Smallmouth bass like smashing the pink

The Susquehanna Volcano.

Even a bad day on the Susquehanna was better than any day on the Upper Potomac this year.

Karen's first fish of the day.

With temps in the 90s throughout the week and humidity through the roof, too, Karen and I went out anyway today with Jason Shay of Susquehanna Smallmouth Solutions.  Rain moved through the area last night, and it was overcast all morning with the temps never getting out of the low 80s, so it wasn't totally unbearable.

Unfortunately, the fish didn't enjoy the conditions as much as we did.  It was probably one of the slowest days I've experienced on the Susquehanna since I first started coming up here three years ago.

Jason said he and the other two SSS guides -- Pete Holmes and Rocky the Muskie Man -- fished yesterday, caught 10 total fish and called it quits at noon.  Slow bite and high temps/humidity suck on a day of bad fishing.

With the thunderstorm that ran through last night (which knocked down a ton of trees in the area including littering the boat ramp and damaging a couple nearby homes), I thought maybe it would cool off some, and the fish would respond.  At the first area we stopped after leaving the boat ramp, Jason caught a smallmouth bass near 18 inches on his first cast!  He was using a topwater lure, so Karen and I began burning the surface with River2SeaWhopper Ploppers.  She caught one, and I had a couple bites, but that was it for the rest of the day on topwaters.

This chubby smallmouth fell for the
pink-and-blue spinnerbait.

It was mainly "one off" fishing -- someone would catch a fish on a lure, and nobody would catch anything else on that lure or something similar.  I got one on a BioBait DNA Swimbait and a Rapala BX Brat squarebill crankbait but couldn't get multiples on either lure.

The best luck we had was on a lure not available in stores.  In fact, I think Jason buys them from a homeless guy because they are ugly, and most fishermen wouldn't want to be seen with one -- a pink and blue spinnerbait with tandem gold blades.  He said he picked one up from somewhere a couple years ago and used it on a tough day -- much like today -- and caught fish while others weren't catching anything, even on more traditional-pattern spinnerbaits.  Sometimes trying a crazy color pattern pays off.

This smallmouth had a crayfish
in its throat.

So he tied the spinnerbait on today and caught a smallmouth bass.  Then a little while later, he caught another one.  One might be coincidence but two means something.  I switched out a white spinnerbait for the pink/blue thing and caught a smallmouth about 15 minutes later.

And that was a big "run" for the day.  Karen tried the spinnerbait and didn't get anything.  Three fish in about 30 minutes, and nothing for awhile after that.  The last spot of the day, I got one more on the spinnerbait and had another hooked that got off when it jumped from the water.  Both fish slammed the lure.



Trees were down in the Fort Hunter parking lot after the
weather that rolled through the night before.

Which was weird.  Most hits today were really strong, and the fish we caught were fat.  You would think as slow as it was, the fish wouldn't be eating anything or be timid on the bite.  One fish I caught even had a live crayfish in its throat, so that one had been gorging itself.  Maybe they are hunkered down and being more opportunistic feeders rather than foraging.

I think I ended up with five smallmouth, and there were about 15 total between the three of us.

We booked a trip with Jason for September, so hopefully the weather cooperates then.  Probably more importantly, Karen and I will be fishing in almost exactly a month from now with Rainy Daze Guide Service on Rainy Lake near International Falls, Minn.  Smallmouth and walleye and northern pike, oh my!