Lower Susquehanna Bass Fishing

[wgmiller]

Fredrick wrote:

Bowfishing is not fishing its hunting and should be regulated like every like any other hunting activity in the state, there should be an open and closed season and it should only be only conducted during the day time with no use of spot lights. They should have to take a safety course and buy a hunting license for hunting fish .

+1

 

[Fly-Swatter]

Fredrick wrote:

Bowfishing is not fishing its hunting and should be regulated like every like any other hunting activity in the state, there should be an open and closed season and it should only be only conducted during the day time with no use of spot lights. They should have to take a safety course and buy a hunting license for hunting fish .

I agree 100%!

 

[mellowluke]

I've been thinking of floating a stretch from falmouth down to river front park, but have been putting it off due to not wanting to sweat my balls off during the float. I'm usually a trout guy, so am still learning the fishery. Any past successes in doing a float like this in the september time frame?

 

[Dave_W]

mellowluke wrote:
Any past successes in doing a float like this in the september time frame?

Sept is an excellent month to float bass rivers.

 

[larkmark]

Mike- i am sure you get this info about bass and musky populations from surveys but I have to say that the reality for me at least (rod and reel surveys) is far different. Talking with lifelong fishermen , some who are avid specialists for musky etc. also does not support your data. Just my limited take of course. The guys I know who used to fish that area have all moved on to other sections.

 

[Dave_W]

larkmark wrote:
Mike- i am sure you get this info about bass and musky populations from surveys but I have to say that the reality for me at least (rod and reel surveys) is far different. Talking with lifelong fishermen , some who are avid specialists for musky etc. also does not support your data. Just my limited take of course. The guys I know who used to fish that area have all moved on to other sections.

Maybe your "lifelong fishermen" and "avid specialists" don't know what they're doing?

The fish are there and anyone who thinks that anecdotal angler accounts are better population data than recent PFBC surveys (or other scientific sampling methods)... is misguided.

 

[larkmark]

Well I will leave it to the experts.
Went today and saw millions of baifish. Did not see any chasing at all. Fished topwater and under. Did not see any bass.
Did see big catfish. Did not catch any in 6 hrs.

 

[larkmark]

Dave-Condescend much? I wonder if you have spent a lot of time on that section in Bainbridge area over the years? Assume you put in a lot of time fishing the warmwater over the years and both shores for musky and bass and walleye? Lot's of contacts in the area?

 

[Mike]

Dave has a good point. When 13 adult muskies are seen in the electrical field in 1-1.5 hours in 2.5-4 ft of water in June, a practically unheard of tally in Pa waters, it is apparent that there is a large population. If anglers are not “putting fish in the boat” perhaps they should change techniques, which could include gear, targeted habitat, timing, season, location, persistence, keying in on certain flow conditions, etc. If anglers have moved on to other locations, perhaps they should return. Quite possibly this population developed gradually over time and if some anglers abandoned the area, they may have done so prematurely.

 

[Swattie87]

Beauty of this thread is that everyone can be right. And probably is. There can be a documented high biomass of fish in an area from surveys AND that area can fish poorly. Check out some old Black/Hayes Creek threads for a similar discussion about a documented (very high - 160 kg/ha-ish) Class A wild Brown Trout population that many reputable anglers report fishing very poorly.

Happens a lot. Fortunately the opposite (good fishing in areas without glowing survey data) happens even more frequently I find.

No specific knowledge to the Muskies (or lack thereof) in this section of the Susky, just pointing out it’s very possible they are there AND the fishing is poor.

 

[Mike]

Yes, such waters can fish poorly at times or most of the time, but it is up to the angler to figure out under what circumstances or conditions those waters fish well and key in on those times. In the case of Black Ck, I once had a seasonal biologist who lived in that area and he fished (flies, if I recall correctly) that stream religiously. Why? Because he probably had the stream “figured out.”

 

[Dave_W]

Everyone knows this, but I'll say it again...

It's important to remember that streams and especially big rivers like the Susky are complex. Fish move around and sometimes, as in the lower Susky SMB population, fluctuate widely for reasons that are not well understood (as I've harped on endlessly).

Anecdotal angler reports are part of the picture and I don't wish to suggest that I don't value angler opinions (as may have been implied a couple posts up). Like you, I also take into consideration my own success when evaluating a fishery. Certainly, there are some Susky regulars who are pessimistic these days.

Nevertheless, on the topic of muskies in that section of the river, I would reiterate that the best scientific data available suggests that they are numerous and there is much angler anecdotal evidence that supports this robust population. Fish can't not eat. If they're there, they can be caught. This is the challenge of sport fishing.

PFBC electrofishing data isn't a perfect picture (and nobody claims it is) but it is still the best information to assess whether species are present and to compare that data to the past. Angling reports, while useful, simply can't compare as a fishery assessment.

Thinking about this reminds me much of the Letort:
Time and time again folks fish that stream and come away convinced there are no fish there. Even some of the old hands come out and complain that it isn't worth fishing anymore, a shadow of its former self, etc., etc.
Then when they see an electrosurvey they are often stunned at the number of trout in small sections of that stream.

It ain't the stream - it's the angler.

 

[KGStine]

Just came across this You tube today. Never saw this guy before, but he was fishing the lower Susquehanna back in May. He was using spinning gear and caught 6 or so nice bass in about 3 hours. So, on at least one day there were plenty of nice bass in the river.
https://youtu.be/-w9owWQKxXY

If the link doesn't work you can find it by searching for Henry Dunn and Susquehanna River.

 

[larkmark]

I only ever have reported my experience and those of others I know who regularly fished this area over the last 40 yrs or so. I know guys who have taken muskies (some very large) in this section. They no longer fish there . They have moved elsewhere. In general the bass fishing is poor in my view. I have had days where I caught a few big ones in the section. I ask questions and I report my results but I have no need to suggest that others are foolish or are poor anglers. It used to be better but it is lousy now IN MY OPINION. I think the studies are very nice and I hope much is learned. And yes, the river is complex.

 

[midgeman]

The Susquehanna is still an impressive smallmouth bass fishery. Certainly it is not what it once was. Summertime once was the time to go and catch unreal numbers of fish along grass beds and mid-river islands- One may catch a few here and there nowadays. There’s no doubt that summertime smallmouth fishing is now challenging, even in other rivers. The fish do move but once you find them, it can be magical. I’ve been getting reports from my friend that has been consistently catching 30-40 from sunset to 1-2 AM every time he goes out. He is fishing conventional tackle. I live out of state now so I mainly fish the river in the spring and fall with conventional gear. This past spring was exceptional fishing for me from City Island up river.

 

[larkmark]

I will only talk about one section that I will call the lower river. I would say the area from Red Hill Dam to MD line pretty well sucks now. midgeman is correct about summer being the time to go. The islands around Bainbridge and Haldeman riffle were loaded with bass. Shorelines down by Accomac to Wrightsville fished well year round. Hundred fish days up at Falmouth (not for a long time). Wrightsville down to islands was a destination bass fishery. I once counted 50 guys fishing there on a summer evening. Now you will not see a one.Guys who knew where to find them caught numbers and big ones in winter and spring at Long Level. Area below Holtwood Dam was LOADED with bass and Rock Bass. Fishing at Safe Harbor Dam and in the Rocks is pretty much non existent now. It was once phenomenal.
If bass exist in numbers there then the question would be "what changed?". Are the bass moving seasonally elsewhere?
He is also correct about more fish up river.
As for tactics, Bass were never hard to catch. Twisters , tube jigs, Clousers and plain old wooly buggers were really all that was needed. Nothing special. So what changed? If these bass are there why can't we catch them?

 

[afishinado]

larkmark wrote:
I will only talk about one section that I will call the lower river. I would say the area from Red Hill Dam to MD line pretty well sucks now. midgeman is correct about summer being the time to go. The islands around Bainbridge and Haldeman riffle were loaded with bass. Shorelines down by Accomac to Wrightsville fished well year round. Hundred fish days up at Falmouth (not for a long time). Wrightsville down to islands was a destination bass fishery. I once counted 50 guys fishing there on a summer evening. Now you will not see a one.Guys who knew where to find them caught numbers and big ones in winter and spring at Long Level. Area below Holtwood Dam was LOADED with bass and Rock Bass. Fishing at Safe Harbor Dam and in the Rocks is pretty much non existent now. It was once phenomenal.
If bass exist in numbers there then the question would be "what changed?". Are the bass moving seasonally elsewhere?
He is also correct about more fish up river.
As for tactics, Bass were never hard to catch. Twisters , tube jigs, Clousers and plain old wooly buggers were really all that was needed. Nothing special. So what changed? If these bass are there why can't we catch them?

I suspect the smallmouth population is down in the lower Susky. The population crashed in 2005 and no cause was officially identified and therefore no action was taken to address the decline.

In the mid teens, ten years after the crash, the bass population seemed to rebound a bit. In 2017 the SMB fishing was really good for both size and numbers. Things were looking up and I became hopeful that great smallie fishing was coming back on the River.

In 2018, PA had record rainfall and the river flow remained very high for most of the entire year and in 2019 the smallie fishing was inconsistent for the most part.

I had hoped that was the year to tell the tale as to what direction things were going with smallies. So far, with few exceptions, the fishing reports have been pretty dismal. It's very discouraging to see this at this point in the season. Since nothing is really being done to identify the problems and improve the River, all we can do is keep fishing and hoping things improve on their own.

 

[wgmiller]

This isn't really a dedicated stream report, but it kinda is. I made it out to fish the Falmouth area yesterday from roughly 9-3. I parked at the Falmouth boat launch and rock hopped upstream to just below the south bridge at TMI (ended up in a groove, so I just kept going!).

As I was fishing just above the boat ramp, a gentleman in a kayak was watching me fish. We chatted at a distance for a little bit and I told him to paddle over. He asked if I was on "PA flyfish" and I said that I was. He introduced himself as none other than "KGStine". We chatted for a bit about the river, fly fishing, etc. It's always refreshing to meet new people from the board when out fishing. The reach of this board is extensive, as I've experienced this before as well.

At any rate, I worked a Clouser for a little bit, but ended up switching over to a white popper. The east side of the river was stained, which was likely from the previous night's storms. Flow was +/-8,000 CFS at Marietta, which was very manageable. I ended up landing a half dozen or so younger smallmouth on the white popper. The river temp was 84 on the edges and the fish seemed to be holding in the deeper runs. The river is really neat in this area when flows get so low. You can really explore its substrate and see some neat stuff (rock formations, aquatic life, etc.).

I'm thankful the rain is here as it will provide a much-needed shot of cooler water to the river. Let's hope the rest of the summer cools down and rain is a somewhat regular occurrence!

Chatting with "KGStine"

Popper smallie

Low flow finds

Wanna fight???

When it gets slow, you take pictures!

Someday, if you're lucky, you'll get big!

It was a great day to be out. I'm ready for fall though!

Found a friend on the way back to the car...

 

[Dave_W]

Love it!

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Nice report Geo! Thanks.

IMO the river is worse than i remember it in its "hay day".
I still love fishing it. And i still catch good fish out of it.