Conestoga River, Lancaster Co., 6/27/12

[dc410]

After 30+ years of flyfishing I finally spent my first evening fishing for SMB on the local river. I fished from about 6:30 to 8:30 and the water temperature was at 72 degrees. I spent the last few months researching, reading and tying flies for smallmouth bass. I caught 5 smallies, 2 rock bass and 2 redbreast sunnies. I had a blast! I was catching them on Clouser Deep Minnows and a brand new popper that I just completed. There wasn't a lot of surface activity, but occasionally one would hit the top. So I switched from my Clouser to the popper. I actually caught the 12" smallie (the biggest one of the evening) on the first cast with my brand new popper! I was standing there knee deep in the Conestoga River thinking "how could it have possibly taken me 30 years to figure this out!" To sum up the whole evening, "This warmwater fishin' is going to be a whole lot of fun." Here are a few pictures.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

thinking "how could it have possibly taken me 30 years to figure this out!" To sum up the whole evening, "This warmwater fishin' is going to be a whole lot of fun."

Your not the only one bud!

 

[Swattie87]

Very nice!

 

[afishinado]

Yup, I look forward to the WW stuff every season.

 

[beeber2]

Nice catch on the popper, I love topwater smallies.

 

[Fishidiot]

Yep - too much fun! 🙂

Welcome John...... to the growing team of Paff Warm Water Insurgents.

That Redbreast is a real beauty - gives the colors on wild trout a run for their money. 🙂

 

[McSneek]

This WWI fished a stretch of the Conestoga yesterday from about 10:00am to almost 2:00pm. Hot and not a cloud in the sky. Not exactly ideal conditions. Caught a bunch of smallies the size of the ones in dc410's pictures with a few rock bass mixed in. White popper tight to the banks in shady areas was the key. Still searching for some decent sized bass in the Conestoga. I did see a lot of small bass in the shallows which I took to be a positive sign.

 

[The_Sasquatch]

I still haven't fished the Stoga this year. Maybe this weekend.

 

[McSneek]

It's low and clear. My next excursion during this sunny, hot weather may be an evening trip. There were sporadic cahills coming off and I'm thinking that hatch may pick up in the evening and bring some bigger fish out. Only had a couple kayakers come by yesterday but that's another thing you have to contend with at this time of year. They were all courteous and went behind me. Unfortunately none were wearing bikinis.

 

[The_Sasquatch]

I saw a few cahills coming off on the lower Hammer on Friday night when I was out for smallies (terrible experience, by the way. The stream is just trashed now that the lake isn't there). I'm definitely doing evening trips at this point.

 

[wgmiller]

Fished it yesterday with Sal and it is low and clear. The stream gage was showing 80 cfs at Lancaster. We landed a few SMB's and a bunch of rock bass. "Bluebird skies" and the lack of flow equaled some tough fishing, but the wading was easy. It was a nice day to be out, but I did miss wading in a nice, cold trout stream!

I'd have to say the river probably fishes better around 100 cfs or so. The lower flow is nice to learn the stream bottom though.

 

[McSneek]

wgmiller wrote:
The lower flow is nice to learn the stream bottom though.

Yeah, I was impressed with the structure where I was fishing. Lots more rock than in other places along with a few ledges that smallies typically like to hang around. Not getting any in faster water though. It wasa good scouting trip if nothing else.

 

[dc410]

I fished it again last evening with my 16 year old son. Yesterday afternoon I taught him how to tie Clouser Minnows. He tied 2 of them and caught his first SMB on a fly on one of the Clousers he tied just hours earlier (that was pretty cool). The water is warming up very quickly - 80 degrees last evening. There was a lot of activity on the river (tubers, swimmers and dogs) that had it fairly well churned up. I'm not complaining - I chose to go fishing on a National Holiday and was not surprised with the activity due to the heat. We caught a few SMB (nothing of any size) and we also caught assorted other species (green sunfish, redbreast sunfish, rock bass and I even caught a Crappie). I really am enjoying this WW fishing because you have a good chance to catch so many species. It was definitely a slow evening with virtually no topwater action, but it made it all worthwhile watching my son catch his first Smallmouth on a flyrod on a fly that he tied himself. Tight lines!

 

[wgmiller]

We fished the County Park area and saw tons of activity through that stretch. Lots of people swimming, tubing, kayaking, etc. I've always had good luck with a plain old chartreuse/white Clouser in that river. From rock bass to smallies, it seems to get a lot of strikes. The lower flow also shows how many crayfish and baitfish are in the river. No shortage of fish forage!

I was surprised at the river bottom as well. As mentioned, lots of rock with some structure. Also lots of tires, debris, etc.

We also messed around at the Water Works area for a bit, but didn't do well. The amount of bait containers/trash along the banks in that area is just amazing!

 

[dc410]

Most of the smallies we caught were on chartreuse/white Clousers as well. I did catch a few on gray/white. The section we fished was much further upstream from the city. Lots of flooding debris along the river from earlier in the year. I have been seeing a fair amount of fingerling size SMB in the shallow areas, that looks like a good sign. Are the trash can lid sized mounds of hollowed out gravel spawning beds? If they are I have been seeing a good number them as well.

 

[Fishidiot]

Yes, they're spawning beds. The size you describe suggests bass beds but, unless you see the male on the nest, it's hard to say. SMB spawning should be over by now. Sunfish, however, are still on their nests (I saw a bunch of redbreast sunnies on redds yesterday) and their nests can be pretty large too - typically in the 1-2 foot diameter.
The big, underwater piles of golfball sized rocks are the spawning beds of fallfish.

 

[Swattie87]

Fishidiot wrote:
The big, underwater piles of golfball sized rocks are the spawning beds of fallfish.

^They're easy to trip over in the Summer. Since Fallfish spawn in Spring many of the beds are completely exposed in lower Summer flows now.

 

[dc410]

Thanks for the info. Dave. I don't think these were redbreast redds, I'm familiar with them. However, I'm not sure whether they were Smallmouth or fallfish spawning beds after your description. But, I'm leaning toward bass because I haven't caught a fallfish yet in that section of the river. I'm thinking if there were fallfish around they would be crushing those Clouser minnows.

 

[Swattie87]

dc - It should be fairly easy to tell Bass and Fallfish beds apart. A Bass bed will essentially look the same as the Redbreast bed, just bigger...a circular area of clean, clear stream bottom free of any silt or sediment that may be slightly depressed (concave). A Fallfish bed will be the opposite (convex)...it will literally be a round (or oval in more swiftly flowing water) pile of rocks/stones. They’re often a foot or more high over the surrounding stream bed and can get pretty big (4+ feet across) depending on the size of the fish.

And I agree with you…Fallfish will crush just about anything, repeatedly until they get it in their mouth.

 

[dc410]

Thanks Swattie, great info. The more prominent ones I was seeing were definitely mounds of gravel so according to your description they were fallfish beds. I also saw some very large fallfish beds on the Shermans Creek the other day. Makes sense, I did catch a decent amount of fallfish that afternoon, including one that was in the 16" range. Man, are they a lot of fun on a flyrod! I heard you refer to them in some of your previous posts, but that was the biggest one I ever landed on a flyrod. Thanks again for the info.