Summer Small Mouth Bass bite

[timmyt2]

What clean water protections have been removed since 2017?

 

[wgmiller]

afishinado wrote:

McSneek wrote:

wgmiller wrote:
I fished a Susky trib near Lancaster and had a banner day last week, landing a half dozen, with the largest being 16" or so. The Clouser bite was on!!! My experience on the Susky has been smaller and fewer SMB, although it has been all wade fishing.

Nice fish WG. Clousers haven’t been working for me so far which is a real head scratcher. No idea how long you fished and exactly where but at one time a half dozen bass was far from a banner day in any body of water that held smallmouth bass. That would have been considered a slow day.

Yes, not to disparage anyone, but fishing and catching a handful of smallies is far from a banner day. Especially when looking back at how prolific smallies seemed to be and how terrific smallie fishing was not that long ago.

We all can only hope this is just the down side of a cycle. But I will say after quite a few decades of fishing for smallies, I have never seen fishing even near this poor, ever.

Point taken, fellas. I should have clarified a bit more in that I only fished a few hundred yard stretch of water and those six smallies were all at least 10". Given the location of this trib is not known for being "blue ribbon" water, I was happy with the results. Understood that in days gone by a half-dozen smallmouth was a slow day. For me, Clouser minnows (chartreuse/white) are either on fire or completely miss the mark. On that day, for a moment in time, they were on fire. I usually have much better luck with an olive bugger or crayfish pattern.

 

[coyoterahn]

For those of you that subscribe to Pa Outdoor News there is an article on the Susquehanna River and the pollution issues. It’s a sad state of affairs.
Unfortunately I don’t have access to a digital copy to post and don’t even know if one is available. I sure hope our government agencies develop and implement a workable solution soon.

 

[midgeman]

I run a jet boat and I fish from City Island up to Sunbury. I can say without a doubt that there is still an good population of smallmouth in the river. The fish are unbelievably difficult to catch in numbers after the spawn finishes which generally is the 1st to 3rd weekend of June. The fish spread out after the spawn and can be anywhere during the summer. No, it’s not the same as it was in the 90’s where anglers could catch a ton of fish in the summer. Yes the population is not what it was during the 90’s. But, there are still there in good numbers. During the summer, I suggest to fish the fast water. You will certainly increase your chances of hooking up. Once water temperatures and flows increase in September, the fishing gets better.

Here are my numbers of LANDED smallmouth from this year on the river:


May 7th: 45
May 8th: 40 (58 boated w/ co-angler )
May 9th: 34 (46 boated w/ co-angler )
May 10th: 24 (4 hours)

May 14th: 14 (sunset arrival)
May 15th: 31
May 16th: 23

May 20th: 11 (sunset arrival)
May 21nd: 68 solo
May 22rd: 29 (boated 40 w/ co- angler)
May 23th: 41 (boated 61 w/ co-angler)
May 24th: 48 (boated 58 w/ my girls)
May 25th: 50 (boated 53 w/ my girls)

May 28: 24
May 29: 72
May 30: 42

June 6: 80
June 7: 15 (4 hours)

 

[larkmark]

midgeman- Interesting. So all more or less above Harrisburg. Is there a reason you do not fish below that area on the river? We fish Middletown and below mostly and this yr has been bad. When we did venture upstream we saw more fish but they were spooky. And your report ends in early June? Why is that?

In my view the SOS stuff and a lot of the other stuff coming from our PAFBC is sort of feel good propoganda much like their "Resource First" slogan a while back. I am super disappointed in their response to the pollution on our streams.

 

[midgeman]

Landmark-yes, generally what’s considered the middle river. I guess it’s a 60 mile stretch. There’s a lot of fish at Middletown but this year I didn’t fish there nor the Juni. A former bass club member of mine has done very well there this year- up to the dock street dam. You asked why I stop in early June. If you look at the gauges (City island / Sunbury), you will see that the river has been very low since Mid-June. I live in central VA and there’s other water here that I prefer to fish during the summer. I wouldn’t give up on the Susky smallmouth. I’d like to see the 2019 results of the surveys. I’m very surprised that they haven’t been released. Either they’re great numbers which means anglers are not doing a good job at catching them or the numbers are low which explains why anglers aren’t catching fish. If I’m a betting man- I bet the results are good and anglers aren’t catching the fish.

 

[afishinado]

midgeman wrote:
I run a jet boat and I fish from City Island up to Sunbury. I can say without a doubt that there is still an good population of smallmouth in the river. The fish are unbelievably difficult to catch in numbers after the spawn finishes which generally is the 1st to 3rd weekend of June. The fish spread out after the spawn and can be anywhere during the summer. No, it’s not the same as it was in the 90’s where anglers could catch a ton of fish in the summer. Yes the population is not what it was during the 90’s. But, there are still there in good numbers. During the summer, I suggest to fish the fast water. You will certainly increase your chances of hooking up. Once water temperatures and flows increase in September, the fishing gets better.

Here are my numbers of LANDED smallmouth from this year on the river:


May 7th: 45
May 8th: 40 (58 boated w/ co-angler )
May 9th: 34 (46 boated w/ co-angler )
May 10th: 24 (4 hours)

May 14th: 14 (sunset arrival)
May 15th: 31
May 16th: 23

May 20th: 11 (sunset arrival)
May 21nd: 68 solo
May 22rd: 29 (boated 40 w/ co- angler)
May 23th: 41 (boated 61 w/ co-angler)
May 24th: 48 (boated 58 w/ my girls)
May 25th: 50 (boated 53 w/ my girls)

May 28: 24
May 29: 72
May 30: 42

June 6: 80
June 7: 15 (4 hours)

The month of May and into early June, depending on the weather, is the height of the spawn for smallies in PA.

At this time the bass are concentrated in certain areas while on their spawning beds and also very aggressive while guarding their nests.

One can catch many fish at that time and one would get the impression the population is very high in the River.

After the spawn the bass spread out. If the population is low, fish will be really spread out, plus there will be an abundance of food and little competition for that food. All three of these aforementioned factors would tend to yield low catch rates for the fish.

 

[Fly-Swatter]

And, if the population is down, should we be fishing to spawning bass? I think not.

 

[Dave_W]

midgeman wrote:
I live in central VA and there’s other water here that I prefer to fish during the summer.

Some interesting data on your spring Susky fishing - thanks.

I'm curious: how has your summer river bass season been in VA?

 

[Dave_W]

Had a pretty good day on a Susky trib this afternoon - perhaps two dozen SMBs on poppers. Fish were not aggressive with lots of followers and most hook-ups were gentle sips. Strong YOY year class in the shallows and many 1-2 year fish.

Got drenched in an afternoon thunderstorm at about 3:30; sun came out afterwards but the bite did not turn back on. I was surprised by the complete lack of tubers, yakkers, or other fishermen today as I expected to see a lot of people on a Saturday. Perhaps the weather forecast scared 'em off.

 

[midgeman]

Afishanido- the spawn wasn’t in full swing until the 2nd week of May. You mentioned that they’re congregated during the spawn. And I’m sure you know that they spawn in waves. I have seen smallmouth bedding mid-July here in Virginia. Smallmouth are far more congregated in Winter. Last September through November I was boating a lot of fish on Susky. Angler skill, the right baits, and knowing where the fish are makes a difference. Also, knowing the river intimately helps. All of this, you already know.

Dave, I’ve been doing a bit of wet wading this summer down my way and taking the boat out at higher levels. Fishing has been decent, mainly in the fast water, and not good in pools. In fact, very slow in pools. Mostly small fish with an a few bigger fish every outing. In the winter, it’s different story. Bigger fish congregated together and one would think the little fish disappeared. Personally, I prefer winter fishing on the nastiest days with ice and snow. The fishing is much better IMO and it’s much easier to target fish in slack water because they’re highly concentrated.

I know a lot of good sticks that don’t bother fishing the river in the summer.

 

[Beernut]

North Branch of the susky has been fishing pretty bad. The white fly hatch this year was pretty disappointing. I was out in some heavy hatches and barely any smallmouth rising, the catfish were more prevelant during the hatch. I did better earlier in the summer with the sulpher hatch, and even that wasn't really anything special.

 

[henrydavid]

I saw white flies last week in the Vosburg area, very few risers and very sporadic hatches. The best hatch was Thurs. evening 8/27 immediately after a major cloudburst, go figure. I did well during the daytime but it was very windy.

 

[Paraleptalata]

Weed killer, fertilizers, Insecticides, and pesticides from new farming practices? We got rid of sendiment without plowing now we farm chemically. No government agency will touch that one with a ten foot pole. Just a thought

 

[McSneek]

This guy didn’t know summer is over I guess.

 

[Dave_W]

Nice fish.

We might be well past summer but with the low water levels wade fishing is easy right now (to the extent it's ever easy on the Susky) and larger fish are getting more active.

 

[RLeep2]

I agree, Dave.. I probably had the best September on moving water SMB I've has since we moved back to PA 6 years ago and the low flows, which complement the way I prefer to fish, with dead drifted or slowly "walked" flies, have been a good part of the reason why, I think.

I've had especially good luck with a simple dark purple conehead zonker strip leech with a chenille body. I splotch the rabbit fur and chenille body with a black sharpie and this seems to add to effectiveness. Although, as with many of these things, there is no telling how much of this is religion and how much is an actual enhancement.

 

[afishinado]

Fished the Susky Saturday.

Good flow and water clarity along with good weather > 70's with cloud cover.

Fished a prime area in the riffs as well as runs and pools.

Fished top to bottom, slow and fast.

Got blanked, no hits even.

Others I talked to had the same "luck"....

2020.....

I can only assume the smallies have migrated to their winter area in deeper pools with the cold night temps up north.

 

[Fly-Swatter]

They were still shallow a week ago in the Scranton / Wilkes Barre area.

 

[afishinado]

Fly-Swatter wrote:
They were still shallow a week ago in the Scranton / Wilkes Barre area.

Reports were decent last week for the NB.

Cool weather during the week may have moved the SMB's to deeper water areas and caused lockjaw.