Had a good time this afternoon up in the Dauphin Narrows. River level was 3.27 at the Harrisburg gage (this is very low); water temp was 65 degrees and about as clear as I have ever seen it. Weather was breezy with sun and clouds, temp mid 70s. Where I was fishing is a very shallow, rocky section and I saw nobody else on that section of the river - boaters or anglers (lots of birds however, multiple waterfowl and at least two eagles). With the very low levels, I was easily able to wade across the entire river following the ledge rocks and shoal areas. It should be pointed out that I was wearing cleats and had a wading staff (I won't wade the Susky without 'em).
It was the first time I've fished that section in awhile and I wanted to check things out. Was pleased to see a decent number of bass in all year classes with a fair number of YOY in the shallows. I was also especially pleased to see a couple redbreast sunnies as well. What continues to amaze me is the biomass of food: I rolled some rocks and they are absolutely swarming with mayfly and caddis nymphs....I mean it is comparable to Penns Creek in bug life! Also saw golden stones, hellgrammites, madtoms ("stonecats") and crayfish (although the crays were fewer than I expected - I should have waited till evening). The shoreline shallows also had large numbers of tadpoles and large schools of shiners.
Fishing was good. Due to the very shallow conditions, I stuck to mostly to topwater, using a variety of poppers. As is typical, I had many more hits and long line releases than fish brought to hand. This was probably partly due to the fish being skittish and virtually all my hits were at the end of very long casts. I didn't keep count, but probably stuck three or four dozen bass in a little over three hours. A leaky wader and chronic foot pain drove me off the water well before sunset. Had I stayed later, the fishing would likely have been even better.
All the fish I hooked appeared small and all that I brought to hand were under 12 inches and healthy with no lesions or obvious issues. To be honest, I was happy to see so many smaller bass. The fish were widely scattered but in localized groups in the bigger pools, usually at the tailout or at mid channel on ledge rock. The microhabitat between boulders didn't produce many fish today. As is typical in this area of river, the bass really like to stack up along the edges of ledge rock that runs in-line with the current and that has a side with at least a foot of depth, two feet is better. Areas with less than a foot of water produced few fish. Bass were aggressive with some casts producing multiple hits. It did appear that when a big cloud blotted out the sun, that fish seemed more aggressive and when the sun came back out, they seemed to turn off. Anyway, a pretty good day on the Susky - I'm pretty darn happy to see what I saw today. It ain't the glory days, but encouraging.
It was the first time I've fished that section in awhile and I wanted to check things out. Was pleased to see a decent number of bass in all year classes with a fair number of YOY in the shallows. I was also especially pleased to see a couple redbreast sunnies as well. What continues to amaze me is the biomass of food: I rolled some rocks and they are absolutely swarming with mayfly and caddis nymphs....I mean it is comparable to Penns Creek in bug life! Also saw golden stones, hellgrammites, madtoms ("stonecats") and crayfish (although the crays were fewer than I expected - I should have waited till evening). The shoreline shallows also had large numbers of tadpoles and large schools of shiners.
Fishing was good. Due to the very shallow conditions, I stuck to mostly to topwater, using a variety of poppers. As is typical, I had many more hits and long line releases than fish brought to hand. This was probably partly due to the fish being skittish and virtually all my hits were at the end of very long casts. I didn't keep count, but probably stuck three or four dozen bass in a little over three hours. A leaky wader and chronic foot pain drove me off the water well before sunset. Had I stayed later, the fishing would likely have been even better.
All the fish I hooked appeared small and all that I brought to hand were under 12 inches and healthy with no lesions or obvious issues. To be honest, I was happy to see so many smaller bass. The fish were widely scattered but in localized groups in the bigger pools, usually at the tailout or at mid channel on ledge rock. The microhabitat between boulders didn't produce many fish today. As is typical in this area of river, the bass really like to stack up along the edges of ledge rock that runs in-line with the current and that has a side with at least a foot of depth, two feet is better. Areas with less than a foot of water produced few fish. Bass were aggressive with some casts producing multiple hits. It did appear that when a big cloud blotted out the sun, that fish seemed more aggressive and when the sun came back out, they seemed to turn off. Anyway, a pretty good day on the Susky - I'm pretty darn happy to see what I saw today. It ain't the glory days, but encouraging.
