Susquehanna River, York Co., 9/6/14

[icyguides]

Yesterday was my birthday so i went fishing with my father and fiance. Got a later start to the day than i would have liked but was on the water at about 8am. There was heavy fog that was just burning off and the water had about 1-2 feet visibility. It was hard to see very well but i could see some carp tailing shallow. I made a cast to a fish but all i could see was a dark spot cruising shallow making a wake. It crushed the fly right away and gave an awesome jump. It was a nice bass.

The carp seemed like they moved off a little after fighting the bass, so i started blind casting upstream, working the fly back down, keeping the line tight, with small twitches. I caught a nice 21' channel cat and a small 7 inch walleye doing this.

I regrouped and spotted a carp mudding in close. All i could see of the fish was it's bright orange lips, so i dropped the fly softly about a foot in front of it's lips. It cruised right over and i could see the lips moving. I strip set and went tight, too tight. I made the classic steelhead mistake, holding the line tight or the reel handle, and pinged the fish off immediately. Had i landed the carp, i would have had a smallie, catfish, walleye, and carp in one morning, a susquehanna slam.

Through the afternoon i dodged storms in my boat and got out a little while longer. I caught 3 more bass and another catfish. The last bass of the day was the nicest. 17 inches and very fat and healthy.

Most of the fish were caught on crayfish immitations. The fish were shallow early and moved to about 4-5 feet of water around mid day. It seemed like all the fish were feeding pretty aggressively. My fiance was fishing worms under a bobber and caught some catties and my father picked up 2 smaller bass, but i seemed to have the birthday luck on my side. On the way out i noticed 2 guys bow fishing at night in the boats with all the bright lights, which was the first time i've seen this. It was a very nice way to spend my birthday.

 

[Mike]

I know the exact stretch; you fished one of our sampling sites for bass. Have been sampling there almost annually since 1985. When the river stage is at 3.8 ft to about 4.2 ft at Hbg, the carp are in and along the near-shore and shoreline plants throughout the evening and night in very high numbers on the York shoreline. Likewise for the channel cats and larger bass, although most may be showing up just at dark or a little thereafter. It is also a great place for sub-legal walleye, but rather sparse for legals. We typically sample in October and during the first week of November. I think we used to see the same thing in mid to late September, but the walleye were not as abundant during that month. We sample at night, but in the early years we used to sample during daylight and when the plants were inundated with water the fish were there during daylight as well, except for the cats and walleye. If the water is very muddy during daylight under those flow conditions, then you may can expect to find all of the species there, but probably not in the numbers that you would more reliably find at night. PS. The same flows can be reliable for Muskies in those shoreline weeds, especially between Bainbridge and Falmouth, the stretch where they have been stocked for decades.

 

[Fishidiot]

Great report - love to see folks fishing the lower Susky and having a good time (and catching fish).

 

[icyguides]

Thanks guys. That information is very interesting mike. I know the fishing can be very good there in the fall, but i'm usually busy hunting, fishing saltwater or fishing for trout again in the fall. This year i want to make more of an effort to fish warm water species into the fall.

I know it has no scientific value and probably very little relation to what is actually occurring, but for what it's worth the smallmouth fishing in this part of the river has been good this year and last. It seems like they are finally recovering. I'm not catching the sheer #'s of bass i did before the downfall, but the # of bass over 15 inches seems to have increased, or at least i'm catching more of them and we are seeing more small healthy looking bass again. It's nice to see fat, healthy, young smallmouth again. I did see one YOY smb in the shallows this year with a massive lesion.

 

[Mike]

icy:
Your observation in #4, paragraph 2, is nearly spot on with respect to what we saw late last fall with the electrofishing in the lower Susquehanna sampling sites, all of which are between York Haven Dam and Pequea, Lancaster/York Co.. The only exception is that the increase is for bass 12" and over, which includes the 15" plus fish. In fact, the catch rates for both size classes above (12" and over, 15" and over) were both the second best in the data set over the time span from 1990 to 2013. The number of fish under 12' also picked up, but not to the extent of the other size groups. We were very encouraged and hope we will see the same thing in our October/early Nov sampling in 2014.

 

[mr7183]

Does anyone here fish the Susky along 22 above Harrisburg? I drive by it all the time on the way to State College and it looks like really interesting water with all the riffles and islands. Almost never see any fisherman though.

 

[Fishidiot]

mr7183 wrote:
Does anyone here fish the Susky along 22 above Harrisburg?

Lots of folks fish that section and it's known as the Daupin Narrows. It's my favorite section although I don't fish it as much as I used to. If you check out the Reports forum about a page back there's a recent report by Krayfish that covers that area.

 

[JakesLeakyWaders]

That second photo is great !