Susquehanna River, York Co. 2-23-2011

[JakesLeakyWaders]

Went to the warmaters today, about a half dozen people there fishing.

Although I know the recent changes to the warm water outflow have been discussed before, I've been there several times since Thanksgiving and there has not really been any warm water being discharged. I was under the impression they were still going to discharge warm water in the winter time, but trust me, the water is frigid cold. Maybe just bad timing on my part.

Anyway, shad were every where and the musky hunters were out today. One guy had a really nice hook up and his rod bent down to the handle before losing the very large fish. Shad were being snagged and caught throughout the day ranging from 12-16 inches. They were also hitting the surface. Catch of the day was a 19.5 inch smallie some guy caught on a lure.

I spent some time with my 7 weight and then my heavy spinning rod. I had one very nice hit from something big didn't get a good hook set though on my 5" shad swimbait. I really wanted to get a nice smallie, although I did get a 14 inch shad on a bugger.

 

[sanctuary]

Musky huh....I used to cast net those shad for stripers and blue cats. I wonder if a nice 14" shad live-lined behind my kayak woudl bring up a musky?

(For the sake of the forum, I would be slinging the 8WT while I drifted...)


Glad you got out!

 

[wgmiller]

How did the shad fight?

 

[JakesLeakyWaders]

wgmiller wrote:

How did the shad fight?

Not a bad fight, kinda like a big redeye.

I had to sneak the 7 weight out again after all the spin fishers left I caught it just around dark.

After seeing what the one guy was getting strikes with I have a good idea for a streamer pattern, just got to get some more flashy material.

Sanctuary wrote:

Musky huh....I used to cast net those shad for stripers and blue cats.

As for the musky hunters (two guys), no muskies were caught, they are occassionally caught on the river in many places, but from the look of his rod I'm not so sure if he had a musky on maybe a big 15 - 20lb. flathead, I didn't see enough violence registering through the rod for it to have positively been a musky, unless the cold weather has something to do with that. There was definately a massive fish pulling line from his spinning reel with a very deep flexing of the rod.

 

[Fishidiot]

Neat report - thanks Jake - glad to see some folks out on the big rivers. I'm really looking forward to some spring weather to get out and chase some smallies.
Did you by chance get a water temp?

Muskies are a real possibility in these rivers in winter - wouldn't surprise me if that was what they hooked. Sounds like it may more likely have been a foul hooked carp, judging by the way you describe it.

 

[JakesLeakyWaders]

Fishidiot:

Did you by chance get a water temp?

Yes I did, my toes said, "Start the truck, start the truck, too cold."

 

[Nate717]

That's interesting! I also thought they were going to still discharge "warm" water, Not as warm as previous years but still warmer water. anyway Nice shad! Good to another Fly rod at the Warm Water!! I thought about hitting it tomorrow before I head to work, Will anyone be there?

 

[fritz]

You should have warm water but the river is a bit high. I don't know about the color.