Conestoga River, Hinkletown Lancaster Co. 08/08/2016

[The_Sasquatch]

Hit the 'Stoga for a bit this afternoon. Water was up and cooler by feel (though I didn't take a temp) than 2 weeks ago when I hit the same stretch. Last time I rocked this stretch, I caught 11 smallies in about 2 hours, with many more sighted. Nothing of great size, but a solid population of younglings, which is always an encouragement!

Today the smallies were a little more sparse. I still caught a lot of fish, but it was more of a mixture of species. A few red breast sunnies, a rockbass, a couple of smaller smallies, and a brace of largemouth, which was most unexpected. I usually think of bucketmouths as being pond/lake dwellers. But the 2 largest fish I caught today were the largemouth, and both on top.

I fished upstream several hundred yards using a popper/dropper. Black bugger dropped off the back of a yellow or orange or pink earplug popper. Most fish were on the black bugger except for the bucketmouths. Coming back downstream, I used a chartreuse bugger and a black bugger in tandem, and the fish seemed to him them 50/50. The smallies would chase the chartreuse bugger for a bit, back off, then clobber the black bugger. Exciting to watch!

I didn't see any carp in this stretch of the river, and thinking about my experience on the Conestoga upstream of where the Cocalico dumps in, I haven't seen many carp at all. Actually, none, over the last 2 years. And I floated the entire stretch one day upstream of Brownstown the whole way down below the mouth of the Cocalico w/ no carp in sight. Wonder what's up w/ that. When I was a kid, the carp were everywhere in there. Oh well. I'll take a strong smallmouth population over carp any day.

 

[Mike]

You'll find largemouths, sometimes in high numbers, within, at the upstream ends of, and short distances downstream from the dams on the Conestoga, Mill Ck, and most likely, the Pequea. There was a dam at Hinkletown, which was removed some yrs ago. There is still one at Martindale, so multiple sources are possible in that area.

 

[The_Sasquatch]

I remember that dam, as well as the one upstream of Brownstown-which I fished A LOT as a kid-but don't remember catching largemouth out of the B-Town dam. I should go back there and see what I can drum up. I'd like to get up to the Martindale area again. I haven't fished that since I was 15, I think. The paving company my dad worked for owned land up there and used it for duck hunting. He used to take us fishing there. I caught my first "sizeable" bass up there.