Suskie Bassmaster articles

Fish Habitat and Flow: What's the Connection? By Leroy M. Young Leroy Young is Chief of the Aquatic Resources Section in the Commission's Division of Environmental Services.

Pre Spawn Smallies

Even though the calendar says spring the fish are still in winter mode. But not for long. The days are getting longer and the temps are moving up. The water temps on the Suskie at Wilkes Barre had been holding in the upper 30’s the last several weeks. As of this writing they are beginning to poke into the low 40’s. However with the river level up near 20 feet after the recent rain and meltdown fishing is not practical or safe. It will probably be two weeks before the river is down to “fishable” levels of below 5 feet. By then the water temps should be consistently in the mid/upper 40’s and the bass will begin to move. The bass have been wintering in deeper oxygen rich pools feeding just enough to sustain themselves. When temps start getting into the upper 40’s and into the 50’s bass will start moving and preparing for the spawn. Smallies are moving from deep to shallower water and back several times a day to feed. Mostly looking for protein rich foods such as crawfish and baitfish. This will vary depending on the body of water you are fishing. You will need to do a little research on the primary forage in the water in which you are fishing.

Early prespawn bass are hungry and in feeding mode. This is a good time for slower bottom crawling tubes, worms, and jigs. Remember the water is still cold, so slower is better. Woo Daves a recognized expert on worm and plastics fishing says smallies love chartreuse. If his plastic worm, craw, lizard, etc. doesn’t have chartreuse, Woo dips the tails and legs of plastics in chartreuse dye, and always uses scent.

My personal favorites are tubes. Usually starting with a crawdad colored tube with a 1/8^th oz. tube jig head. You will need to vary the weight depending on the situation. You always want as slow a fall as possible, but still need to get to the bottom. You may need to go down to 1/16^th or up to 3/8. Another tip learned from Woo Daves at a recent seminar is to push the jig head all the way into the tube and then slide it back about 3/8” before pushing the eyelet through. That will leave a space in the nose of the tube. That will change the way the tube falls, and drags across the bottom. It will also help it to bounce over and around rocks and not get hung up as much. Remember, slower is better. If you think you are going slow, slow down some more. Work the bait with the rod, not the reel. Only use the reel to take up slack line. People have a tendency to reel the bait rather than work it with the rod.

There are other baits, techniques, and tactics that will work for prespawn bass. Generally, slower is better, find the routes from deep to shallow and back. Along those routes will be staging points such as boulders, structure, rocky points, etc. Move along the routes till you find the fish. When you do, hold on. Even though the water is cold, remember, bronzebacks pound for pound are the toughest fish that swim.

See you on the Suskie!

By Norm Gavlick Suskie Bassmasters Pro Staff PA Fish & Boat Commission Registered Guide

There are probably as many theories on how to fish tournaments as there are anglers. What we, (my partner and I), have learned is not to get to hung up on one spot. If you have put a pattern together that says you should use a tube, then fish tubes. Try different sizes and colors etc., depending on the water. Then if the fish aren't hitting in one spot, move! Smallies like to move. They may be in one place now and another in an hour. Move till you find the fish. You also should have you and your partner use different colors, and styles or even a different bait based on the pattern. Once you find the "hot" bait for the moment look out. Don't be surprised if it only lasts for a short time. Remember, they just moved.

By Norm Gavlick Suskie Bassmasters Pro Staff PA Fish & Boat Commission Registered Guide

It never ceases to amaze me, anglers at the boat launch who just returned from a day on the river and just throw their hands in the air because they didn’t catch anything. They will ask how you did and when you tell them they become frustrated. This is a common problem among average anglers. They will set out in search of fish they really don’t know anything about. Just this past weekend I ran into a few guys coming in at the same time and asked the same question, how did I do? When I told them I picked up about 20 smallies, their reaction was the same I have seen all year.

We started talking and they said they were throwing the same baits but couldn’t get a bite. I asked them where they were fishing and they said that they spent most of the morning in the shallow fast moving water. Once the water temp gets down into the low 50’s the smallies begin to move to slower deeper water. Smallmouth are actually a very predictable fish in rivers. If you are looking for smallmouth in summer patterns when the water temp is in the mid 50’s, you are not going to find many fish. Too many anglers just hook up their boat, load up all the tackle they own and head out. You should check the weather, and not just the day you are going. Check what the weather has been doing, has it been stable? Did the temp go up or down? Did it rain? Or did a cold front come through? These are some of the variables you will need to look at. The same goes for what the weather is going to do. Fish react to weather just like we do.

For instance, Just prior to a cold front, smallies will tend to feed heavy for a few hours as the front approaches. After it comes through they will go deep and hold very tight to submerged structure. During a period of rain you can find them stacked up near creek arms and storm drains. They know from experience that rain means food will washing into the river at these areas.

Sometimes the top water bite can be great during a rain. The smaller bait fish will come to the top and feed on the bugs that got washed in and the smallies will come right under them. Some of the bigger smallies I’ve caught came during a heavy rain.

Next check your local water level and note has it been rising, falling, or steady. A rule of thumb is when the water goes up the fish go up, the fish will invade the newly covered areas in search of food. If the water is going down then the fish will go deeper pulling away from the banks to suspend. When you get to the launch look at the water. What’s the clarity? Clear? Stained? Muddy? Clear water is tough to fish. Smallies are spooked very easy, they will tend to stay in deeper water due to the light penetration in clear water. Clear water forces you to fish in the most natural way you can. Stained water is the best you can fish. It offers the fish a sort of camouflage to ambush their prey. They are more aggressive and easier to catch. Muddy water is the hardest to fish, and usually smallies will be found in shallower water. Fish cannot see the bait to well, so they have to rely on their senses to find food. Noise and scent are your best friend here. I use this rule to determine the clarity: look over the back of the boat at your prop in the water, if you can see it and beyond, then the water is clear. If you can just see your prop and no more, it is stained. If you can’t see it at all, you guessed it, muddy. Now that you are on the water you can start to form a pattern. What is the water temp? Lets say the temp is 57 degrees. This would tell me the fish are still feeding heavy but are nearing the end. Soon they will be moving into their winter haunts. Lets say that a cold front is going to be coming through that evening and the weather has been stable for a few days. The sky is partly cloudy and the air temp is 62. This would be a typical day in October. The water is usually very clear in the fall because the algae and plant life have all died off and is keeping the water clean. Now we can begin our “hunt”. There are only a few baits that your are going to need. The main staple of smallies is crawfish. So why would you throw a bait that didn’t resemble them. Too many anglers take 2 or 3 tackle boxes with them and throw everything they have to catch a fish with no avail. My bait of choice would be a tube jig. These baits will out produce any other 10-1. Sure there will always be that exception but on a consistent basis tubes will win out. I have taken many guys out on the Susquehanna river this year and they all do the same thing. They will throw the tube out and fish it like they were jigging through the ice. This is a huge mistake. Look at it this way, did you ever see a crawfish hop? No. They crawl along the rocky bottom of the river. The proper technique is to let the bait crawl along the bottom and stop just like a crawfish. There are many variations of this and we will cover them in another article.

Color choice is also important. For the fall season I would use a dark brown or green with a slight orange tint to it. The crawfish from earlier in the year have matured and have taken on a darker color with orange on their under claws. Depending water height I would generally use an 1/8 ounce tube head. You may have to experiment with the weight. You want the tube to drag on the bottom but not get stuck.

The other bait of choice is a Rapala Shad Rap or Bandit 300 series crankbait. Both of these baits will run 8-12 feet deep and have a very tight wiggle. The colors will vary on conditions, however a good starting color would be a firetiger or red crawfish. Using both types of these baits, you will put fish in the boat, if you fish in the right areas.

Now let’s look at location. A good starting point would be a fast water area dumping into a deep slow pool. This is where your electronics payoff. In the late fall, smallies will stack up in deep pools just below a current break. The water doesn’t have to be extremely deep, but it does have to be deeper than most of the areas nearby. Small variations and depressions in the bottom will also hold fish. Work these areas with both tubes and cranks and it they will produce. You may notice after a few fish that they seem to be all the same size. That’s because smallies will tend to school according to size. When you do find fish, fish the area well. You could be surprised at the number of fish in one hole. A smallmouth bite could turn on as fast it turns off. If you are fishing one hole with no luck, just move down to the next. It has been my experience that when the bite shuts off in one area, you can move as little as 100’ and the bite would be on. This has happened time and time again. Certain areas will only produce at a specific time of day. You can fish an area in the morning and get nothing, and then go back at noon and catch fish.

If you follow the techniques I have described, I feel confident that you will increase your catch rate every time you go out. In closing, I will leave you with this. The most overlooked part of angling is patience and confidence. If you don’t have either one you will spend a day on the water being frustrated. Have patience with the fish and confidence in your bait and technique.