Susquehanna, Harrisburg, 3/16 - 3/18

[Woolybugger]

The river was over 8' this past weekend and down to 5.5' now.
The high stained water pushes the bass to the shoreline. The water temps are still in the mid 40's, but this is when a big olive woolybugger or a rabbit fur leech will outperform a spin rod with live bait.
I managed about a dozen each day only wading (in the freezing water) with the biggest being around 18"
I used a 8wt with floating line and heavy weighted buggers.
What a hoot! I'm spent!
A couple smallmouth grabbed my fly and pulled drag to the backing!
I mentioned before about the too shallow trout streams..... well the Susquehanna is also dropping fast. This year is already 5" under for rain totals.
From York to Harrisburg and upstream, I didn't see one fly fisherman all week. A couple live bait guys that didn't catch anything and a guy tossing huge tubes with heavy tackle!! LOL I think he was using 30lb Power Pro with a gigantic SS saltwater hook and a 3/8oz rattle stuffed inside a gigantic green tube!! LMAO!
Every night I have been perfecting my buggers with different amounts of marabou and different types of hackle with different weights...... I'm trying for perfection.

Longrods rule!

​

 

[govtmule]

awesome fish there bugger....

 

[troutbert]

That sounds like some great fishing.

How do you heavily weight your streamers? Do use weighted eyes? Or wrap the hook shank with wire? Or?

Most people say the Susque smallmouth fishery around Harrisburg is in the toilet. But, you've done very well. What do you think of the overall smallmouth population in that part of the river?

 

[wgmiller]

Good report and a nice break from trout stream reports. Where exactly were you fishing? Do you know of any decent wade spots around Marietta/Columbia?

 

[afishinado]

Nice fish wooly!

Reports likes WBs makes me hopeful that the fishing will return to what it once was, but still the SM fishing in the Susky from just above Harrisburg and downstream is poor. Every year, even during the past few bad seasons, anglers seem make good catches of adult fish in in certain sections of the River during the pre-spawn / spawning period. All these bigger fish seem to stack up, but after spawning they disperse and become few and far between.

With a few more good years of successful spawning and favorable conditons on the River, the great SM fishing may return. Every indication is that SM fishing may elevate from the status of poor to fair this season. The black cloud is that what's broke aint fixed, and it may be just as likely that fishing will remain "in the toilet." That's the poop on the Susky as I see it.

 

[Maurice]

Awesome smallies WB. Did you catch any small ones?

What were the size distributions.

Not to deminish the accomplishment but regarding the comment by TB about the Susky being in the toilet near Harrisburg. Everyone knows that there are "some" fish but the competiton with natural forage leaves them fat and happy and the angler plays second fiddle.

Large bass feed only every few days and when they do they gorge themselves and go off the bite for a few days. (According to Bob Clouser) Thats the toilet to which you prefer. It just adds another difficulty in catching them. Not only do you have to find the correct feeding pattern but you have to also pick the correct day in which they are feeding. Its a large river. I liked it when it was polluted with smallies and rock bass but apparently that was the wrong kind of pollution for the Commonwealth to permit. (pun intended)

Anyway, again, nice fish Wooly! I bow to your prowess.

 

[Woolybugger]

[color=000099]How do you heavily weight your streamers? Do use weighted eyes? Or wrap the hook shank with wire? Or?[/color]

I tried every weight possible. I use a 8wt floating line with a Bass Taper leader, 12lb end with loop to loop and 16" of 10lb flourocarbon tippet. Even a roll cast is good with a thick leader. My flies were a 6 or 4 in a 3X streamer hook.
I've found that even with a no-slip mono loop to attach the fly, only lead wrap will make the fly drop in a horizontal way with no action at all. I've used big lead eyes, but they stick out too much. The best so far is a tungsten cone with a little lead wrap in front. This makes the fly look just like a small softshell crayfish and hops on the bottom with the marabou pulsating. But I change all the time. Now that the water is shallow again, prob a small cone head on a 6 with lots of marabou.

[color=000099]Awesome smallies WB. Did you catch any small ones?

What were the size distributions.[/color]

I only caught two small males, around 10" all the rest were big females over 15". No fungus or funny white spots on any fish this year!! Thank God!
Remember we had a huge rise in the river just when the bass were coming out of the wintering holes. This pushed all the fish away from the current and only 5' from the shorline.
Monday the water was full to the banks and slowly dropping. I started wading at Wrightsville and bouncing my flies only 5' from shore in about 4' of water. This was my best day. Every day the water went down a foot.
I also fished Perdix, Marysville, and Rockville above Harrisburg.
Thursday at Wrightsville, the water dropped to shallow again and the bass moved into the river. Not a stinkin' hit in the same water I caught lots!
I hope the Susquehanna will come back this year, but we'll see.
Also I've noticed a lot of Hickory Shad around Wrightsville. I snagged one in the tail with a bugger! They splash the bugs on top, but they don't want a dry. I hope the shad won't take over for the smallmouth....... if they would smack a dart, well that would be OK, any fish is good on a flyrod.
After saying all that, I did have a great three days. But now the water is clear and shallow and the bass have a mile wide river to hide in. The last several years were horrible fishing. I've been targeting small channel cats around Wrightsville and chubs around Perdix. I still like to catch something.
I'm a optimist! I'll keep my fingers crossed.

 

[fritz]

Nice fish!

The bass might follow the food into shore during high water. I've seen tons of shiners along the banks/in the brush when the river is high.

 

[Fishidiot]

Nice fish. It's reassuring to see that there are still some big spawners in the lower Susky (even though this is common knowledge). Maybe I should do more big river bass fishing during the early spring when finding bass is easier. By summer it's as if these fish completely disappear.