School me quick on the susky

[dudemanspecial]

Taking a canoe fishing trip in mid September. Not exactly sure of what section but i know we will be camping around Liverpool. Ive never fished there before and was hoping someone could give me a crash course on fly selection. The reality is i have never really fished for small mouth ever, which is a shame I live around some good water for that......

Also i will be using a 9ft 8weight. I hope its not overkill, but that is the only rod bigger than a 5w that i have. Will a floating line be ok for that type of fishing, or do i need to invest in a sink tip. What kind of leader setup should I use?

I know I can search this stuff but just hoping to get a conversation going. Thanks!

 

[Dave_W]

A 9' for an 8WT is perfect for a beginner bass fishermen and is a good match for river bass. Floating line is what you'll want.

You don't need a bunch of flies: have some basic poppers and Clouser Minnows. Wooly buggers are good too.

The Susky is a big river but that section is pretty shallow and rocky. Areas with boulders and ledge rock that have current moving around or over them are bass hotspots. One final point: don't go light on tippet. I use 14lb test. These are powerful fish and usually not leader shy. You'll be glad for the heavier line as these fish require some effort to land, even with an 8WT.

There are a bunch of threads on bass flies and fishing the Susky. Take some time to check 'em out.

Good luck with your trip.

 

[Sylvaneous]

There is an over-abundance of visible habitat (rock ledges) in the Susquehanna. I fished it for the 1st time in 16 years last week. I did a lot of learning about bigger water and bass fishing in that time. You have to be more careful, efficient, flyfishing this river. You will do better to find the best cover with the proper combination of whatever features are working. For example, I went for the rocks in a the fall line at the Duncannon Narrows. That gave me only small fish. The next day I went for the willow grass islands. The water was up around 11,000 cfs, about 3 inches higher than it is now. The willow grass was in water up to 20" deep. This provided great cover for bait fish. The big smallies were in the eddies and backwaters around these islands for this reason, I will assume. No big fish were caught around any features that didn't have willow grass. They also had to have the right depth along them, good current, and deeper cover water nearby. This area had a lot of water that was 2 ft or less, so holding water was a bit of a premium.
That was my formula for success where I was. When you get there, don't start casting to everything. You'll kill yourself. Identify what type of feature you are casting to and why there might be fish there. When you find success, keep at it and find if you get rewarded again.

Syl

 

[raftman]

Crayfish patterns. Crayfish patterns. Poppers. Clouser Minnows.

 

[Fishwagen]

If your starting in the Liverpool section, I have heard it has been yielding some nice sized bass this season. Fished it a couple years back and caught some good ones myself. Focus on the rock ledges and make your casts (if you can) along the length of them. You'll be able to be more efficient working the water as it changes as you retrieve.

Based on experience this year, and from what Syl said...the big ones are in the grassy island areas. Even when it doesn't look like enough water...trust me they are there. We have floated at least 6-8 times this year and regardless of conditions have picked the big boys out of grassy areas in softer water w some kinda flow coming in. You'll know the spots when you see it...they just look fishy and they don't disappoint. Second on making purposeful cast to spots. Then get ready as the take will be pretty violent! Doesn't get any better!

Fly selection....Clousers, bigger sized woolly buggers, maybe some medium sized articulated patterns. Even though I spin fish a lot for SMB I tend to throw bigger pattern when I do have the fly rod. It sometimes weeds out the smaller fish...sometimes as most smallies will eat anything regardless if it's almost as big as they are.

8wt floating line and 15 lb leader about 5' long. Prefect set up for Susky SMB.

Good luck. FW

 

[dudemanspecial]

Thanks guys great info. When talking about clousers and wooley buggers what size hooks are we talking? I could tie some clousers never had before. Most of my buggers are 8 and 10.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

this year I have caught most of my bass in moderate current around large boulders,rock ledges and grassy islands. My advice is to work an area well and figure out exactly where they are holding. One day I caught bass on the back sides of rocks, The very next day in the same stretch they were in front of the rocks, The following day they were in mid channel current. Once you figure out their pattern, you should have a good day .

As far as hooks go , use a good strong hook and personally I like sizes from 6 to 2 for any fly . BE SURE TO HAVE GOOD WADING BOOTS!

 

[krayfish2]

Sylvaneous wrote:
When you get there, don't start casting to everything. You'll kill yourself.

Dave_W wrote:
One final point: don't go light on tippet.

Fishwagen wrote:
Second on making purposeful cast to spots. Then get ready as the take will be pretty violent!

^ This is very good information.

Saleninusfontinalis wrote:
My advice is to work an area well and figure out exactly where they are holding. One day I caught bass on the back sides of rocks, The very next day in the same stretch they were in front of the rocks, The following day they were in mid channel current. Once you figure out their pattern, you should have a good day .

^ This might be even better !!

I haven't fished is a ton this year but fished it enough. If you were to cast to every bit of structure you saw, rotator cuff would be shot in the first hour. LOL. Floating line is perfect for what you'll be doing. If you don't have weighted flies for the deeper pools, you can always loop to loop a 7' poly leader to get down but it wouldn't be a necessity. Poppers, Gurglers, Clousers and such.

Where will the fish be found? It will change based on flows, time of day, cloud cover and time of year. We've picked them up behind boulders in the big slow pools on one trip and then smack dab in the middle of fast riffles just a few days later. Once you figure out if they are in front of structure, behind it, holding deep or in the shallows, you'll start to stack them like cord wood. You'll see a lot of exposed or almost exposed ridges in the river. Try running your stuff along those ridges (in front or behind). You should see a pattern develop. Same would be applied to weed beds. Some in front, some behind and some hiding in little pockets on the sides. If you get the opportunity, get out near the islands / weed beds and do a little stalking. You can sometimes find fish chasing bait. Get a fly in front of them and it's a done deal. Don't be surprised if you yank an 18" fish out of water

 

[henrydavid]

"time of day" I agree. Sunday afternoon I was picking off bass tucked in pocket water behind the rocks on the North Branch. A couple hours later in to the evening the bass were clearly out in the feeding lanes and chasing down their meals.

Get a fly in their view and it was smashed, wish it was always like that.