Skuke Smallies - Is the situation really as dismal as everyone says?

[TPrettyman]

Not looking to burn any spots or anything like that, but I recently grabbed an 8 wt to poke around the Skuke and the Perk.

Reading this forum you'd believe the fishing on most of the Skuke for smallies would be a lost cause. Is it truly that bad? I know many of the stretches I intend to fish (Phoenixville to Reading) are fairly flat and sedimentation is a major issue.

 

[Mike]

The consistently higher gradient starts at Gibralter heading upstream. Pottstown to Limerick is still somewhat ok. And congrats, you have hit the nail on the head…sedimentation is the problem.( not flathead catfish, which is what you will frequently hear from “arm chair biologists”).

The rebirth of the substantial sedimentation problem in the Schuylkill was first noted in formerly good shoreline rocky habitat in the Norristown pool in the cir 1984 period. In about one year the rocky habitat was nearly completely buried in sand. So much for reproduction, juvenile, and adult habitat. And so it went elsewhere in the lower river. Plus, look at the river channel in many areas…shallow, full of Corbicula shells, sand, gravel, a bit of aquatic plant growth, no rocks…yet the arm chair biologists think SMB should be there. The habitat is about as good for bass as a parking lot is for small game in the Monocacy area and from Limerick down. You’ll find some rock in W. Conshohocken and below Flat Rock Dam down to about Roxborough.

 

[TPrettyman]

The consistently higher gradient starts at Gibralter heading upstream. Pottstown to Limerick is still ok. And congrats, you have hit the nail on the head…sedimentation is the problem.( not flathead catfish, which is what you will frequently hear from “arm chair biologists”). The rebirth of the substantial sedimentation problem in the Schuylkill was first noted in formerly good shoreline rocky habitat in the Norristown pool in the cir 1984 period. In about one year the rocky habitat was nearly completely covered with sand. So much for reproduction, juvenile, and adult habitat.

Such a bummer. So much of the stretch between Reading and Norristown looks so fishy. I fished much of the stretch from Phoenixville to where Valley meets the Skuke and it wasn't even wade-able in most spots. You just sink.

I will have to poke around Limerick a bit.

 

[Mike]

From the first riffle above Gibralter, Berks Co upstream to Port Clinton, Schuylkill Co fishing can be pretty good. Likewise from Port Clinton upstream to to perhaps within a mile or so of Rt 895 (Auburn).

 

[afishinado]

As Mike wrote above, way upriver from you SMB fishing is fair on the Skuke, but rather than drive up all the way up there to fish, I would rather take a drive and fish the Delaware or Susky rivers for smallies. Good luck.

 

[Peyton]

I've been fishing it for the past couple of weeks in a deep hole for catfish. All nasty mud on the side I fish and I rarely see a bass, and if I do it's a largemouth. However, in the riffles and rock pools I see hundreds of smallmouth, all still under 5 inches long so easy prey. I watched a musky I was throwing flies at eat a baby smallie and the smallie just let it sneak up on it. All the catfish I've hooked or landed at that spot all ate bluegill over 5 inches long and even a foot-long chub. Makes me wonder how they can even grow big enough that the channels won't eat them, and then big enough that the flatheads won't eat them.

 

[bigjohn358]

I fish the Selinsgrove/Sunbury area some...lately I've been making it a once a year trip the last 2 or 3 years. I used to go down a dozen times a year or so. Its just not worth it. I'm on the West Branch so I just fish around here now. Its not great but like I said its not worth my drive anymore to go down to Selinsgrove. Days of catching 50+ smallies in a few hours with the vast majority 16"+ up to 22" are long over. You just have to work way too hard for the few fish you get anymore on the main branch.

 

[mszoke1802]

I recently just floated down the skuke from pottstown to royersford. I caught 2 really nice small mouth, missed a few others, handful of carp and catfish in there tho. There is a lot of flat dead water in this stretch I kayaked and its very shallow. I personally wouldn't float it again from what I saw. I'd go up the river past Reading for better luck

 

[pcray1231]

I might get out this weekend, anyone wanna join?

My most common float is Auburn to Port Clinton and the smallmouth fishing is solid in that stretch. Not huge fish but plenty of them. I've done well closer to Reading, as well, just wading around. You need to find current and rocks and mainly focus on better runs in the faster water, not the big long slow pools.

 

[Mike]

I might get out this weekend, anyone wanna join?

My most common float is Auburn to Port Clinton and the smallmouth fishing is solid in that stretch. Not huge fish but plenty of them. I've done well closer to Reading, as well, just wading around. You need to find current and rocks and mainly focus on better runs in the faster water, not the big long slow pools.

There are also at least three wild ST tribs in that stretch with populations downstream to the tribs’ mouths.

 

[Fredrick]

I find it odd that the smallmouth declined started the same time as the flathead boom and well before multiple dams were removed that created a sediment problem . Also don't smallmouth live in lakes that have bottoms that are all sediment very few rocks . Is the flathead population higher or lower in the upper Skuke ?

 

[pcray1231]

Did very well on smallies Saturday on the Skuke. Floated Auburn to Port Clinton. Caught 20-30 apiece, but that was using big plastics and hooks (Ned Rigs, yes, on spinning gear) to avoid hooking the 6-8 inchers. On those, you had multiple hits every cast and coulda caught 200 if you wanted. They were kinda annoying, they'd grab it and hold on till they got close to the boat. If you wanted to rack up real numbers, you could have.

Biggest one was mid-teens, and most of what we actually landed was 10-12". Also caught some nice fallfish and a couple of redbreasts. I had a large pike/muskie cut me off just below the chutes. Big, mid 20's something long and skinny like that, got it up to the surface, and snap, clean cut.

 

[melvinthefisherman]

Just my personal observation. I fish the lower river, primarily in Philadelphia and slightly upstream. Most of my Schuylkill fishing is for flatheads. Seeing any good smallmouth population in this section was rare. Then 2 summers ago a massive population of dinks seemed to show up out of no where. Then last summer there seemed to be two large year classes, one of dinks and one of fish to 10-12 inches. Now there are at least 3 well established year classes. The smallmouth fishing is decent, not to compare with the Susky or Juniata and possibly less than the nontidal Delaware, but it is the best I have seen it in years. Hope it continues and these fish grow!