Conestoga River: Mike asking for fingerling smallmouth bass habitat help

[Mike]

For those of you intimately familiar with sections of the Conestoga River between Brownstown (Rt 322) and Lancaster (Rt 30), I could use some help locating potential fingerling smallmouth bass habitat in order to do some sampling of the fingerlings. We have one site that we have sampled near Millersville for three years, but I would like to locate another potential site above Lancaster. What I need is the location of a stretch of 300 yards of shoreline where the substrate is primarily comprised of rock, rubble, and gravel. The bottom should be firm, not soft. It is challenging to locate such habitat on the Conestoga, since most pools and glides have silt, sand, and gravel substrates. So, if you know of any potential stretches where rubble, gravel, and even some larger rocks predominate along the shore, please let me know of the location using some geographical reference point that we can find on a topographic map or in the field. If we find the site to be unsuitable, at least you have provided us with more info than we would have had prior to leaving the office.

By the way, the 300 yd stretches may be on one side of the stream or 150 yds of such habitat may occur on opposite sides of the stream...either way we can still sample 300 yds.

Thanks for your consideration of this question. If you don't know of such areas, no problem.

 

[troutbert]

You can distinguish the riffly, rocky sections of the Conestoga from the slow moving sections by looking at satellite images.

On Acmemapper, choose the "hybrid" view, which shows satellite images, with roads and place names overlaid.

It looks like there is a pretty long riffly section above the Route 30 bridge, alongside the golf course.

And another long riffly section starting a little ways above the Route 23 and extending downstream pretty far.

 

[slay12345]

Check out North of the 23 bridge at Perelman Park up about a half mile section into the bend where there is a rocky shoal on the east side of the bend and a solid rock bottom up in to a steep bank.

I think the area in the golf course is actually pretty wide and slow with mostly a silty bottom or edges.

 

[Mike]

Thanks to McSneek(he PM'd), Troutbert, and slay. You all keyed in on the Rt 23/Perelman Park area among your suggestions. I appreciate the help and the time savings.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Check out North of the 23 bridge at Perelman Park up about a half mile section into the bend where there is a rocky shoal on the east side of the bend and a solid rock bottom up in to a steep bank.

Funny i was just talking about this with geo and had no idea on how to tell Mike to locate this area. Im glad you guys did!

 

[wgmiller]

slay12345 wrote:
Check out North of the 23 bridge at Perelman Park up about a half mile section into the bend where there is a rocky shoal on the east side of the bend and a solid rock bottom up in to a steep bank.

I think the area in the golf course is actually pretty wide and slow with mostly a silty bottom or edges.

Spot on!

 

[pennsadventures]

great spot....tons of small bass in there...I used to take everyone there to catch them when they first started fishing....If you need more pm me

 

[purplewoolly]

I agree with the north of 23 suggestions, all the way up to the covered bridge on Hunsecker rd.