Help Me Out With This Scenario

[Balshy Fishing]

Haven't posted in here since the fall, it's been a long while! Excited to get back into the swing of things as it gets warmer but I have a question about current conditions.

For the past few days, it's been much warmer out in central PA as temperatures have been in the upper-40's to mid-50's. Today, it was 58 but it rained a bunch. There has been ice along the shallows at the Susquehanna and with all the melting snow and rain recently, the river stage is up quite a bit. 

Given that temperatures have been rising and there has been ice around the shallows, how would you fish a river with stained/muddy water after a fresh rain? I'm hoping that it'll get some of the fish active even more and I can catch some biggins'. I know that topwater is out but what do y'all recommend? 

Any help would be phenomenal! 

[Turkey sandwich]

I've never fished the Susquehanna with these kinds of weird conditions, but I'm pretty curious.  Growing up, I avoided the river with crazy conditions like this because it would get pretty dangerous in the Wilkes-Barre area.  

What is the water temp like?

Are the ramps clear of ice?

 

Generally, smallmouth are tough in muddy water, but you still might have options.  If the weather stays crazy warm like this, I wouldn't be surprised if walleye are already moving up to spawn within the next few weeks with the smallmouth not far behind in early April.  If the water temp is rising and I was looking for the most active fish, I would focus on flooded shorelines, staging areas between deep and shallow water with moderate current (any kind of boulders are a big plus), and anywhere clear water is flowing into the stained stuff (fish the seam).  If it's all chocolate milk, that's a tough day on the water.  

 

 

[Preytorien]

Occasionally our local river will be similar to your situation. I find it very very difficult to fish that way for a couple of reasons. Maybe mine are different than yours, but here's what I've found.

First, the water is muddy. River fishing is aided a lot by clear water since bass will sit in low current areas and wait for prey to ambush. Their sight gives them their first inclination of food. Muddy water makes it just that much more difficult. Not that it's impossible, they'll still use their lateral line, but it's just that much harder in faster moving muddy water, even if you find the eddies, you have to drop the lure right in front of their noses. 

Add to the muddy water the fact that the river is up and probably moving quite a bit faster. I use a handy app that gives me streamflow data for USGS stations along our river. You have to do a bit of historical plotting, but you can see what's considered slow, moderate, and fast flow for your river. If the flow is anything above Low-Moderate for me, I don't give much thought to fishing it. Your choice of baits will be limited to very heavy jigs or crankbaits. In my river fishing experience, crankbaits are asking to be hung and lost in a muddy, dirty, fast flowing river, and for us, anything less than a 1oz jig will just be quickly tumbled downstream, and that's a heavy enough jig to get caught up on bottom debris. As you said topwater is out, and would be pretty tough too with fast flow.

So, in these cases I try to find still waters, or just take the chance of warm weather to do outdoor work needing done so when the water's more friendly I can take advantage. But if you're wanting just hit the river, go for it, I'm in Indiana, so I understand the need to break out the gear after a long winter. 

Here's a link to the app I use. Like I said I have used it a while and created custom levels as to what I feel are effective and (more importantly) safe levels to wade, since that's what I do a lot of. It's a big help to be able to glance at my phone when I wake up on a Saturday morning and instantly see if wading or kayaking will be in my fishing plans that day. Good luck!

http://www.rivercastapp.com/

 

 

[smalljaw67]

I'll be honest, the river is going to crest at 11.2' at Harrisburg in the next 2 days and that is plain dangerous, especially since you'll have ice flows coming with a lot of debris at a fast rate. I fish the river a lot but not until the ice has completely gone and the current slows a bit, my buddy had a tree trunk practically capsize his boat when a lot of rain knocked back the ice and he had to go out. If you do go out, find areas close to shore with slack water, that is where you will find them when the water is up as they will head toward the bank. Hair jigs, tubes, grubs, and small swimbaits are going to be used as the water will probably be muddy.

[Bass Turd]

I hired a guide out of Harrisburg last fall and caught my first Smallmouth. Call a tackle store and ask about guides. You can get a feel for conditions If the guides aren't going it may be worth it to wait.

[Megastink]

Stay home. It's dangerous. When it falls to normal pool, silver buddies and 1/8pz hair jigs around deep, rocky eddies.

[ww2farmer]

6 hours ago, Megastink said:

Stay home. It's dangerous. When it falls to normal pool, silver buddies and 1/8pz hair jigs around deep, rocky eddies.

I agree............not only on the safety aspect, but cold muddy water 99% of the time equals terrible fishing. In fact, I think it's just the worst condition going no matter what body of water. 

[primetime]

I fished that river when younger since it was not that far from Long Island and we would catch good numbers of Smallmouth but I think we always had our trips later in the season, never dangerous or cold conditions...I remember those trips as some of my favorite weekends, that River was awesome as far as action, never caught any huge fish, but if muddy and moving water, cold...Sounds like a good time to wait for a warming trend...Muddy water will be good if the Sun is out for a few days as it heats up faster than clear water, I would think a Floating Rattling Rogue would be a great bait anytime of year on the river. Really Muddy water is just tough, Sound is helpful, but so is finding water that is not muddy or stressful...Takes the fun away from fishing...River's are tough, that much I remember from my Upstate NY days...Not similar to lake fishing at all....