Kirtley Howe

Went down to the river late this afternoon (Susquehanna River near Owego NY). We had rain late yesterday and last night, so I thought fishing could be good. What I didn't realize is that we had rain here, but upstream from here they had torrential rain...the river was up at least 4 feet and was super muddy and full of debris. Floating wood, branches, all kinds of grass and weeds, and tons of leaves. The main river was just about unfishable. I tried fishing some backwater areas where there was less crap in the water, but could not find a fish. And even in the backwaters, there was still a lot of stuff floating around and the water looked like coffee with milk in it. After an hour or so of trying a frog (which at least I could retrieve without getting fouled), a buzzbait (which did not work), and a 1/2 oz blue/black weedless jig with a ragebug trailer, and a couple of different crankbaits which just dredged up grass and weeds or fouled as soon as they hit the water I gave up on the river. I went to a small feeder stream that feeds into the river, and went as far upstream as I could and still have fishable depth of water. I started there and worked my way back downstream. The stream was still pretty clear, but was flowing pretty fast. Topwaters did not work at all. I ended up throwing shallow running crankbaits in brown/chartreuse and brown crawfish colors. Those worked. I walked and fished for an hour or so and caught 8 bass total. All smallmouth. 2 were 8-10 inches in length, and the rest were all 12-14 inches. Nothing to write home about, but lots of fun on light tackle and in pretty stiff current. So, the day that started off as a total bust ended up being a reasonable success at least in quantity. Wish I had found a few big fish, but what the heck.....

Haven't tried that, but when I was a kid (12-15 years old) I used a similar technique. Early in the evening I would water soak a 10 ft. circle in the yard. Then I would drive a metal pipe about 3 feet into the ground with 3 feet about still above ground in the center of the soaked circle. Then at dark I would smack the side of the pipe with a hammer over and over again (by the way, this is a great way to make your neighbors hate you) and the nightcrawlers would come crawling right out of the ground and I would pick them up. Much easier on the back then bending over with a flashlight and trying to catch them. I don't often fish with live bait anymore, so I haven't done that since back then. Your friends technique sound easier......

Great fishing. Scary situation. I am so glad you made it back OK and wrote this up. I'm sure in hindsight you would have done things differently...like not going out. But....you can not always predict what is going to happen with the weather. Anyway, glad you had a good day fishing, and glad you are still here.

While I am far from an expert at any technique, I am passable in most. My biggest limitation these days is physical. Having been run over by a truck (NOT a figure of speech), being a cancer survivor, and having pretty much abused my body with work and recreational activities (motorcycle racing being the biggest culprit), and of course being 74 years old, I just can't do everything I used to, or would like to. And some of the things I can still do I can't do as well, or for as long as I would like. I am just glad I am still here and can do anything at all.

I use a lot of paddletail baits....but most of the ones I use are actually designed for use for Walleyes. The Cabalas Walleye Angler series of baits have several paddletail designs that work great as trailers or just used on a 1/4 oz round jighead. They are killers for Smallmounth in the Susquehanna River, especially when the water is low and clear. They of course will produce in almost any water condition. The blue/silver color works best for me, though sometimes white is the absolute bomb. On the occasions that a Ragetail doesn't work (hey....it happens), my fallback is the paddletail walleye series.

Yeah.....Wegmans parking lots are much better (reference to an old post of mine).

7 oz tonic water with 1 oz lemon juice. Tough to drink, but for me it stops cramps immediately.

I used to keep a notebook. But I found that water, fish slime and notebooks did not go well together and pens don't work for crap in colder weather. My little voice recorder is kept in a ziplock bag, and I can record without removing it from the bag.

@ol'crickety...Like you, I would be lucky to remember anything beyond "a crankbait" if I didn't use my little digital voice recorded. With that, I can just make a voice note on what each fish came on, weather conditions, time of day, etc. When I get home, I try to remember to write down what worked in the conditions I was fishing under.

This has worked for me in the past here in New York State. You and the seller go to a Notary Public (around here, every bank has at least one). Have the seller write up a receipt for all the items (boat, motor, trailer) with all serial/vin numbers, with the sale price FOR THE WHOLE PACKAGE,---do NOT list it by price for each item....list it ONLY as a package deal.....the date, and stating he has sold the PACKAGE to you. Have him both print and sign his name. Have the notary document the receipt. Then write up a receipt of received goods. That is just a statement by you that you received the item (again, the whole package, not the individual items) for the agreed upon sale price. Have the notary document that. NOTE: If the seller is not close by where you are, he can go to a notary near where he lives without you being there, and can mail the document to you. You can then take that document to your notary to do your part. DO NOT lie about the price you paid....you already got one heck of a deal. Take both notarized documents to the DMV or whatever it is called in your state and get your registration. By having the notarized documents, it is unlikely that they will question the price you paid even if it is below what the boat set up would normally go for so they will not tend to bother establishing a "fair market value" to charge sales tax on. By doing this, you are not guilty of any type of fraud, but you are also not likely to get tabbed for the "market value" in sales tax. Good luck.

Gee...only FORTY ONE bass? You must be slipping. I thought I had a great night last night when I caught 18. Way to go.

I used to have Superbowl parties. Once in a while, I may even have turned the TV on. As you may have guessed from that statement, I don't follow pro football at all. Come to think of it, the only pro sport I follow is fishing. I guess my lack of interest in pro sports makes me un-American.

Considering what had been happening (thunder, lightning, wind blowing at 45mph with gusts to about 60mph) "just raining" was indeed after the storm.

We had severe thunderstorm warnings late this afternoon. Looking at the weather map, it looked like we were going to get hit at about 6pm. I thought I could get some fishing in just before it hit, so I headed down to the river at 5pm. I got there just in time for all hell to break loose. The rain came down like a monsoon, the wind was blowing so hard that the river current was actually reversed, and then the thunder and lightning came. No way could I drive in that kind of weather, so I just hunkered down in the truck to wait it out. The storm lasted about 25 minutes, and then it turned to just a steady rain. I figured what the heck....I was already at the river, so why not give it a go. And boy was I glad I did! The smallmouth bite was on.....Anytime I could get a retrieve without getting caught up on floating debris, I would get a hit. I fished until 8:30 pm. My hits all came on a medium diving crankbait in Sexy Shad pattern, and on a 1/2 oz chatterbait with a white and chartreuse skirt with a junebug ragetail trailer. I tried a wacky worm on a 3/8 oz jighead, a 1/2 oz rattle trap in Rayburn Red color, and several other crankbaits with no luck at all on them. I tried to throw a choppo, but the floating weeds and debris made that impossible. My total catch was 18 smallmouth bass. The largest was just shy of 4 lbs, and the smallest were about 1 1/4 lbs. All the others were 2-3 lbs. I got home wet, tired and very happy.

As a newcomer (relatively speaking) to the forum, I was unaware that you were/are a member. I have nothing but respect for your accomplishments and am very pleased to "make your acquaintance" so to speak. Love rage tail baits and use them all the time. They are fantastic fish catchers.

Are there any pros in the Elite series, or MLF that are currently using these? I would like to see their opinions. I know there is a considerable difference between use by an amateur, a sometimes tournament fisherman and a fulltime pro. My thought on the matter is that a pro will use the heck out of a reel far more quickly than any other fisherman, and they would be in a better position to tell how the reels are going to hold up.....I have no doubt that the initial quality of the reels is good but only hard use and/or time will tell how they hold up......

We are spoiled by color choices these days. I am old enough to remember when the color choices in stores was pretty much limited to black, white, yellow, chartreuse, and green....and sometimes purple. I suppose that if you were lucky enough to live near a Bass Pro shop, or had access to their catalog, your choices were broader. I remember being amazed to see a pre-rigged Cream brand plastic worm that was black with (gasp!) white spots. And back then, there was no internet to order things from. Yes, I am "that" old.

My guess at that point the answer was "Never" followed by an unflattering description of your heritage.

So you are saying you are a slow learner?

I have caught several Pike with lures in their mouths, and one Tiger Muskey with a huge double spinner lure stuck to the side of its' face. None of the fish seemed bothered by them, and were healthy looking and were obviously still eating. I caught one bass with a small (1/4 oz <?>) jig head and grubtail hooked in its' lower jaw. It had been there a while by the look of it, but it did not stop the bass from feeding, and he didn't seem much bothered by it. In all cases, I removed the lures and released the fish.

Now I understand. I was envisioning bait casting set ups, and just could not see how that worked. On the other hand, it makes perfect sense on a spinning set up, and is in fact, how I hold that type.

Interesting. When I link to their site, it comes up under the heading of Cemco Inc. Cemco is a construction company that does aggregate processing among other things. Weird. The site does list some of...but not all of...Top Brass products.

Can you tell me where the company was located? Any other info at all? I would love to find out more about them. So far the only thing I have found is that Dicks Sporting goods carries Carolina rigs made by a company of the same name....I wonder if it is the same company?

Today was a gorgeous day...Sunny, clear, 70 degrees for a high, light breeze all day. Not really the perfect day for fishing, but it sure was nice out. Anyway, I went down to the river at 5:30pm, and fished until 9:30pm. It was absolutely beautiful out, but the fish were not cooperating in the least. I tried topwater, shallow cranks, deep cranks, flukes, and 10" worms both weighted and weightless, texas rigged and wacky rigged senkos. I could not buy a single bite. The only exciting thing that happened was shortly after dark, just after I lifted my crankbait out of the water there was a giant explosion right there.....I thought that a musky has taken a swipe at the lure and missed it and I was trying to get the lure right back into the water...but just as I dropped it back in, a beaver surfaced right there again, and slapped the water with its' tail, and then swam off. That was really a buzz kill, but at least it got the old adrenaline going <G>. After I settled down, I tossed a buzz bait and a spinner bait for a while, and only caught weeds. Packed up and went home. Still a nice night out there even though I never had a sign of a fish.

and if they still feel a bit tackey, lightly dust them with talcum powder or cornstarch and then wipe that off.