Susquehanna River, York Co. 8-21-2012

[JakesLeakyWaders]

Fished near Saginaw just before dark with my 7 weight. Not much coming off. Managed to catch one 10" smallie on brown/white clouser before dark.

Water has been low and clear and it is possible to wade several hundred yards out if you know a section of river well and where the holes and shelves are. However. I would caution that are many places on the lower river where you are one step away from a ten foot hole. I forgot my flashlight, luckily I am very familiar with my section of river from years of fishing it.

Think I 'll have to duct tape that hole in the back my kayak. It has worn through from years of dragging it in and out of the water and through the woods. There are a few bass haunts on the river that I haven't visited for a few years and they just can't be reached with a pair of waders. Maybe I ll even dust off the spinning gear.

P.S. Do not buy a pair of Frogg Toggs waders from Gander Mtn. They suck, I have used them for one season and they are shot. They were good at first, but I had water up past both ankles within an hour of fishing.

Cast, drift, strip, strip, drift, strip strip, cast, drift,....

Jake

 

[1wt]

Jake,

I used to fish that exact section all the time...... even with snow on the ground!

I downsized last year and could catch a few bluegills. They are still there, even though the smallmouth have decreased? I used to catch a few small, 9", walleyes there with a spin rod?

The spot has changed a lot in the last decade. How about all the trash there now? Some use that old road for a dump site? Such a shame!

 

[JakesLeakyWaders]

Yeah it seems to me that generally there is less aquatic vegetation and life in general and more of a dark slimy charactreristic to the river in the past decade.

You almost don't want to wade in it. People have said the river is cleaner than it was in the past, it's just not true. It's filthy and unhealthy compared to what it used to be 20 years ago..

For a river once known for the best smallmouth fishing on the east coast it sure puzzles me when people try to play down the great loss of a fishery. I mean think about it, the watershed covers half of our state. I'm sure some of the large cities the river and its tributaries flow through have an affect on its quality. Every town it flows past the fishing gets worse. Binghamton, Wilkes-Barre / Scranton, Williamsport, State College, Bloomsburg, Berwick, Sunbury, Harrisburg, Hershey, Lebanon, Camp Hill, Lancaster and York all major cities and I'd come to the conclusion the further up river you go the better it gets. When you get above Binghamton it is pretty much a clean river, small and unpolluted. And the fishing is great as posted recently.

 

[unforgiven]

I fished the lower Susquehanna about 3 weeks ago, below the dam. While I was traveling parallel to the river on River Road, I passed two separate slurry spreaders spreading their crap all of the fields. After I fished a couple of ours, guess what I smelled like? Yup, slurry. They use it all over our part (NW) of Lancaster County, too. I even smell the slurry on my waders after fishing the Donegal Creek. That crap (quite literally) is seeping into the 'hanna. Can't be good.