It's that time of year-Susquehanna

[barrybarry]

Last night and tonight the mayflies have been hatching. The bridge was covered with them this morning. Here are a few pictures from tonight. No fish rising as usual. Fished a dry (Clouser Drake) for half an hour without a nudge. There were plenty of bugs on the water.
Switched to a nymph and caught a lot of small ones. 6 to 8-inch Smallies and some decent rock bass.

 

[Susquehanna]

My fav hatch by far

 

[barrybarry]

Something else has been really obvious this year. There is an awful lot of dead and dying catfish. Been seeing this on other Susquehanna river websites, so it's not a local problem. People say the reason is that they're spawning. I'm not so sure about that. This morning there was a small 8-inch channel cat hanging out beside me. Much too small I would guess to be spawning. Half of his head was white and he didn't seem to able to swim very well. Definitely on his way out.

 

[larkmark]

Yeah. i saw numbers of dead catfish in river also. All were Channels from what I saw.

 

[Susquehanna]

Growth rate assessments usually rely on what biologists call length-at-age data. For example, a growth assessment of channel catfish in Lake A reveals fish are 6 inches at the end of their first year of growth (age-1), 8.5 inches after their second year of growth (age-2), and 11 inches after their third year of growth (age-3). In Lake B, channel cats are 6 inches at age-1, 9 inches at age-2, and 12.5 inches at age-3. Length-at-age data show the fish in Lake B are growing faster than in Lake A during their second and third years.

Channel catfish usually become sexually mature at 3 years of age, although some may spawn when 2 years old. In wild populations they may not spawn until after the age of 5 years.

Doubtful but also possible.
I see this every year though. I am not surprised. I believe it is mostly spawn related.