Susquehanna River Smallmouth Fishing10-8-11

Hello and good evening everyone.  I apologize for neglecting my fishin' blog, but work and family obligations have prevented me from fishing lately.  However, my good buddy Wayne and I were able to get out and hit the North Branch of the Susquehanna River this weekend.  First, let me say WOW .... I'm still attempting to make sense of the devastation these towns up in Northern Pennsylvania have gone through with the recent floodings.  What we observed just didn't make sense - or seem possible.

While traversing the river, we took notice to many different items lodged into trees, some 20-30 feet high.  There were walls, siding, doors, tires, swimming pools, tarps and even a little jon boat crammed in between tree limbs.  I'm sure the squirrels and birds may be happy, but I feel awful for the people of these small communities that are still out of their homes - some forever and others I'm sure for an extended period of time.  It was quite the mixed bag of emotions to say the least.  We were excited to be fishing but it was definitely put on the back burner once our eyes focused in on the damage this area has been hit with. 

I'm still upset with myself because the pictures taken just don't do justice for what we were able to see.  I can honestly say we were so engulfed in our surrounding that pictures were the last thing on our minds.  I managed to take a few and will get some more on our next trip up north.  I'll focus more on the items lodged in the trees and pictures that showed where the mud line or river actually reached up to. 

First fish of the day was quite impressive.  It took about 5 minutes and we had the skunk out of the boat.

This was a house that probably washed down river by the floods.  You can see how high the river came up by looking at the muddy leaves on the trees.

Here is one of Wayne's fish on the day.  We started the day with air temps around 40 degrees and the water in the lower 50's.  By days end the air temperature reached 78 and water temps mid 50's.  Nothing like thermals and beanie caps in the morning and shorts/t-shirts in the afternoon. 

Yes, here is an afternoon fish! We were actually sweating but HEY .... so were the fish!  HAHA

Some type of wall that washed down river and lodged into a tree.  Again, look at the trees to see where the mud line is.  Still can't believe the devastation ....

Apparently these decoy ducks are not too expensive.  The hunters decided to leave one behind so we RESCUED it! It was crying for help.  Not really but we weren't catching fish for awhile and this thing caught our attention.

A trailer that looks to have slid down the bank into the river during the floods.

I'm pointing at this guy because he decided to take a leak on my shirt.  BAD BOY!  Wait ... it's a girl!

This fish was obviously caught in the morning.  It was quite foggy as you can see. 

It's about 70 degrees and I still have a beanie on.  No clue - sorry ... but the fish were still biting. 

It was a good day!  We brought in 47 for the day.  We lost many more and wasted valuable time figuring out a pattern.  After we made the adjustments of finding the right tube color and switched our jig heads from 1/8 to 1/4 oz. we slowed down our presentations and sped up our catch rate. 

Thanks for visiting - I hope to post more good times in the near future.