Frigid Fishin' at the Ville 11/29/14

Too many we are known as the guys "with issues!"  To us, it's all about that BASS ... and trebles!  Sorry, that was my attempt at humor.  Can't get that silly song out of my brain.  Anyway, air temps were a frigid 17 degrees when we launched at 9:15 this morning from the main launch at Beltzville. Water temps ranged between 42-44 degrees.  Snow flakes drizzled down from the sky from time to time.  Perfect fishing weather, right?

We searched long and hard for the stripers but couldn't locate any line siders!  Time to move on and try plan B.  Jerkbaits with extended pauses .......  this is my first ever crappy from Beltzville!

Here is my 2nd ever crappy from Beltzville just a few casts later.  Both fell for a gray and black jerkbait after a long pause.  I was trying to raise two fingers.  May have started with 3 while the picture was being taken.  Haha!  I'm not a crappy expert but the tail on this one is more pointed.  The first one was more rounded.  Male vs. Female?  Thoughts anyone? Both were nice slabs nonetheless!

Chad got rid of the SKUNK right before dark with this nice large mouth.  Nice chunker .... it was 18 inches and a good 3 to 3.5 lbs?  Just a guess .....

This decent pickerel wanted to join our CPR (catch - photo - release) party.  Another jerk bait fish!

Not a bad day!  No skunk on the boat and we were able to scout out some nice structure for years to come.  Almost time to catch my first December fish of 2014.

These structures are relatively new.  They weren't here a few years ago when Beltzville was really low.  The holes on these fish ladders are pretty wide open.  I do know they are normally covered in weeds and many a pickerel have come in this area.  Anyone know what fish they were intended for?

I have no idea what these are for?  Fish boxes of some sort?  Swimming creatures with tails?  Thoughts on this one as well?

Here are a few other pics from today's trip.  Hope you enjoyed this post!  Happy Holidays!  Hope to make a post or two this December.

Many of these floating around today.

Brrrrr ... it was cold!

Water is still extremely low!  It's normally up around that 631 mark.

Here's where the water departs for the spillway.  This is almost always covered.  Not this fall!

steeler

A "relaxing" day on the Susky!

It's been quite some time since my last post.  I apologize for that.   However, with the new school year, my son's Friday Night high school football games, and a turbulent two year old things are pretty fast and furious in our household.  I'm still fishing though ....

This past weekend we decided to hit our trusty fishing grounds up north.  Yes, that means a visit to the North Branch of the Susquehanna River.  Just saying that brings a smile to my face.  :)

The water is still a little low for my liking this fall (8.23 stage in ft.) which means fishing certain areas were out of the question today.  At least until the wife allows me to purchase a jet boat .....

The water temperatures started at 41 degrees and rose to 42 in some areas.  Air temperature was a balmy "Florida-like" 27 degrees as we launched for the day.  No matter though ... the smallies were ready to do a little CPR (catch - photo - release) with us.  

The fish were quite selective today.  We started the day off throwing SJB's and stickbaits without luck.  It didn't take us long to switch to tubes.  Today's special was the "Wacky Worm" Black & Blue Fleck."  This color was on fire today and helped us boat the majority of our fish.  Water visibility was 3-4 feet at best.  The darker color was easy to figure out.  

Today's haul brought in 53 smallies.  We knew the guys down in the Harrisburg area were going to do much better with the water being 7 to 8 degrees warmer.  However, the peace and quiet to catch some chunky fish, watch eagles prepare to nest and catching a deer napping under a downed tree are hard to pass up.  It was a great day on the water!  

I'd guestimate that 50 percent of our fish had some sort of black blotch on them today.  The fish are feeding well but still seem to be spread out.  We really couldn't find them stacked up in some of the normal wintering holes.  Guess we will have to go back out 2-3 more times this fall.  That's until the striper bite heats up at Beltzville.  Haha!

Can you tell it was a relaxing day on the river?  Thanks for visiting my blog.  I'm planning on taking my son and godson out next weekend.  Hopefully the fish are cooperative for these young guys. Glad that my birthday comes once a year.  This is how I get my son to go fishing with me.  :)  

steeler

p.s. - We did manage to pull in (1) walleye today!  Thought for sure we'd hook into more.