Switchin' Gears

[jifigz]

A sheltered and protected area below an island with fire orange bellied fish and good pull and fight. The redbreasts are one of my favorite PA gamefish and I cherish this time of year. A large royal wulff with a nymph dropped off of it. Many fish ate both the nymph and the dry. It was a good time on my old Risen 6 weight. I haven't fished that rod much in years.

Good times, lots of mayflies, and willing and aggressive fish. Explosive takes on the dry and a fish on nearly every cast. What's not to love?

 

[Fish Sticks]

Slate drakes are all over my red breast stream. Can’t wait to tie up some marabou tail SD nymphs and swing for redbreasts with glass

Did a little warm water forage research today since i am switching gears as well.

 

[Beweav]

Are there redbreasts in the Susquehanna anywhere? I’d love to find somewhere local to catch them. Or the Swatara creek?

 

[Fish Sticks]

Are there redbreasts in the Susquehanna anywhere? I’d love to find somewhere local to catch them. Or the Swatara creek?

Yea they are in both, if you want to target redbreasts also i have heard conodoquinnete, not sure about lower yellow breeches or not. Basically look for large warm water streams. Also in some small trout stream like settings below top release dams

 

[TimMurphy]

Dear jifigz,

My brother came in from Colorado and we drifted the Juniata River from Thompsontown to Mifflintown Memorial Day and yesterday with a guide. It was the first time in my life I had ever done anything on the Juniata except stand on the bank and look at the water. I'm soon to be 63 years old and I wasted a lot of time never actually fishing the Juniata.

We had a great time and I really want to check out more of the river. I want to hook one of those U-boat sized carp we saw while drifting along the river. My biggest rod is a 10wt, and I may be under gunned with that little thing!

Regards,

Tim Murphy

 

[jifigz]

Dear jifigz,

My brother came in from Colorado and we drifted the Juniata River from Thompsontown to Mifflintown Memorial Day and yesterday with a guide. It was the first time in my life I had ever done anything on the Juniata except stand on the bank and look at the water. I'm soon to be 63 years old and I wasted a lot of time never actually fishing the Juniata.

We had a great time and I really want to check out more of the river. I want to hook one of those U-boat sized carp we saw while drifting along the river. My biggest rod is a 10wt, and I may be under gunned with that little thing!

Regards,

Tim Murphy

Dear Tim Murphy,

Were you with the guide that uses the drift boat? If so, who is that? He pounds the river hard and I've seen him in the Lewistown area once, but he tends to float the Mifflintown/Port Royal area. He always has fly fishing guys which is a rare thing on the Juniata.

The state record carp is from the Juniata. I don't see many that often these days due to bow fishermen in think.

Regards,

Jifigz

PS, come fish the Juniata with me anytime you want..

 

[jifigz]

Are there redbreasts in the Susquehanna anywhere? I’d love to find somewhere local to catch them. Or the Swatara creek?

Look for protected water. After they are done spawning you can target shoreline and catch them all summer. Fishing is especially good near Autumn.

Also, I hope the emerging flathead population doesn't damage them too much. Redbreasts are a beloved gamefish. Look up the Satilla River in Georgia for a state's approach to protect redbreasts from flatheads.

 

[Fish Sticks]

Look for protected water. After they are done spawning you can target shoreline and catch them all summer. Fishing is especially good near Autumn.

Also, I hope the emerging flathead population doesn't damage them too much. Redbreasts are a beloved gamefish. Look up the Satilla River in Georgia for a state's approach to protect redbreasts from flatheads.

Yea I have been nervous about invasive flatheads and redbreasts as well. I have to assume their are flatheads in the swatty but have not seen any. Id be shocked if their not in there. I also worry about fall fish populations in those rivers as well.

 

[jifigz]

Yea I have been nervous about invasive flatheads and redbreasts as well. I have to assume their are flatheads in the swatty but have not seen any. Id be shocked if their not in there. I also worry about fall fish populations in those rivers as well.

Well, you might as well at least quit worrying because there is most likely little you can do other than sit back and see what changes. I would hate to see an impact to our current river situations as well but it is inevitable and there is virtually no way to control a predator such as the flathead in a system the size of the Susky drainage. Flatheads are a very neat fish and predator with huge appetites and, as someone who used to fish for catfish often, I find them intriguing. The river is so far from its historical balance that, well, it is what it is.

Georgia have been really trying to protect their famed redbreast river from the flatties but that is a much, much smaller river and system. There are 100% flatheads in the Swatara, they probably just wont hit the 80-100 lb mark that the Susky is going to one day produce.

 

[Roofin' Trouter]

Yea I have been nervous about invasive flatheads and redbreasts as well. I have to assume their are flatheads in the swatty but have not seen any. Id be shocked if their not in there.

I caught my first flathead on Conewago(York Co) Creek probably 15 years ago. The 'wago and Swatty empty into Susqy about 5 miles apart .

 

[Fish Sticks]

Well, you might as well at least quit worrying because there is most likely little you can do other than sit back and see what changes. I would hate to see an impact to our current river situations as well but it is inevitable and there is virtually no way to control a predator such as the flathead in a system the size of the Susky drainage. Flatheads are a very neat fish and predator with huge appetites and, as someone who used to fish for catfish often, I find them intriguing. The river is so far from its historical balance that, well, it is what it is.

Georgia have been really trying to protect their famed redbreast river from the flatties but that is a much, much smaller river and system. There are 100% flatheads in the Swatara, they probably just wont hit the 80-100 lb mark that the Susky is going to one day produce.

Flatheads have probably already peaked in size if anything my guess is we will see them top out at half or less of what they are now in the future. This is what happened with blue cats in the james river. When something proliferates unchecked it eventually, in many situations, starts to compete with itself for food as prey species decline. The blues are also eating blue claw crabs worms and other forage at an alarming rate and almost certainly harming stripers.

So your deff right about the susky being so far off its original species composition but i have a feeling it will change again s it has in the past and smallmouth as wel as other game fish may take the hit. Blues were essentially silent ecological damage wise for over a decade then entered the impact stage of invasion and are toppling the food web’s jenga tower at this point. We will see. Your right that in size of susky its impossible to eradicate them but there may be some other management tools to blunt some of the impact i am not sure on that. Geoffry smith from pfbc and Megan schall from PSU have been doing eDNA samples in flatheads stomachs and characterizing diet so that may shed light on the impacts.

 

[jifigz]

I disagree that Flatheads have already peaked in size in the Susky drainage. I bet they have another 20 lbs to gain before they start shrinking down, which will happen, yes. The current state record is 56 lbs out of the Skuke and just 8 days ago a 66 lb fish was taken out of the Susky. I am not sure if that is being entered for the record books, but if it is that is a 10 lb record breaker. That is not smal amount of weight.

Mark my words: An 80 lb cat will be caught out of the Susky in the next 5 years. The forage base is there. The structure in the river to harbor big cats is there. It will happen. I may be wrong, but I don't think so.

 

[Fish Sticks]

I disagree that Flatheads have already peaked in size in the Susky drainage. I bet they have another 20 lbs to gain before they start shrinking down, which will happen, yes. The current state record is 56 lbs out of the Skuke and just 8 days ago a 66 lb fish was taken out of the Susky. I am not sure if that is being entered for the record books, but if it is that is a 10 lb record breaker. That is not smal amount of weight.

Mark my words: An 80 lb cat will be caught out of the Susky in the next 5 years. The forage base is there. The structure in the river to harbor big cats is there. It will happen. I may be wrong, but I don't think so.

Maybe there will be some increase then but yea my main thought is in the long term they won’t maintain it. The James River is now 75% blue cat by biomass in large stretches and they are all 20”ers thats what i am thinking we have to look forward to in the long run.

 

[Fish Sticks]

I disagree that Flatheads have already peaked in size in the Susky drainage. I bet they have another 20 lbs to gain before they start shrinking down, which will happen, yes. The current state record is 56 lbs out of the Skuke and just 8 days ago a 66 lb fish was taken out of the Susky. I am not sure if that is being entered for the record books, but if it is that is a 10 lb record breaker. That is not smal amount of weight.

Mark my words: An 80 lb cat will be caught out of the Susky in the next 5 years. The forage base is there. The structure in the river to harbor big cats is there. It will happen. I may be wrong, but I don't think so.

Do you see bow fishermen ever targeting them? I have always wondered cause fogured at night they would want to be ambushing them in shallows

 

[jifigz]

Do you see bow fishermen ever targeting them? I have always wondered cause fogured at night they would want to be ambushing them in shallows

It is hard to say. I'll be 37 in 2 weeks and I rarely can keep my eyes open past 9:00 pm anymore. Lol. I am an early morning guy and don't see much of what happens on the river in the nighttime anymore.

There are lots of bow fishermen though and I used to see them with their night riggings out there when I would be catfishing from bank. I would imagine those guys still do that and I am sure they shoot flatheads. They have definitely knocked the carp population down.

 

[Silent Ocelot]

Oh that is PRIME redbreast hunting territory @jifigz! I enjoy catching the little buggers myself, good-fighting fish with a really neat color scheme. There's quite a few In the Brandywine, which make for a nice break from trout fishing, but I think trout fishing in SEPA is about to come to a close (that didn't last long). I have employed a technique I call "slagging" (Ocelot speak) where I run a really shallow tandem beaded nymph rig under an indicator.

I currently have a 2wt 6'6" rod with me as I decided I was going to hit a pond today for my "permit" (bluegill) fishing, but am now thinking I may now hit the B. to get some redbreasts. I will be under-gunned with that rod (I like to fish a 9'6" 6wt there) but the tug of those fish on that rod should be amazing. I will even toss a dry dropper because that is the way OP is fishing for them, "dry slagging".

 

[Kyle]

nice pictures. i have a question though. whats the reason behind using a 6 weight for bluegill? i would imagine using a 3 or 2 weight would be more fun.

 

[jifigz]

nice pictures. i have a question though. whats the reason behind using a 6 weight for bluegill? i would imagine using a 3 or 2 weight would be more fun.

Good question. First off, these aren't bluegill but redbreasts.

The reason for the 6 weight is that it doesn't limit me if I want to just move locations and change flies for smallmouth. With a 2-3 weight that's not really an option. Also, the type of fishing I was doing hooking on to a decent smallmouth is a real possibility. I have used a 4 weight to do this before and was in a real dilemma when I hooked into an 18" smallie. I landed the fish, but I wasn't using the right equipment and it was pushing that 4 weight to the max. I will still fish a 4 at times for this though. Last night I was gonna but my 6 was already rigged with a 0x leader and ready to roll.

Redbreasts are plenty good fun on a 6 though. Very sporting on one, actually. And the 6 bucks wind better if it gets breezy.

 

[linwood]

Happy Birthday, Josh. 37? No wonder you guys navigate that river so quick compared to me !!!

 

[jifigz]

Happy Birthday, Josh. 37? No wonder you guys navigate that river so quick compared to me !!!

Barry. Good to hear from you. Keep an eye peeled as I'm probably gonna invite y'all back again later in the summer.