Susquehanna, Lancaster County 7/31

[JeffP]

I fished the Susky today with a friend from about 7-11. The water had a bit of color but was on the drop. I haven't fished in a while. We parked at Koser Park and started around the confluence of the Conoy. The Conoy felt surprisingly cold. We both caught about 15 fish including 2 catfish. While most were around 8-10 we both caught a couple around 12. Both catfish were around 16. It was a beautiful morning to be out and get some use out of my 7 weight which has been gathering dust. 2 eagles greeted us on our entrance to the stream. I caught about half on a black bugger and the other half on a white popper. He caught his on a variety of lures. I saw some bait fish being chased early on with one nice smallie exploding out of the water. Most fish were caught in the faster, deeper water. They seemed to want the bugger dead drifting.

 

[Fish Sticks]

Yet to hit my first catfish on fly

 

[Jemoca75!]

My cousin owns the property where conoy dumps in, I started there today and took my kayak for a walk a good ways upriver and then just floated back, caught 12, biggest was about 14 and another that was similar in size. The 8-10 inchers were all very healthy looking fish and fat

 

[McSneek]

How is the wading in that stretch? As death defying as it is everywhere else on the lower Susquehanna? I have never fished there - just walked the trail in that stretch in winter.

 

[Mike]

I fished the Susky today with a friend from about 7-11. The water had a bit of color but was on the drop. I haven't fished in a while. We parked at Koser Park and started around the confluence of the Conoy. The Conoy felt surprisingly cold. We both caught about 15 fish including 2 catfish. While most were around 8-10 we both caught a couple around 12. Both catfish were around 16. It was a beautiful morning to be out and get some use out of my 7 weight which has been gathering dust. 2 eagles greeted us on our entrance to the stream. I caught about half on a black bugger and the other half on a white popper. He caught his on a variety of lures. I saw some bait fish being chased early on with one nice smallie exploding out of the water. Most fish were caught in the faster, deeper water. They seemed to want the bugger dead drifting.

Roughly half-way from E-town to the river Conoy picks up a cold, limestone trib. About 15 yrs ago Conoy was already holding stocked trout well into the summer near its upper stocking point. In time Conoy may have some potential for limited BT reproduction if the sedimentation doesn’t override the cooler temps that needed to improve back in 2008 or so. Additionally, working against it is its generally low gradient and summer stagnation in areas. Near Bainbridge the stream sometimes has small numbers of young walleye and channel cats.

 

[JeffP]

How is the wading in that stretch? As death defying as it is everywhere else on the lower Susquehanna? I have never fished there - just walked the trail in that stretch in winter.

Personally, I didn't think it was that bad. Where we started, it was pretty flat but as we got down to the more broken water that was a lot of that "lava" rock that was pretty treacherous. I always found that if you wade carefully you can get around ok and get to the deeper, faster runs. At 55 I thought I did ok. Can't say the same for Penns the last couple times. I had on my new Columbia (low top) wading shoes on. They were super comfy but I did get my ankles a bit banged up. A bit of gravel but not too bad.

 

[JeffP]

Personally, I didn't think it was that bad. Where we started, it was pretty flat but as we got down to the more broken water that was a lot of that "lava" rock that was pretty treacherous. I always found that if you wade carefully you can get around ok and get to the deeper, faster runs. At 55 I thought I did ok. Can't say the same for Penns the last couple times. I had on my new Columbia (low top) wading shoes on. They were super comfy but I did get my ankles a bit banged up. A bit of gravel but not too bad.

Sorry! 56 Damn

 

[Dave_W]

Good to see a report on the Susky. I hit the opposite bank further upriver last week for some wading for a couple hours. The river was 4.2' and I had a tough time wading. The fishing was poor for me that day.

As I've pointed out many times on this forum, wading the Susky is challenging - I wear cleated felts, knee pads, and carry a wading staff and am very careful.

 

[Jemoca75!]

How is the wading in that stretch? As death defying as it is everywhere else on the lower Susquehanna? I have never fished there - just walked the trail in that stretch in winter.

wading from below Falmouth to where the conoy dumps in is very easy wading, the whole stretch. I wait until the river is at 4.2 for that flat water and have no issues basically up to my chest, if you do riffles at that flow you'll obviously die

 

[Jemoca75!]

Roughly half-way from E-town to the river Conoy picks up a cold, limestone trib. About 15 yrs ago Conoy was already holding stocked trout well into the summer near its upper stocking point. In time Conoy may have some potential for limited BT reproduction if the sedimentation doesn’t override the cooler temps that needed to improve back in 2008 or so. Additionally, working against it is its generally low gradient and summer stagnation in areas. Near Bainbridge the stream sometimes has small numbers of young walleye and channel cats.

Very cool to hear about a limestone trib, wonder what moves up there to survive, that area is all private. We used to catch some in the summer at the bridge at nissley vineyards, that was 30 years ago

 

[wgmiller]

How is the wading in that stretch? As death defying as it is everywhere else on the lower Susquehanna? I have never fished there - just walked the trail in that stretch in winter.

The "lava rocks" can be very treacherous to wade, as they are quite slippery. Even the dry ones are dangerous, because your wet wading boots rehydrate them. As mentioned, it's always wise to carry a wading staff for three points of contact, wear protective gear, etc. The rocks will drop you quicker than a bad habit and those rocks are unforgiving.

I got into my first cattie on the fly a few years back just downstream of here and even a smaller cat is a lot of fun on the fly. They take you right to the bottom and it's almost like having a wet sock on the end of your line.

As far as Conoy Creek goes and cold water, it definitely gives the Susky a shot of cooler water. This can be seen with the number of muskie that hang out at the "South Bridge" of TMI where Conoy meets the Susky. A good stretch to fish is to park at the boat ramp in Falmouth and fish upstream to where the Conoy dumps in. In lower summer flows you can really see a lot of the river bed and fish pocketwater, runs, and pools.

 

[Fish Sticks]

The "lava rocks" can be very treacherous to wade, as they are quite slippery. Even the dry ones are dangerous, because your wet wading boots rehydrate them. As mentioned, it's always wise to carry a wading staff for three points of contact, wear protective gear, etc. The rocks will drop you quicker than a bad habit and those rocks are unforgiving.

View attachment 1641231830

I got into my first cattie on the fly a few years back just downstream of here and even a smaller cat is a lot of fun on the fly. They take you right to the bottom and it's almost like having a wet sock on the end of your line.

View attachment 1641231831

As far as Conoy Creek goes and cold water, it definitely gives the Susky a shot of cooler water. This can be seen with the number of muskie that hang out at the "South Bridge" of TMI where Conoy meets the Susky. A good stretch to fish is to park at the boat ramp in Falmouth and fish upstream to where the Conoy dumps in. In lower summer flows you can really see a lot of the river bed and fish pocketwater, runs, and pools.

View attachment 1641231833

Do you use straight up sink tips and floating head flies?

 

[6xAdams(Jones)]

Sorry! 56 Damn

It's okay to round up or down to the nearest 0 or 5. I've done that since I went over 40... or was it 50...

 

[Mike]

The "lava rocks" can be very treacherous to wade, as they are quite slippery. Even the dry ones are dangerous, because your wet wading boots rehydrate them. As mentioned, it's always wise to carry a wading staff for three points of contact, wear protective gear, etc. The rocks will drop you quicker than a bad habit and those rocks are unforgiving.

View attachment 1641231830

I got into my first cattie on the fly a few years back just downstream of here and even a smaller cat is a lot of fun on the fly. They take you right to the bottom and it's almost like having a wet sock on the end of your line.

View attachment 1641231831

As far as Conoy Creek goes and cold water, it definitely gives the Susky a shot of cooler water. This can be seen with the number of muskie that hang out at the "South Bridge" of TMI where Conoy meets the Susky. A good stretch to fish is to park at the boat ramp in Falmouth and fish upstream to where the Conoy dumps in. In lower summer flows you can really see a lot of the river bed and fish pocketwater, runs, and pools.

View attachment 1641231833

That’s Conewago Ck, the Conewago that’s on the East side of the river (as opposed to the one on the west side) and originates near Mt Gretna. Conoy enters the river downstream at Bainbridge and originates near E-town.

I’m surprised to hear the Susquehanna referred to as difficult wading. Other than the smooth bedrock, which presents challenges anywhere, my crews and I never considered it to have much difficulty when backpack electrofishing. When not using felts or cleats, everything is a controlled skid unless you’re on silt, sand, or gravel. You get so used to it that you don’t even think about it. In fact, I depended upon and got so used to the skid that when on rare occasions I wore cleats, usually on iron precipitate covered rocks, my achilles tendon would get sore from the amount of heal grip on the edges of rocks and down slopes of round rocks.

 

[wgmiller]

That’s Conewago Ck, the Conewago that’s on the East side of the river (as opposed to the one on the west side) and originates near Mt Gretna. Conoy enters the river downstream at Bainbridge and originates near E-town.

Ahhhh....that's right! Conoy goes along the baseball field in Bainbridge. Mea culpa! I was just upstream a bit.

As far as wading goes, perhaps my felts were worn down too much to be effective, but I remember having a couple of "oh ****" moments.

Fish Sticks - all you really need is a floating line during summer flows on the Susky. If you're fishing a weighted fly like a Clouser you'll have no problem getting them down in the strike zone, as you're likely only fishing a few feet of water.

 

[riverwhy]

Regarding the Three Mile Island stretch, I used to fish that when I lived in Elizabethtown. We parked somewhere near the TMI entrance along a Railroad track and walked down to the Conewago where it entered the east channel of the Susquehanna. I recall the Conewago being just slightly cooler than the river. That used to be a great stretch to fish. Fish quickly across the east channel, skirt the lower end of TMI, then rock hop upstream to the dam. Had a couple 50 fish days out there. I especially did well in a channel that moved parallel to the dam directly below the overflow pool.
The east channel could be really good in fall with a Clouser slowly fished in some of those crevasses you couldn’t accurately fish when the water was higher. I also sometimes had some icing on the cake in this channel on my return from the dam when the fish were feeding on damsels. It often seemed to be just in certain pools that had vegetation. I never had any adult damsels but swinging an olive bugger drew savage hits.

 

[riverwhy]

I will add that it was often brutally hot at about 3pm when those damsels came off.

 

[Mike]

I’ll support the brutally hot comment! Falmouth was never a picnic when backpack electrofishing for YOY SMB. We always tried to hit that site first in the morning, but it was usually 10 AM by the time we arrived on July mornings. It was already hot out among rocks exposed by lower summer flows downstream from the ramp, let alone where your are speaking upstream from the ramp. No shoreline shade extending even part way out into the YOY SMB territory. Clothes beneath the waders would be soaked after just one sampling site with the ones at Rt 30 and Long Level still to go on those three site days. No shade at Long Level either.

 

[JeffP]

The "lava rocks" can be very treacherous to wade, as they are quite slippery. Even the dry ones are dangerous, because your wet wading boots rehydrate them. As mentioned, it's always wise to carry a wading staff for three points of contact, wear protective gear, etc. The rocks will drop you quicker than a bad habit and those rocks are unforgiving.

View attachment 1641231830

I got into my first cattie on the fly a few years back just downstream of here and even a smaller cat is a lot of fun on the fly. They take you right to the bottom and it's almost like having a wet sock on the end of your line.

View attachment 1641231831

As far as Conoy Creek goes and cold water, it definitely gives the Susky a shot of cooler water. This can be seen with the number of muskie that hang out at the "South Bridge" of TMI where Conoy meets the Susky. A good stretch to fish is to park at the boat ramp in Falmouth and fish upstream to where the Conoy dumps in. In lower summer flows you can really see a lot of the river bed and fish pocketwater, runs, and pools.

View attachment 1641231833

I have fished those "lava rocks" too. I'm talking about much smaller igneous looking rocks that form the broken water a bit below where the Conoy runs in.

 

[JeffP]

Regarding the Three Mile Island stretch, I used to fish that when I lived in Elizabethtown. We parked somewhere near the TMI entrance along a Railroad track and walked down to the Conewago where it entered the east channel of the Susquehanna. I recall the Conewago being just slightly cooler than the river. That used to be a great stretch to fish. Fish quickly across the east channel, skirt the lower end of TMI, then rock hop upstream to the dam. Had a couple 50 fish days out there. I especially did well in a channel that moved parallel to the dam directly below the overflow pool.
The east channel could be really good in fall with a Clouser slowly fished in some of those crevasses you couldn’t accurately fish when the water was higher. I also sometimes had some icing on the cake in this channel on my return from the dam when the fish were feeding on damsels. It often seemed to be just in certain pools that had vegetation. I never had any adult damsels but swinging an olive bugger drew savage hits.

We pounded them there that one day!