Slow start to my WW season

[dc410]

I almost caught the skunk tonight. I did manage to fight it off catching my second smallie of year on top on size 10 white wulff, bangin' it just off of the bank on the 'Stoga. Just barely made it back to the truck before the storm ripped through the area. Those pop up thunderstorms make WW fishing so much more fun!

 

[wgmiller]

What pattern do you use to catch a skunk? :-D

 

[The_Sasquatch]

Fished the Cocalico on Tuesday, my way home from work. I caught easily a dozen SMB, and stopped counting the panfish. Nothing over 10", though. I'm sure the bigger boys are in there, as I saw one jump as I was driving over the bridge, which is what lead to me pulling over, calling the wife and telling her I'd be late, and putting my wades on over my work pants, shirt and tie. No carp, but I felt like the water I was in was prime carp water. Honestly, I have not seen a carp all year. It's been years since I caught one. I guess I should start scouting hard for them.

 

[Swattie87]

Broke the ice finally this weekend on WW fishing for the year. Got chased off the stream by thunderstorms, but not before getting into some Smallies. Mostly small fish, but they pull hard too. All of the Smallies I touched had mouths full of Crayfish but they were blowing up my White Bugger well enough that I never tied a Crayfish on.

 

[dc410]

It's good to see you getting into them, Matt. And also to see them working the crayfish hard. That is a pretty smallie. Nice job.

 

[The_Sasquatch]

Yeah Matt. Same here. Lots of crawfish. They'll hit a white bugger, but put a brown one on and it's explosive!

I fished the Cocalico again on Saturday night for a good 4 hours. Too many smallies to count, both on buggers and on poppers, but still no hogs. I also caught a rainbow trout that musta swam down from Hammer or Middle Creek. Very strange, and a testimony to the mild season. No way that trout shoulda still been alive!

 

[Swattie87]

Funny you mention the Bow Squatch…I forgot to mention in my post that I caught a Bow in the Swatara too this weekend. 13”er or so with great color, but a severe deformity or injury of its upper jaw. I didn’t take a pic as I wanted to release it as quick as possible…I didn’t take a water temp, but I’m guessing the water was upper 70’s where I was fishing. It hit hard and shook its head a few times but then just let me drag it in. It swam off seemingly ok, but I have my doubts unless it finds colder water quick. Woulda kept it had I been closer to the vehicle.

 

[The_Sasquatch]

Yeah I would have kept mine too if I had something to carry a fish. This came up out of a DEEP (up to my chest box 'cause I waded in afterwards to see for myself). It fought the whole way in pretty solidly. I released it right back into the run where I caught it (I was standing right at the head of the run), and it b-lined right back into its hole. I'm interested to know how cold that water was down there. I wonder if there's a tiny spring or something.