Conestoga River Lancaster County 4/4/11

[salvelinusfontinalis]

This is the imagery that I will have to get a accustomed to seeing. I don't believe it will be that hard considering that Ive lived in this county all of my life. There is something to be said for the homely feel of my place in Lancaster County. It is a lot more beautiful than many people realize. The farmland is picturesque to say the least. I can't wait to take my daughter bass fishing at the local ponds. I'm preparing myself now in learning all these wonders. Lancaster County bass fishing is top rate in my experiences, if you know where to go.

The Conestoga River drains most of Lancaster County and this makes it highly impaired. It used to be a rocky bottom river that is now suffering from silt and nitrate loading.

Reading about this river has been very educational and it seems its a pretty good smallie river. I know that its tribs hold some nice smallies, time to fish the big boy. I decided to hit where 322 crosses the river since its only 2 minutes from my house.

This was my first time on the river and even though we are only 2 days into "trout season", something about this felt so right. I found this river to be rather beautiful in its own right. I did notice that just about every farm had a boat tied to a tree far up the river banks.

I used to find bigger water to be rather intimidating but with my experiences fishing the Lackawanna River, Im finding them to be very enjoyable.

As this river meanders through the farm land, I found it to be rather deep during this spring's flows. I was also finding it difficult to get a take on my smalliekiller fly. As I already know, finding bass and conditions for bass are the most difficult thing in the early season. So, Im really not all that discouraged. I took a water temp and it read 48 degrees. The article I read went against everything I know as a trout fisherman. It talked about how the upper Conestoga River warms earlier than the lower because it is shallower. My understanding of river systems tells me it warms along its travels. I would be willing to bet that down in Lancaster City it might have been a bit warmer. I was hoping but I know its early. Either way, It was an awesome day to go toss around some big streamers in a big river with the 5wt. I'm really loving the 9 footer. I was able to cast across the monster with a fair amount of ease. Keep in mid the water was at a good level and I'm sure it gets lower in summer time flows. Either way, it is a bear to wade even now, during high water I would be extremely careful at attempting to wade. In fact, I probably wouldn't at all.

I got a bit nervous when I found these. It was a herd of sheep with a ram. With my experiences (and NoMoreCornChuckin's) with rams I was really nervous. He decided to let me go as I got in the water. The Killer Sheep on Lititz do the same. Doesn't wool shrink in water? 🙂

I didn't catch anything but I'm in good spirits about this river. I have a feeling the 60 degree temps later this week will spark some good bass activity, at least for the early season. As the later evening approached, the sun peeked just through the clouds. It made the river come alive with beauty even in its deteriorated state.

It made me think, look at what I've been missing all this time right here in my own backyard. 🙂

 

[sholgate]

As usual, beautiful pictures and interesting read. I want to check the stream out in June for small mouth too.

 

[Maurice]

Blah, blah, blah....I got skunked. :-D

Shoulda went trout fish'n

 

[Fishidiot]

Maurice wrote:
Blah, blah, blah....I got skunked. :-D

Shoulda went trout fish'n

Blah, blah....trout are for suckers. :-D

Good report Sal. Glad to see some warm water reports. As I've pointed out before, in my experience river bass fishing is different from trout in that, unlike trout which can almost always be found in predictable spots where habitat is good....river smallies are often not well dispersed. This is particularly true in smaller waterways. Some pools have fish and other good looking spots (for some unknown reason) don't have 'em. However, the spots that hold bass in a particular river will usually hold 'em every year. You just have to familiarize yourself with these spots. This time of year is often the best time to catch trophy smallies but it's a tough time of year to scout out new bass water.

 

[Fredrick]

Nice Sal thxs for the pics and the story I'm looking forward to your next one hopefully it will have a happy ending LOL. I wouldn't doubt that the smallies probably migrate to the susky in the winter to hold over . Once the stream gets 50 i'm sure you will see some movment with the bass .

 

[wgmiller]

Sal took a skunking.... Wow, don't hear those words too often! :-D

As we talked about bro, we've gotta float the river. I keep looking up at my 'yak knowing what fun it would be! With the amount of silt that river handles, I can't imagine trying to wade it in most areas. Come summer when the level drops significantly, it should be a great fish!