Susquehanna smallie improvement - go fishing!

[Fishidiot]

JG63 wrote:
Combinations of high YEAR ROUND angler pressure, chem lawn/no till farming, industrial waste, and Municipal waste (I'm talking to you Camp Hill. ..) have really hurt the once great fishery from the bottom of the food chain on up. Anyone remember being able to ID 6 species of mayfly under the lights at the Senators games? /quote]

In my experience, macroinvertebrate life is rich in the Harrisburg area. The numbers of mayflies hatching on summer nights is still heavy. You can easily pick multiple species off your car hood at any gas staion in the area on a summer night. Hatches of little stoneflies, a good indicator of good water quality, are as dense as I've ever seen them (at least this has been my experience).

Giving the bass a break during the spawning season, and C&R regs can't hurt and may very well help.

 

[JG63]

Agree the they are not gone - but substantially reduced. Bridges used to get slippery with the spinner falls of Potomanthus (or whatever their modern name is) and assorted Ephemerella and even Ephphemera. I lived on the West Bank about 1/4 mile above the Wade bridge and often had to use a leaf blower to remove spent spinners out of the bottom of my Jon boat. I'm all for hoping the fishery recovers. I'm just not sure the problem is just catastrophic loss of several year classes in a row. I remember the fishery surviving floods and droughts but not so much with the bacterial infections or the mutation of sex organs. Still a big ? why the Rock Bass have all but vanished in the main stem or why the water feels "thick". I'm glad these reports are favorable and hope they lead to increased awareness and conservation - she is a jewel in need of a good cleaning.

 

[glenrockonthefly]

Was on the susky Saturday 11/2....

So here is my report from 11/2...so I ended up on the Susky and floated Dunncanon to Marysville about 8 miles on the water but much faster cirrent then Juniata. A week before around 10/26 the discharge at Raystown lake opened up a good bit and raised the water at Newport close to 3/4 foot as well as brought the water temp down. The Susky was running a bit low but water temp was in mid-fifties Friday eve about 5 degrees warmer the Juniata. So with all that to consider I went with the Susky. We started around 9:30 and ended about 4:30. The fishing was good when I could find deep water. During 1 streatch we paddled an hour and half with no more then 18 inches of water. The fish were holding in groups in 4 feet or more. I would find a group , grab 3-5 fish and then move on with only 2 or 3 loaners caught. The fly rod was skunked, not able to get deep aand slow enough with the current. I caught everything on spinning rod with 1/8 oz jig with 3 inch chartruse swimming shad either tossed straight upstream or angled upstream and then slow retreat with good jerks evey 5 seconds or so. Most takes were on the sink after a jerk or when jig first hit water. Lost a good many jigs to the rocks. Ended up with 15 or 16 fish maybe a few more. 3 or 4 in 17/18 inch class. Most over 12 inch. Talked to quite a few bass boat fishermen who all had good days just below statue of liberty rapids.

pasted from a PM I sent.

I had fun with the spinning rod, just got a 7ft st croix ML fast action and a pfluger Arbor reel just for river smallies and it was a great combo for this kind of fishing.

So in 2 trips this year on the Susky near dunncanon and downstream I have had good fishing, as i learn the river more I am sure my numbers will go up, so if I can get 20-30 in 8 hours or so I consider that not bad especially with a few 18 inchers in there.

 

[afishinado]

Mike wrote:
Electrofishing this week at Accomac, York Co (for a mile or more below Codorus Ck) and on Lake Clark (Safe Harbor Dam pool) revealed a much improved smallmouth bass population and size structure. Had I never been on the Susquehanna before and not known its history, I would have called this a good to very good bass population, only lacking a little bit in the abundance of smaller bass. However, survival of the 2013 year class appeared to have been very good, at least on Lake Clark, which was formerly the worst spot in the region. This rosier picture may only be temporary, or an anomaly, but there are enough bass present at the moment to provide attractive fishing. I would recommend that those who long for a return to better times take advantage of the present situation. I have been informed of similar improvement upstream as well and have angling contacts who have been very, very pleased with the fishing. The final sampling will be done at Pequea next week (Lake Aldred - Safe Harbor tail race).PS. The 2013 walleye year class is very good.

Here is the electro shock report results from the FBC site:

http://fishandboat.com/images/reports/2013bio/susq2013smb.pdf

Decent results. Encouraging. Hopefully the River is on the mend.

 

[Fishidiot]

Yep - some good news.
However, if you look at the graph on Figure 2 you can still see the striking difference between the last decade and the 1990s. Nevertheless, it's still a good report indicating decent survival of young adult year classes by the standard of recent years. It is, of course, common knowledge that the big fish are still there in good numbers - it is just the large number of younger age classes that are absent in the population structure since the crash about a decade ago.

Also, it's worth noting (as I have often preached) that honest 20" river smallies are rare....as can be seen in this report.

 

[Mike]

Note, that report is for the middle section of the river down to York Haven Dam. it does not cover the lower section from there to the Safe Harbor tail-race.