Susquehanna 10/4

[Woolybugger]

15 Fallfish, 2 Smallmouth, 1 Walleye. The bass hit a white pencil popper, all the rest hit woolybuggers.
Fallfish are quickly becoming my favorite fish to catch! They populate the Susquehanna more than any other fish. They fight better than a bass or a trout. They love to hit streamers. I release all the fish anyway, so the most action and flyrod fun would have to be fallfish.

PS - thanks ginkyhackle for the neat site and info on fallfish.
Scuze me while I tie a fly

​

 

[Panchon74]

ok what is a Fallfish?

 

[Panchon74]

never mind. I went to the site too to check it out.

 

[tomgamber]

Opening day on Kettle Creek...just below the Bush outflow..they were catching them in the 18 to 24 inch range. I never knew they got that big. We used to catch them, when I was a kid, in Willow Creek, Berks county at about 6 to 8 inches.

 

[Fredrick]

I envy you !!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[TimB]

Wooleybugger,

glad to hear you're having some success on the Susky. If you don't mind, I'd like to ask where you were hitting the fallfish. You don't need to give up a specific location, I just wondered if you are fishing above or below Harrisburg.

I know some sections that have held good numbers of fallfish in the past, but I haven't tried them recently. The areas I've fished most recently were full of catfish and very few bass. There's always been good numbers of catties, just not like are in there now that the smallie numbers have gone south. I prefer the fallfish - hell lets stop glamourizing them by calling them "fallfish", they're just big chubs :-D - to the catfish. They put a bend in the rod, but don't fight anything like a smallie.

I hammerd the chubs in some of the Susky tribs this summer in spots that usually held good smallie numbers. The chubs hit Wooleybuggers the second they hit the water. Its comical. With the smallie population being down the chubs seem more aggressive this year. Color and patter don't matter, neither does presentation. Just drop the streamer in the water and BAM!

Glad to hear you're doing well, but many areas of the SUsky are almost devoid of smallmouth and I don't see that changing for several years.

Tim B

 

[Woolybugger]

Tim,
The Susquehanna has been hit with something! When I go downstream of Harrisburg, I come back sick to my stomach and sometimes I start to cry.......... like the dumb crying Indian so many years ago! in a water pollution commercial.
I have only caught fish way upstream of Harrisburg!! The further upstream the better! Northbranch, maybe Erie "go north young man"
Chubs are something to catch. When I go fishing, I like to catch something. If chubs are there, and will hit a fly, that's what I go after.
Smallmouth are nice, but if pollution has killed them, then anything that can survive the polluted water is what I fish for.
Panfish, sunfish, were in abundance in the river years ago. Now almost gone........ if they were there, I'd flyfish for sunfish. Size 12 dries with a 3wt, now that would be Heaven! but you have to take what is available........... chubs will soon be called "warmwater grayling" and carp "warmwater bonefish"

scuze me while I tie a fly

 

[sandfly]

like the dumb crying Indian so many years ago! in a water pollution commercial.

if we are so dumb, how come we had plenty....until the white eyes came...

 

[TimB]

Wooleybugger,

Thanks, I assumed you were upriver based on the numbers of fallf... er, I mean chubs you mentioned ;-)

I like catching them too, I just embrace the idea that they are "rough fish" and prefer to call them chubs.

What a shame about the lower Susky. Best fishery in PA is gone in the course of just a few years....

Tim

ps. See my photo of a Penns Creek Chub from the '01 Jamboree in the gallery. It took a brown WB:
http://www.paflyfish.com/modules/myalbum/photo.php?lid=80

 

[ginkyhackle]

Guys:

I'm a first generation Irish-American and have family I visit across the pond. They take fishing for large members of the minnow family very, very seriously. As a matter of fact, when you're over there you'll find anglers specifically targeting chubs! The European chub could be seen as roughly equivalent to our fallfish. Interestingly enough, people out western US have been admitting to targeting whitefish more frequently, which is an excellent, substantial gamefish which has been ignored by our more snobby brethren. I think this trend or revaluing our native gamefish is a very positive thing.

Just to get a sense of what I'm talking check out the link below:

Chubby Fishing

chub