Susquehanna River Advice Needed!

[FishinCop646]

My club decided to fish some new water this year. We are launching on the Susquehanna River out of Williamsport, PA on April 5th. I have never seen the water and can not find any fishing reports for it. The odds of being able to prefish for me are slim. Anyone familiar with the water and willing to help a guy out with some info?

[Megastink]

You should call Mike or George Accord at Susquehanna Fishing Tackle in Lancaster, PA. They fish the Suskie often. Mike was telling me that he fishes hair jigs down steep sloping banks downstream from shallow points aka current breaks. Keep your jerkbaits close by at all times! Thats the best I can do. Good luck!

 

Side note: this post will be moved to Northeast Region forum, I'm sure. This is a local question. but, whil its here, I'll help. Good luck!

[Duckbutter100]

We fish it down towards Harrisburg. 

 

Jerk baits and sweet beavers seemed to do the best for us. Natural color beavers and bright jerks(although the water was clear).

 

I also had good luck on black 4" Berkeley Grubs. I fished them with lose bullet weight on nose and T-Rigged. 

[flyfisher]

i have fished the sunbury to harrisburg areas quie a few times and i can say to be careful out there if the water is low.......it has been known to take a few boats prisoners from the hidden ledges

[jhoffman]

Its deep in that area, they run big boats on it mid summer. It will fish more like a lake

[hawghunters]

I fish club tournaments on the Susquehanna a lot, but further south. Biggest thing to key in on is current breaks: Islands, rock ledges, humps, deposits of sand/small rocks ouside a creek. Best baits for spring time are smaller tubes (I like cabin creek), spinnerbaits, senkos, poppers. That stretch of the river is pretty far north, its gotta be some shallow water, but i havent fished it.

x2 on giving Mike and George a call. They'll tell you what's up.

[Bruce424]

Tubes with tube jigs. Blue green pumpkin. Or just green pumpkin

[slainempire]

in spring i have a ton of success with shallow cranks and squarebills.  craw style cranks like the rebel craw work well, as well as rapala dt4's and rebel wee frogs.  in general browns and greens tear up those susquehanna smallies.

[FishinCop646]

Thanks for all the info. This alone doubled my knowledge of the water!

[slainempire]

i have a spot thats awesome that is a 10 minute walk from my front door.  im near the wilkes barre area.  you can catch them all kinds of ways in spring but cranks are my go to.  also caught tons using spinnerbaits, inline spinners, texas rigged anything, grubs on jigheads, tubes, buzzbaits...heck even nightcrawlers and shiners.  it really is a great river to fish.  night fishing for big cats in the summertime is pretty fun too.

[slainempire]

i forgot to add look for eddys just behind shallow rapids, any laydowns, and transitions from rocky areas to more sandy type bottom.  i fished it probably 55-60 days last year since its so convenient for me to get there.

[ColdSVT]

Beavers, jerkbaits, and spinner baits work well in that area...be aware of the occasional esox...they get big in there too!

[jaysen]

i fish it in binghamton ny. hooked a rather large tiger muskie once, was an amazing moment of my life. i learned that green mister twisters with a 1/4 oz jighead bounced on the bottom was the most effective. lots of smallmouth bass and walleye. some trout as well as large carp. you never know what will hit your lure. square bills work too. 

[PAGreg]

I live 5 minutes from the susquehanna up Williamsport way. I always do well using 3" goldish colored beavers and white/shad colored spinnerbaits with a copper colorado blade. Theres something about that copper colorado that the smallmouth love. Check out confidencebaits.net. He had a bunch of great kayak fishing videos from the area you are interested in.

[FishinCop646]

Well, bad news. I found out at last nights meeting that our tournament on the river was moved to a local lake. Our director could not secure a permit. With all the advice and good things I have heard I plan to make a trip to the river sometime this spring though. Again, thanks for the help!

[jhoffman]

If you have the boat to run shallow go lower on the river, below the shamokin dam

[FishinCop646]

I wish I did at times. I'm not a fan of my Gambler and shallow water mentioned in the same sentence.

[PAGreg]

Hmm. That sucks. The Williamsport Bassmasters fish out of the Linden launch all the time. At least they did...