WEATHER: Very hot, mostly sunny, about 93 degrees F.
WATER: Pretty clear, 0.87' at the Wmsport gauge, 81 degrees F by my thermometer.
INSECTS/FORAGE: Lots of damsel flies but no bass activity on them; fair population of crayfish (not rusty crays, as far as I could tell). I did some rock rolling and was pleased to see good numbers of macros. Although this did not resemble the lower river I'm familiar with where every rock is crawling with bugs, and hellgrammites are common. However, I lifted dozens of rocks and every one had mayflies on it. Caddis were also common; saw no stoneflies or helgys. To be sure, the macros were small, mostly clinger style mayflies. This is typical of acidic water but I think the presence of macros, although small, is indicative of a recovering watershed and a promising signal. Willow grass beds had lots of minnows and some darters.
This was my first trip fishing the West Branch Susquehanna this far up river (vicinity Jersey Shore). My main focus is on the river around Harrisburg and the Juniata so I was interested in comparing. I was mostly exploring and looking for access sites. For fishing, I opted for wading and was out for about three hours in late afternoon. Due to the high sun and heat, I took my time and stuck to shoreline tree shade. I managed several bass, all on the small side, mostly on poppers. Perhaps had I fished until dusk things might have picked up, but I was beat from the heat and called it a day at about 6pm.
I saw fallfish, but no sunnies, carp, catties, or other gamefish (this section of river is on the PFBC musky program), however the area I was fishing was shallow and pretty fast current. Had I been able to float a longer section, I might have been able to see more. In particular, I was keeping my eye out for YOY bass - saw none. To be sure, the high water this year likely produced a poor YOY, but it would have been promising to see at least a few (nearby Pine Creek has some YOY, but scarce, based on my observations this week. EDIT: Subsequent time on different sections of Pine Creek revealed very good YOY.).
Overall, from what I could assess based on such a limited experience, this section is worth fly fishing. I wouldn't expect results matching the lower river or Juniata, but I have been skunked on those sections plenty of times and, if I lived in NCPA, I think I'd stick to the West Branch. It's worth remembering that the West Branch, at least in this section and further up, was dead water within memory. . . and the recovery of the watershed is one of the great stories of PA angling conservation.
WATER: Pretty clear, 0.87' at the Wmsport gauge, 81 degrees F by my thermometer.
INSECTS/FORAGE: Lots of damsel flies but no bass activity on them; fair population of crayfish (not rusty crays, as far as I could tell). I did some rock rolling and was pleased to see good numbers of macros. Although this did not resemble the lower river I'm familiar with where every rock is crawling with bugs, and hellgrammites are common. However, I lifted dozens of rocks and every one had mayflies on it. Caddis were also common; saw no stoneflies or helgys. To be sure, the macros were small, mostly clinger style mayflies. This is typical of acidic water but I think the presence of macros, although small, is indicative of a recovering watershed and a promising signal. Willow grass beds had lots of minnows and some darters.
This was my first trip fishing the West Branch Susquehanna this far up river (vicinity Jersey Shore). My main focus is on the river around Harrisburg and the Juniata so I was interested in comparing. I was mostly exploring and looking for access sites. For fishing, I opted for wading and was out for about three hours in late afternoon. Due to the high sun and heat, I took my time and stuck to shoreline tree shade. I managed several bass, all on the small side, mostly on poppers. Perhaps had I fished until dusk things might have picked up, but I was beat from the heat and called it a day at about 6pm.
I saw fallfish, but no sunnies, carp, catties, or other gamefish (this section of river is on the PFBC musky program), however the area I was fishing was shallow and pretty fast current. Had I been able to float a longer section, I might have been able to see more. In particular, I was keeping my eye out for YOY bass - saw none. To be sure, the high water this year likely produced a poor YOY, but it would have been promising to see at least a few (nearby Pine Creek has some YOY, but scarce, based on my observations this week. EDIT: Subsequent time on different sections of Pine Creek revealed very good YOY.).
Overall, from what I could assess based on such a limited experience, this section is worth fly fishing. I wouldn't expect results matching the lower river or Juniata, but I have been skunked on those sections plenty of times and, if I lived in NCPA, I think I'd stick to the West Branch. It's worth remembering that the West Branch, at least in this section and further up, was dead water within memory. . . and the recovery of the watershed is one of the great stories of PA angling conservation.
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