April 24, 2010 - Susquehanna River

The post-spawn smallie fishing is on! Today, I should have boated about 40 fish, but only ended up with 28. My shoulder has been hurting and I just wasn't setting the hook well or keeping them buttoned up.

Anyway, the conditions were as follows...

Air temps: 50-60 degrees
Water temp: 58-61 degrees
Hbg Gauge: 4.3 ft and steady
Lures: Spinnerbaits and swimbaits

Susquehanna River Smallmouth Fishing April 24, 2010 from Brett Dunn on Vimeo.

Trip Trade #1 - Todd and Alicia Theodore

Well, my first trip trade turned out to be a great one. Todd and Alicia came all the way to PA from Cincinnati, OH.


























They started their trip on Saturday morning and drove over 8 hours straight to get to York around 5pm. We met up and had dinner at Fiesta Mexico in York. The food was really good and the Captain and Diet was cold and tall :)

Sunday morning, we met at 9 am and were on the water by about 9:30 am. Mother Nature wasn't very kind to us today. The high was in the low to mid 50's, but we had had winds in the 15-25 mph range all day long. The wind chill was in the low to mid 40's. Pretty uncomfortable and definitely challenging from a casting and boat control point of view.

























Enough of the whining...so how did we do? Pretty well, considering the weather and post-spawn conditions. We boated about 35 smallies today. Approx 6-8 of those fish were 18" or greater....not too terrible. Top 3 that we weighed were: 4-3, 4-1 and 3-15.

Here are a few pictures:






























































So...Debbi and I made a couple of new friends. We ate some good food and caught some nice fish. It doesn't get any better than that! Debbi and I are looking forward to fishing with Todd and Alicia on the New River in VA, sometime later this year.

Thanks!

April 10, 2010

This spring, fishing has been very hit or miss. The the high flows through March and into April, I don't think the fish were able to get to their normal places. I've found fish in all my normal spots...but not in the numbers that I usually do.

Some females (larger ones) have dropped their eggs, but no signs of any beds yet. I think the main group of spawners is yet to come and should be soon.

Water temps have been in the high 50's to just over 60 on the warmest days. Air temps have fluctuated from high's in the 70's to high's in the 50's...again, very unpredictable.

But, I am catching some fish and having a good time.

Here is a little video of some of the fish for the day...

Susquehanna River Smallmouth Bass Fishing 4/10/10 from Brett Dunn on Vimeo.

April 11, 2010 - Fishing with Debbi

Well, I thought that we would have an awesome day, but it turned out rather slow. The day started out with Debbi breaking her baitcasting rod and that kind of bummed her out.

The fish have proven to be difficult to find and catch with the water levels receding so fast.

Surprisingly, some of the bigger fish have dropped their eggs, but most of the fish have still not spawned.

Water temps are hovering right around 60 degrees, with air temps mainly in the 60's during the day and 40's at night.

Did manage to get a few nice fish. Best for the day was this post-spawn female that weighed 4 pounds on the button.

April 7, 2010 - It's on!

With the warming trend and the falling river flows, I just HAD to leave work early and hit the river. While I was launching, I met some guys at the ramp that told me that the fishing had been pretty tough and between the 3 boats of guys, they didn't have much success...

Ugh, I started to wonder if taking off of work was a good idea.

But, I stayed optimistic and hit the water...and I'm glad that I did. It started off slow, as I found that only the small males had made it to the shallow spawning areas so far. But, once I started hitting my winter to spring migration points...I was on them pretty good.

Fished for 3 hours and caught (16) smalles. Biggest (5) were: 4-3, 4-1, 3-13, 3-11 and 3-0.
A 18 lb 12 oz bag...not bad. Not great, for spring standards, but not bad.

Here is a quick video

Susquehanna River Smallmouth Fishing - April 7, 2010 from Brett Dunn on Vimeo.

April 4, 2010 - Susquehanna River

Finally...the river is coming down. It's still high and muddy, but at least it's fishable again. The gauge at Harrisburg was about 7 ft and falling.

Debbi and I hit the water at about 10:00 am and fished until about 2:00 pm.

It was an adventure today...
We saw a Bald Eagle on a nest along the river.
We heard little frogs in a bog, singing their hearts out.
Debbi caught her first Tiger Musky!














While we were taking pics of the musky, the boat drifted under a large overhanging branch of a tree. The limbs were so long that they reached into the water. As we drifted under it, the branch acted like a giant muddy mop and got mud all over the boat...what a mess!

After we released the musky and were cleaning up the boat, I found out that apparently there was a snake in that overhanging branch...and now it was in the boat, LOL. So, I had to catch the little guy and toss him back on the bank.















Debbi ended up catching (2) smallies and the Tiger Musky. I ended up with (10) smallies. Biggest smallie of the day was just about 4 lbs. (didn't weigh it)

Raging River - April 2, 2010

The Susquehanna has been raging for a couple of weeks now. I took the day off and hit the river, to scout it out for the weekend. The river gauge at Harrisburg was at about 8.5 ft and falling.

No surprise...it was tough. It was tough just to keep the boat moving slow enough to fish.

I did manage to get two fish in the boat... (1) 18" walleye and a 4lb 3 oz Smallie.

Susquehanna River April 2 2010 - Smallmouth fishing from Brett Dunn on Vimeo.