Susquehanna River, Perry Co., 08/13/26

Dave_W

Dave_W

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WEATHER: Partly cloudy, very nice, slight breeze from the north, temp in the mid-80s.
WATER: 3.9' at Harrisburg, slight stain, 82 degrees F according to my thermometer. Light angling pressure.
INSECTS/FORAGE: Some damsel flies.

Floated the west side with Maurice and Afishinado. I'm usually confident under these conditions - had a great time but fishing was poor. We put a couple fish in the boat but the river was really off for us. The only pattern we could discern was a few bass jumping at damsels in fast water. We hit ledge rock, willow grass islands, shade under the shoreline trees. . . all the usual tactics and hotspots and just couldn't get dialed in. Not a single hit on a popper.
 

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Dear Dave,

I'm glad you got out with some people, but I can't click "like" on a report of poor fishing. I'm sure that is no fault of you or your passengers, but it sucks to hear reports of poor fishing during what should be prime time.

Here's hoping things get better this coming weekend!

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂
 
Most disheartening - I haven’t seen any of the old hatches as in years past - Potomanthus, Hexes, Cahills, White Flies - I used to be able to identify at least a half dozen or so species under the lights at a Senators game on the island - now there’s very few under the lights - and while big bass don’t eat many flies/nymphs, the food chain depends on them - the whole stretch from Marysville to Middletown was “my” water for many years - now it’s all but lifeless when you see no Egrets or Njght Herons, that’s a big clue - I’ve given up hope that we’ll see a return to the “old” days of the late ‘80’s
 
wildtrout2 said:
Back when I was fishing the Susky regularly in the early 2000's, it was lights out fishing for both numbers and big bass. Stonecats and or hellgrammites were my baits of choice at the time, smallies could NOT resist them.
Click to expand...
I wonder if there’s any stone cats or hell bugs IN the river anymore - same for crayfish, rock bass, redbreast sunfish, fallfish, and walleye
 
wildtrout2 said:
Back when I was fishing the Susky regularly in the early 2000's, it was lights out fishing for both numbers and big bass. Stonecats and or hellgrammites were my baits of choice at the time, smallies could NOT resist them.
Click to expand...

When the Susquehanna bug bit me in the same era, I was driving a couple days a week 90+ miles each way to go fishing, sometimes for just a couple of hours...

Catching 30+ bass on nightcrawlers, soft plastics or hard surface baits on those short trips made the drive worth the trouble...
 
The fishing was so good back then, I'd drive the two plus hours to Duncannon, and stay for three or four days at Riverfront Campground. I'd fish both the Susky and the Juniata, since the confluence was right there. Good times!
 
wildtrout2 said:
The fishing was so good back then, I'd drive the two plus hours to Duncannon, and stay for three or four days at Riverfront Campground. I'd fish both the Susky and the Juniata, since the confluence was right there. Good times!
Click to expand...

I stayed at that campground a few times and fished the same spots. The "showers" & bathroom there were interesting to say the least...

I ate at the All American truck stop exactly once and learned my lesson. For a fast breakfast, we used to hit an Exxon (now a Sunoco) convenience store on Main Street that sold "Tom's" ready made sandwiches that sat under a heat lamp for DAYS...

Absolutely NASTY, but better than breakfast at the All American...

Because of when we'd get off the river (sometimes after midnight), the only dinner option was MTO's from the Sheetz down Route 15 in Cove, PA...

So obviously these trips were ONLY about the fishing!! 😉
 
JG63 said:
I wonder if there’s any stone cats or hell bugs IN the river anymore - same for crayfish, rock bass, redbreast sunfish, fallfish, and walleye
Click to expand...
Dear JG63,

I moved to the Harrisburg PA area in 2001, just before the river began its decade long period of failed yearly smallmouth spawning classes. I can tell you that I fished the area before I moved here. It was good but it was even better farther upstream. From Sunbury to Williamsport it was good fishing in the late 1980's and up till about 2004.

As a kid I had family in Sunbury and in the mid-1970's we fished at the Flubber Dam a lot because it was a bike ride away from their house. Back then you literally couldn't get a live minnow in the river past the rock bass to save your life. the nice thing was if you had a piece of two of shredded minnow and put them on a hook a rock bass would hit it as soon as it hit the water. I haven't seen a rock bass in the river in over 20 years. I'm sure there are a few in there somewhere, but I can't find them. I have caught them in Shermans Creek and the Swattie though. I've seen redbreasts in the Juniata recently, but not in the big river.

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂
 
Bamboozle said:
I stayed at that campground a few times and fished the same spots. The "showers" & bathroom there were interesting to say the least...

I ate at the All American truck stop exactly once and learned my lesson. For a fast breakfast, we used to hit an Exxon (now a Sunoco) convenience store on Main Street that sold "Tom's" ready made sandwiches that sat under a heat lamp for DAYS...

Absolutely NASTY, but better than breakfast at the All American...

Because of when we'd get off the river (sometimes after midnight), the only dinner option was MTO's from the Sheetz down Route 15 in Cove, PA...

So obviously these trips were ONLY about the fishing!! 😉
Click to expand...
Yeah, those bathrooms were something else!!! lol Just the stink alone was tough to get past, but it was better than no shower at all. John Cunningham passed away this past March, his dad ran/owned the place previously. John was a good dude. I actually did some tree work for him at Riverfront years ago.

I've heard the new owners aren't maintaining the place very well, and my buddy who's spent entire summers there for 20 years, said this summer will be his last.
 
wildtrout2 said:
Yeah, those bathrooms were something else!!! lol Just the stink alone was tough to get past, but it was better than no shower at all. John Cunningham passed away this past March, his dad ran/owned the place previously. John was a good dude. I actually did some tree work for him at Riverfront years ago.

I've heard the new owners aren't maintaining the place very well, and my buddy who's spent entire summers there for 20 years, said this summer will be his last.
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Dear wildtrout2,

I remember going there to buy a bucket of fathead minnows to take crappie fishing at Little Buffalo State Park. I had been in some pretty scuzzy fish camps in the Panhandle of Florida but Riverfront made them look like a Michelin 5 Star resort.

The minnows actually thanked me for getting them out of there! 😉

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂
 
JG63 said:
I wonder if there’s any stone cats or hell bugs IN the river anymore - same for crayfish, rock bass, redbreast sunfish, fallfish, and walleye
Click to expand...
I caught a redbreast sunfish at Marysville a couple nights ago.

Not sure about native crayfish, but the river is stupid full of rusty crayfish these days. Just walk along the shoreline in the evening, there are small ones at the waterline, sometimes dozens of them per square foot, it's really eye opening. I still get a lot of hellgrammites in the fast water.

After a hiatus of a few years, the PFBC has returned to stocking walleyes in this section of the river.
 
Dave_W said:
I caught a redbreast sunfish at Marysville a couple nights ago.

Not sure about native crayfish, but the river is stupid full of rusty crayfish these days. Just walk along the shoreline in the evening, there are small ones at the waterline, sometimes dozens of them per square foot, it's really eye opening. I still get a lot of hellgrammites in the fast water.

After a hiatus of a few years, the PFBC has returned to stocking walleyes in this section of the river.
Click to expand...
Nothing eats the Rusty crayfish - at least that’s the evidence on the Conodoguinet these last 30 years - it seems the RC eat more than their fair share of insect larva as seen here:

https://www.springcreekwatershedatlas.org/post/2018/06/24/crayfish-in-spring-creek

- happy you found a Redbreast
 
wildtrout2 said:
From what I've read, smallies eat Rusty Crayfish regularly.
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Every freshly eaten crayfish I’ve seen barfed up by a freshly caught Smallmouth has been the Appalachian Brook species (no red spot on the side and smaller chelipeds) - maybe it’s me being shortsighted but when the rusty took over the Conodoguinet over the last 3 decades or so, the fishing for all the common species has declined drastically - I know it’s a big combination of other influences but I don’t see smallmouth or carp rooting for crayfish as frequently as when the AB crayfish was the dominant species
 
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