West Branch Susquehanna River, Pennsylvania Fishing Report
Posted by PA-Smallies at 10:32 AM. Filed under: Fishing Reports, Smallmouth Bass
It was a day of smallmouth “dinks” in the West Branch of the Susquehanna today. A fishing partner and I explored a new section of this river. We fished for about 4 hours. I landed 24 smallmouth bass and my fishing buddy landed 11 smallmouth. Only three of my fish were respectable measuring in the 13-14 inch range. My fishing buddy didn’t fair much better with most of his fish around 10 inches or so. Lots of action but little in the way of quality is the best I can do to sum up the trip. On the upside, I will say that I think the water we fished has potential. I’ll just have to spend some time getting to know the area to locate the bigger fish.
Time of Day
6:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
Weather Conditions
- Sunny and Humid
- Air temperatures around 90 degrees
Water conditions
- Water flow normal for this time of year (per USGS data)
- visibility less than tree feet, slightly stained
Baits
- Slug-go, 3 inch, white
- Yum Dinger 4 inch, pumpkin/chatrues
- Tube Baits, green/orange tail
Fish Caught
My fishing buddie and I combined for 35 smallmouth bass in just over 4 hours of fishing. Only a handful were in the 13-14 inch ranger. It was definitely a day for the little guys to be biting. We also caught several small rock bass.
Comments on Pattern
The only thing that seemed to get the fish to bite was a moving bait. We picked up a few fishing on the Yum Dinger and only a couple on the tube bait. By far, the best bait was the 3 inch slog-go in white. I texposed rigged the bait. The fish seemed to be a little indifferent to other baits but the slug-go, because of its erratic action seemed to trigger the fishes instinct to at least take a wack at the bait. The slug-go was by far the best bait of the day producing most of the fish and creating a lot of heart thumping chases. Most of the fish came from deeper water rock piles situated at the tail and of long deep runs.
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