Susquehanna river smallies

[erussell]

Been killing the smallmouth for the last week on the susquehanna. Last Tuesday I got 23 and Saturday I got 15 smallies and a baby walleye. I took my wife and daughter out today to join in on the fun and they had a blast. Here's some pics.

[Pygmy]

Those are some fine smallmouths, especially for river bass.

Cool to see that the girls in your life are sharing the fun.

Fishing bait or artificials ?

Nothing against bait fishing, but I usually don't bother with bait on the river.. My main lure is a 1/16 or sometimes a 1/8 oz. hair jig (black or brown)on light spinning tackle. I tie my own jigs and they work well for both bass and walleyes.

[burmjohn]

Nice pics, can't wait to go fishing again.

[skyhunter]

very nice smallies.

[Doc]

I remember throwing a few spinners in the river a bunch of years (maybe a few decades?) ago while passing through Binghampton. I can't remember where we got access. It was just one of those deals where we saw the water and said let's give it a try. We caught and released bunches of those smallmouths. But none like the one in the picture. however, it sure showed the potential of that stretch of the river. Unfortunately, I never got a chance to get back and explore the river there.

[Jba1133]

Nice fish.

[erussell]

Got them all on twisters, spinners or rattletraps. Biggest river smallies I ever got were two 20 in fish . largest smallie I ever got was a 23in beast out of chenangovalley state park. I didnt have anything to weigh him with but I had my tape on me. put him back in to terrorize the stocky trout.

Edited August 7, 2012 by erussell

[Early]

Nice bass....all on artificials, Huh? I prefer live bait for river smallies, but your success has me thinking about trying some hardware. Thanks for the post.

[erussell]

Nice bass....all on artificials, Huh? I prefer live bait for river smallies, but your success has me thinking about trying some hardware. Thanks for the post.

no problem

[HuntOrBeHunted]

Nice bass man, let's hope I have some pics with some monters off the Oneinda lake.

Bill.

[erussell]

I broke my river record for smallmouth today with a 21 in fish. Slammed a 5inch silver rapula just before dark. Unfortunatelly since I was wading around the river I have no photo evidence since I left my phone in the car which is a real bummer, he was a fine fish. Caught and released about 9 other smallish fish and lost numerous others to thier high flying acrobatics. Things were alot slower today but a real nice night on the river.

[HuntOrBeHunted]

Nice job man, can't get a pic of them all.

[erussell]

I think next time im going to put the phone in a plastic sandwich bag and seal it up and put in my back pocket. Should keep it dry if I take a spill. I hope. If I ruin another phone my wife is going to kill me.

Edited August 10, 2012 by erussell

[HuntOrBeHunted]

I think next time im going to put the phone in a plastic sandwich bag and seal it up and put in my back pocket. Should keep it dry if I take a spill. I hope. If I ruin another phone my wife is going to kill me.

Yea thats one person you don't want mad at you. And deer season is coming fast gotta keep the old lady on your good side haha!!

[HuntOrBeHunted]

U see any big northern getting caught out the lake?

[erussell]

U see any big northern getting caught out the lake?

No, just bass, walleye, white perch and drum. is all ive ever got out of there. Most of the Pike ive ever caught were out of the St Lawerance.

[HuntOrBeHunted]

No, just bass, walleye, white perch and drum. is all ive ever got out of there. Most of the Pike ive ever caught were out of the St Lawerance.

Nice, I was intending on hitting the lake this weekend but that didn't work out. I'll be trying to go this weekend and fishing for bass myself. I've been working on a few plots for deer season! I'll let ya know how I make on on the lake.

Bill.

[erussell]

Ok, I hit the river again for 8 hrs Saturday and finished up at dark with 27 smallies. Nothing special this time, most averaged between 10 and 12 inch. With all the rain we had Fri the river was a bit murkey so they were mostly all caught on flouresent green twister.

[erussell]

Hit the suckyhanna and the chenango river today for 5 hrs and ended up wit 17 small, smallmouth. The two who were going to be the biggest fish of the day did some high jump acrobatics and flung the lures back at me one nearly missed my head. So a 12 incher was the largest. Still no walleye yet.

[erussell]

Got out on whitney point with the boat a few times last week and picked up a few smallies around the islands along with a few small crappies and rock bass. But still no walleyes yet.

Finally got out again tonight on the suckyhanna and wasnt expecting much due to the amount of rain we got the last few days. Water was the consistancy of chocolate milk but not much higher than its been running. Started out with the usual flourecent twisters and spinners without any luck. Was about to pack it in when I threw on a flour green crankbait and 1st cast I landed a nice 18 in walleye. Next cast I snagged up and lost the crankbait so I dont know if it would have caught me more but it was time to go home anyhow. Heading up to Oneida this weekend, buddy says the walleye have started hitting again so Ill see if I can get a 3 day limit of yummy fillets again. Were going for some perch to so it could be xtra yummy.

[erussell]

Trip was a bust got there as the cold front hit and the fish got a sever case of lock jaw. We picked up one 18 in walleye Sat. morning and then a 20 mph wind picked up and the rest of the day was nasty. We ended up with 4 big perch and no more walleye on Sat. All went back in the lake. Sunday morning we got zero walleye and 5 more big perch all went back in the lake also. Pretty disapointing.