Observations on the Susquehanna today

[Dave_W]

slay12345 wrote:
I'm thinking the cat sores are breeding sores...

Makes sense.
My first thought when these fish were described was spawning stress. Catties are cavity nesters and spawning/guarding activity occurs around rock piles and woody debris and the fish could certainly get banged up on this stuff during spawning season.

In the summer, it's common to see bass with scuff wounds on their backs just in front of the dorsal. This is a common sight and comes from the fish forcing themselves into rock crevices to suck out fleeing crayfish.

 

[Mike]

Comment on Wrightsville: While I know that the river looks very "bassy" at Wrightsville, it is not as good as it looks. There are much, much better populations within 5 miles of Wrightsville if you get the itch to explore. The exploration may pay much bigger dividends over time, but the exploration will be in itself be a temporary inconvenience that may produce lower catches during the search unless you get lucky the first time.

High catches are not always dictated by location alone. For example, some locations require ideal flows (for those locations), perhaps a stage of 3.7-4 ft at Hbg.

 

[barrybarry]

Have to agree with Mike. I've been out a few times and it's better. Better than none is still better.

A few guys in yaks amped up the whole Wrightsville thing on FB. Others jumped onboard with it. Ran into them pulling out. Easy to recognize the one guy who had this giant yellow measuring device. Hmmmm?

The thing about Wrightsville is that it's easy to access and everyone knows where it's at.

 

[foxtrapper1972]

Ahh the beauty of social media and fishing. I wondered why there were boats and fishermen everywhere out there. That explains a lot.
The giant yellow measuring device strikes again!

 

[149113]

Where on the the river are y'all seeing the hex mayflies? We tried a few weeks ago and it was light. But it sounds like it's picked up now but I know the bugs are specific about where they seem to hatch

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Hex flies near Columbia wrightsville.


Was out again terrorizing SMB yesterday evening. Some more observations.

Saw more beat up channel cats at Marietta. Thinking slay or Fred is right. That is good news but man do these fish look terrible.

SMB were rising to sulphurs just as the sun went down over the trees.
One would think that taking such a fish would be easy but they are cruisers and don't sit still. I didn't wait around for the hex, I was spent like the sulphurs from paddling up river.

If a musky grabs your bass and won't let go, does it count?
Did you catch it fly fishing or were you bait fishing using a bass? :lol:

Everyone I have run into on the river this year has been great.

Edit: oh and while I know the population crashed etcetera. I think fishing river is better today.IMO catching larger smallies now seems easier than it did in the late eighties and early nineties. Seems like C&R is working.

 

[jifigz]

Mike wrote:
Highly probable that it was a bowfin. Good thing that it got free. Bowfin are in the Juniata, so the Susquehanna is not a stretch.

I have spent an unbelievable amount of my life on the Juniata, and I mean that, I'm in that river nearly every day, and I have never seen a bowfin or heard of anyone seeing a bowfin in there.

 

[jifigz]

And FWIW I was just in the Juniata a bit ago today. Took a temp reading and she was 74 flowing past my house here at Granville. I also caught about 15 smallies in an hour and a half and about 25 of them yesterday. I feel blessed to live on the smaller water and farther away from the crowds.

 

[codym21]

Fished/ floated it a couple days this week, caught a decent amount of fish mostly small but the shade produced a couple bigger fish. Popper bite was good in the early morning/late evening. Most fish on clousers during the day with some on feathered game changers. The Juniata fished better for me while i was out there.

 

[henrydavid]

North Branch has been fishing well in the evenings, I've seen Cahills early evening and sulphurs later on. I haven't used any fly but the White Wulff.

 

[Dave_W]

salvelinusfontinalis wrote:
If a musky grabs your bass and won't let go, does it count?
:lol:

Yes!
After all, some muskie guys count follows (and I need all the muskie success I can get).

Although it has never happened to me, I know a lot of river guys who regard a muskie snatching a hooked walleye or bass as a pretty common event. Cody just mentioned today that he had a muskie chase a hooked bass in the Juniata.
I always keep a couple muskie flies in my bass box and have always hoped that I could get a second shot at one of these chasers.

 

[Mike]

Jifigz,
You have to be at the right place at the right time sometimes. A kayaker sent me a photo of a Juniata River bowfin in spawning coloration two or three yrs ago. She had no clue what kind of fish it was and was just requesting an identification. There was no doubt on my part; we see a good number of them in the SE, especially since angler's keep sending us photos requesting identification of fish as either being snakeheads or bowfin.

 

[foxtrapper1972]

Hooked something huge on wooly bugger in the Codorus (branch that comes out of Marburg) and got a glimpse before it got off. Sure looked like a Bowfin.

 

[Mike]

Marburg is well-known for its bowfin population.

 

[jifigz]

Awesome stuff. I've caught a few bowfin before, I have just never seen them in the Juniata or any of its tribs. Interesting and cool fish, no doubt.

 

[HopBack]

Waded below the Norman Wood bridge today from 11:00 to 1:00 pm. Boats and yakers filled the main channel. Fished the whitewater runs where the boaters could not reach and did very well on a crayfish pattern. Caught a total of 16 fish ranging from 4 to 17 inches. Lots of crayfish in the shallows and green sunfish guarding nests. A little bug activity as well with limited interest from the bass. Tried to toss a few buggers to some carp but they were really sketchy likely from bow fishing in the area.

 

[Dave_W]

HopBack wrote:
Waded below the Norman Wood bridge today from 11:00 to 1:00 pm. Boats and yakers filled the main channel. Fished the whitewater runs where the boaters could not reach and did very well on a crayfish pattern. Caught a total of 16 fish ranging from 4 to 17 inches. Lots of crayfish in the shallows and green sunfish guarding nests. A little bug activity as well with limited interest from the bass. Tried to toss a few buggers to some carp but they were really sketchy likely from bow fishing in the area.

Good report - thanks. A nice aspect of the lower Susky is that much of the river is compartmentalized by ledge rock and islands and this can allow an angler to avoid the boaters.

Also good news about the spawning sunfish.

 

[krayfish2]

What a difference a week makes. Last week was all 'dinks' and a fish over 13" was hard to come by. The shallows were filled with 5" bass chasing anything you tossed their direction.

Turn the page to this morning...... we had lower water, cloud cover and the fishing changed. Very few 'dinks', average fish were 12"-14" and some of the big fish started to reappear. We did well on number of fish and got a half dozen in the 17"-19" range. We saw and enormous and I mean ENORMOUS catfish holding in a deep hole as we floated over him. Great day overall.

 

[polky]

Waded below the fibre dam from 6-12 and only picked up the little guys, 5 to 8 inchers. Biggest about 13" and plenty of fallfish. Moved down river and the average went up to 9 to 11 inches.

 

[McSneek]

My personal observations...Returned to the river at Wrightsville for the first time in a long time yesterday for a few hours fishing before the rains set in. I was immediately reminded that wading in there is no picnic, in fact, it's downright difficult. Unlike the previous day on the Juniata river when I saw numerous small bass in the shallows, with the exception of one absolute bruiser that I flushed out of the shallows right against the bank near the Rt. 30 bridge, I didn't see single bass where you might typically expect to see them. Poked around for a few hours and managed three small bass and missed a fourth one. Not really what I had hoped for. Simply way too much effort for those results. Saw no fish break the surface while I was there. I might try it again when the white fly hatches just to see if that event shows there are more bass in that stretch. Otherwise, I'll explore elsewhere to get my WW fix.