

Link below for the 2016 Susky River annual YOY SMB survey. Not quite as good as I would have expected given the ideal conditions for this year's spring spawn. Numbers were near average for most sections of the river. Still finding diseased YOY fish in surveys. Read for yourself:

http://fishandboat.com/images/reports/2016bio/susqYOYsmb.pdf

 

[Dave_W]

Disappointing.

Conditions this year should have produced good YOY production/survival and anecdotal accounts had suggested good YOY numbers.
However, the most important thing to note about of these results, IMO, is that YOY were pretty much the same across the West, Branch, North Branch, and main stem; all just around median or mediocre. In past years during the bass crash, it was common to see good numbers in the West and North Branches, and poor YOY in main stem. Also, on a positive note, disease prevalence continues its general long term decline (except in the North Branch).

It will be interesting to see if the other major watersheds, Potomac, Delaware, Allgheny etc, also show similar results.

 

[Fredrick]

I wonder what the limits are on the sections of the river.

 

[Sylvaneous]

On my one rod-n-reel survey in mid-August, I found a lot of 2 and 3 year old fish; in the size category of 9-11 inches. So , barring catastrophe, that or those size/year classes will make things better in 2,3 and 4 years from now. I saw a pretty good population of YOY bass around Dauphin.

The Allegheny seems to get kicked in the b@!!s during the spawn every year. I see some baby bass, they seem to be bifurcated. There seem to be clearly larger ones, all the same, and then a majority of smaller ones, again all the same size.

I'll be interested to see a survey as well and to compare it to my casual observations.

Fishing has not been very good this year. We've had long periods of high water for the past 3 years, and it seems to show. There were inexplicable dead and good days in the past. Wading, I saw lots of crayfish crawling around in the day on the good days. So I made the link. Now, I rarely see any crayfish when I'm wading. There are seasonalities to all ecosystems. I'll just credit this to natural cycles.

syl