Chunky Susquehanna River smallmouth bass

Fall can be one of the best times to be on the water casting away for those eager fish trying to fatten up before the long winter. I recently had the pleasure of fishing with a “band of anglers” from the Harrisburg area. Six anglers total converged on Shamokin, Pennsylvania for some  fall fishing in the balmy waters of the Susquehanna River.

We converged on local fast food place at 6:30 a.m., downed some coffee while plotting our strategy to land some of those chunky Susquehanna River smallmouth bass. We also hoped to get a bonus Walleye or two for our efforts. It was very apparent that these fellas were some serious anglers…like myself. I drove about 1.5 hours to arrive on site and many of the others had at least a 1 hour drive. Now that’s dedication! Of course as we drank our morning “go juice” and talked strategy, we also managed to tell a few tall tails about our past fishing adventures.

Fueled by coffee, we convoyed down to the rivers edge. Before unlaoding the gear, we surveyed the water and took a quick temperature reading…water was cold!! This is a good time to mention that cold water is definitely no place for the novice paddler. Check out this recent warning from the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. We dragged out kayaks down to the rivers edge, loaded our fishing gear on board and paddled off up the river. It must have been quite a site for the onlookers to see six kayaks in a flotilla of sorts gliding up river to our fishing destination.

The river didn’t disappoint us. Most of us caught smallmouth and one of our crew even landed a very nice walleye. I landed a good number of smallmouth and one that was quite memorable. I was tossing a suspending jerkbait into a current break, cranking it down to depth then just letting it drift with the current. This is a common way to work the bait in the cold fall water. I was talking to one of my fishing companions when…WHAM! Something almost ripped the rod out of my hand. Of course, I reacted with a sharp hook set but whatever was on the  end of my line didn’t budge an inch….AND THEN..it pulled back. It was a seesaw battle that had my kayak doing donuts and my rod doubled over. After a long back and forth battle, the fish finally showed itself. It was a fat football shaped beautiful bronze colored smallmouth bass! A couple of quick photos later and I freed him to fight another day. We fished on through most of the day but no fish fought with the determination of that 17.5 inch hard headed fish!!

It was a great day on the water with some new friends and some fantastic fall scenery. The fall colors are just starting to take hold on the riverbank which certainly added to the experience. There’s nothing like fall in the woods of Pennsylvania! That being said, we’re already talking about a second trip farther north on the river…of course in the spring when the water warms. I’m definitely looking forward to it!