Great day..

[Kirtley Howe]

I had my best day of fishing this season (so far) today. As most of you know, I missed the first third of the season due to health issues and surgeries, so my season has been shorter than normal. But today was great.  I was fishing from shore as I don't have a boat right now.  I live in Owego NY, and was fishing the Susquehanna River.

We have had several days of unseasonably warm weather. Temperatures have been in the high seventies, somewhat windy, mix of clouds and sun. Water temps are in the mid to high 50s. Water level is very low due to lack of rain for the past month. 

Went out at about 12:30 pm and fished until 4:30 pm.  I started at a creek mouth on the main river. This area has a shallow soft bottom flat of 2-3ft. with a channel that reaches about 5-6 ft that cuts through it. I had no luck at all in this area no matter what technique or lures I used. I left after about 45 min. I moved on to an area where there was a shallow rocky flat adjoining a deep (considering the overall lack of water) channel of 8-9ft that ran right along shore. No luck there, and I got chased off by several other inconsiderate angles who kept casting over my line and being generally obnoxious. I was only there about 30 minutes. I went to an area where there was a large rocky bottom flat with some scattered wood laydowns and a few boulders. There was some minimal submerged weed growth in a few areas. The water depth was from 3ft to about 5ft, with a few pockets that maybe hit 6 1/2 feet.  In the next 2 1/2 hours, I caught 29 smallmouth bass, and one 19" Walleye.  Most of the fish came on a 4" original floating Rapala minnow (silver with a black back) that i would cast out and just twitch on the surface, with 15-20 second pauses between each twitch. I missed several fish because the fish would blow up and knock the lure completely out of the water. When they did make good contact, the hit was massive.  The fish were very acrobatic, and tons of fun to play on the light spinning tackle I was using. I had a 7' light action rod with a 2000 size reel with 6 lb extra limp Trilene line.  I caught 3 bass on Bass Pro Choppo lure in the 110 size which I cast on a MHMF baitcasting rod with a Johnny Morris reel loaded with 14lb test Excell mono, and 2 more on a shallow running generic square bill in a sexy shade pattern, and one more on a chatterbait in Citrus green with a matching minnow style trailer.

The bass were mostly in the 1 1/2 lb to 2 lb range, with the smallest being 1 lb even, and the largest and last one of the day at 3 lb 7 oz. 

Tomorrow the high temperature for the day is going to be in the mid 40s and the low will be about 29.  Sunday will be slightly warmer, but is supposed to be very windy. However, the middle of next week is supposed to warm back up to the mid 60 to 70 range, with some possible showers, so I guess my season is not done yet. I am hoping for a repeat of what happened today, but will be satisfied if I catch a "few" when I get back out.

BTW, happy Halloween!

[Dwight Hottle]

Congrats on the great day. Just what you needed, 

[Fishlegs]

30 fish in 2 1/2 hours is a mighty fine time. Congrats! I hope you get another day just like it next week.

[Swamp Girl]

28 minutes ago, Fishlegs said:

30 fish in 2 1/2 hours is a mighty fine time. Congrats!