Susquehanna, Perry County, 11/18/17

[Dave_W]

WEATHER: Steady rain, heavy at times. Air temp in mid to upper 30s. Low hanging clouds and relatively dark.

WATER: 4.1' and rising. Clear. Water temp was 39 degrees F (confirmed by thermometer at two locations). Leaves were prevalent but not a show stopper.

HATCHES/FORAGE: None.

Fished some of my favorite shoreline areas today for a couple hours. Fishing pressure was non-existent. Tough weather conditions. The river looks good but is much colder. I thought maybe some walleyes or a toothy critter might come out to play considering the conditions, but no luck. Couldn't buy a strike from a bass either. Broke off several Clousers as I was fishing low and slow in the rocks and shoreline cover.

If you plan on doing any wade fishing now, it's time to break out the thicker wool socks and long underwear if you haven't already done so. I was chilled faster than I should have been today.

My home rain guage shows about 1.5" this afternoon. Most of the small streams I saw this afternoon while traveling were blown out.

 

[JackM]

Dave_W wrote:
WEATHER: Steady rain, heavy at times. Air temp in mid to upper 30s. Low hanging clouds and relatively dark.

REPORT: I stayed home.

 

[sarce]

I had the same thought about toothies yesterday and hit a local reservoir that has pike and tiger muskies. It was warmer and less rainy here but still had some stray showers. I hooked and lost a really nice largemouth at the end of the day but was otherwise skunked, and everyone else reported tough fishing including my friends in kayaks.

Thought it would be a good day, but it didn't pan out.

 

[Dave_W]

sarce wrote:
Thought it would be a good day, but it didn't pan out.

Yeah, me too.

A strong frontal system rolling over can really turn on the bass and toothies and is high confidence weather for me...but things don't aways pan out. I think the drop in water temps was probably pretty big the last week or so and this may have been a disruption. I did not expect to see such cold water.

I still think there may still be some decent river bassin to be had before we sink into the winter pattern. Prime toothy time is just getting started. Muskies usually really like these cold, blustery rainy or snowy days with rising water levels.

 

[sarce]

You could be right about the water temps. The Potomac here in DC cooled dramatically over the past two weeks. Went from fast and furious fishing for everything that swims to getting skunked last time I went. Happened about a week and a half earlier than last year. The water temp is currently in the mid 40s, 50 seems to be the cutoff for schoolies in that part of the river.

I salvaged Saturday by heading to a spot off the Rte 50 bay bridge east of Annapolis and hammered about 40 schoolie stripers near some dock lights. Wish I could tie that to the approaching front, but that particular spot is good every night when the bait is migrating through there. Water temp 54.