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Susquehanna 2011 - Page 6

post #76 of 177
7/11/11 at 4:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by riverrunner View Post

^^^^ Dave, I understand the price you pay for topwater. 2 in 5 get away. It's the same with smallies, however, I love top water and next to jigs in cold water it's my favorite way to catch fish and I am willing to pay the price. It has been my experience that if I can get one swirl, if I keep at it I will come up with "large". They are a most perplexing fish.

There are topwaters that are better hooking baits than others. Stay away from "walk the dog" presentations as they will cause a lot of fish to miss. Usually when they miss they don't come back. Get yourself a Whopper Plopper and fish it slower than you would think for muskies. It's a better hooking bait.

If there is a lot of fishing pressure in that area, even if it's not for muskies, and the fish are seeing lots of lures....topwater will not be your best bet for BIG fish.

Just my .02
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post #77 of 177
7/12/11 at 5:25am
Dave I recently bought a whopper plopper myself. You say to fish them slower than you would think for skis... I also have a top raider I like to throw occasionally. Do you think the WP should be worked slower than a Top Raider or do you fish them both pretty slow?

BTW, Riverrunner man I hope you get another crack at that big girl.... Definitely post some pics if you get her. icon14.gif

These fish are so addicting! Problem for me is that I haven't learned catch them yet with any degree of consistency, lol.
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post #78 of 177
7/12/11 at 10:56am

The thing that people forget about when fishing with topwater baits is that it is a completely different hook setting motion that you do than you would let say a bucktail.  While using topwater while musky fishing I have always paused a one one-thousand count and then done a swooping back then up motion (which isn't the best explanation but google search it a lot of stuff on this.)  That said I have got over excited and screwed this up multiple times, but when doing this i have greatly increased my hook up ratio, especially on walk the dog baits.  I think if you have package for the topraider still they explain this on there.  Also to put my input in on the speed thing it all depends on situation but mostly you want the thud nice and loud so you can't work it too slow, but I have had the best success with topraiders and lee choppers when it is wavy (especially) or at night, and pretty much always black.  Another thing that i have experienced is that they want it at a consistent speed through the whole retrieve which is weird bc every other bait i use i usually switch speeds in the middle of my retrieve to trigger hits and to find what speed they are looking for it at.  Best of luck to all in their Musky hunts.

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post #79 of 177
7/12/11 at 10:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tfeller16 View Post

The thing that people forget about when fishing with topwater baits is that it is a completely different hook setting motion that you do than you would let say a bucktail.  While using topwater while musky fishing I have always paused a one one-thousand count and then done a swooping back then up motion (which isn't the best explanation but google search it a lot of stuff on this.)  That said I have got over excited and screwed this up multiple times, but when doing this i have greatly increased my hook up ratio, especially on walk the dog baits.  I think if you have package for the topraider still they explain this on there.  Also to put my input in on the speed thing it all depends on situation but mostly you want the thud nice and loud so you can't work it too slow, but I have had the best success with topraiders and lee choppers when it is wavy (especially) or at night, and pretty much always black.  Another thing that i have experienced is that they want it at a consistent speed through the whole retrieve which is weird bc every other bait i use i usually switch speeds in the middle of my retrieve to trigger hits and to find what speed they are looking for it at.  Best of luck to all in their Musky hunts.


Awesome advice!
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post #80 of 177
9/8/11 at 12:06pm
Thread Starter 
Where do you think the fish will be ? Compare and contrast. It's been a loooooong hot summer, patterns are starting to turn at last. Looking at 27+ ft. Friday !!! From one extreme to another.

Around 9 foot.
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What's underneath ????
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High water I'll be parked right on top of that large rock. All that overhang and lower growth will not be there in early high water.
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Same here...I'll be anchored on top of that main rock with the high water eddy below.
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Any moderate length of shore line on most flowing river systems will have these places.
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The trick is to understand where these places are and use them to your advantage.
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On a moderate length, 3/4 to 1 mile stretch of shore line, it may only contain a few of these spots. Best to know where they are before they are covered. Rocks and structure along a length of shore line are the key to holding fish in moving high water. Some times far and few between on any given length.
Edited by riverrunner - 9/8/11 at 12:19pm
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post #81 of 177
9/10/11 at 4:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by riverrunner View Post

On a moderate length, 3/4 to 1 mile stretch of shore line, it may only contain a few of these spots. Best to know where they are before they are covered. Rocks and structure along a length of shore line are the key to holding fish in moving high water. Some times far and few between on any given length.

Man great post... I really like your last statement. It really is surprising how different things look along the river bank, come cooler weather and higher flows. If you aren't looking... it's so easy to miss some of the best spots. Definitely an advantage scouting things out in summer.

Good to see you posting btw... I am assuming things turned out ok for you guys? Saw your other post in the tavern... Some crazy stuff that went down for sure! Especially the wild west buffalo killing. Hope your wife wasn't too upset... I know I'd hate for my wife to have to witness something like that, haha. Hope all is well.
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post #82 of 177
9/11/11 at 11:28am
Thread Starter 
TJ...all is well, just a lot of work ahead. We dodged a major bullet. If it would have rained for one more day it would have been extremely bad. They might want to look at the design of the flood walls in Wilkes Barre. They looked like they were about to blow on the last day, that would not have been good.
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post #83 of 177
9/11/11 at 11:51am
Thread Starter 
What a long hot summer !!! Those long stretches of hot weather had me feeling sorry for the fish so we decided to only fish in highly oxygenated waters for a while. Nothing major but plenty of fish, we had some triple digit days between three guys. One thing that was encouraging was the number of smaller and mid sized smallies caught and sighted. Top water, flukes, and a certain spinner bait seemed to be what worked best.

My son-in-law and his friend. His friend rarely fished the river before I took him out last year. Now that's all he does. wink.gif

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post #84 of 177
9/12/11 at 6:06pm
I like to fish the Susky around Harrisburg up to the Statue of Liberty. I REALLY like fishing low water conditions in the fall. Guess I'll have to let this fall slip by without making a single cast. I can pick up Channel 8 outta Harrisburg all the way from Emmitsburg MD using my roof antenna. They had extensive coverage of the flood, I watched it for hours. I really feel for the 1000s of folks that got flooded out. Looked like a real mess.
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post #85 of 177
9/12/11 at 8:44pm
Nice smallies, never pulled anything more then a few fallfish up there. lol
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post #86 of 177
9/13/11 at 5:35am

I'm originally from PA wilkes-Barre area I currently live in WV. One thing I miss about PA is the mighty Susquehanna. Best smallmouth fishing hands down. Every chance I get to fish while visiting family i go. According to family members still living there they've really taken a lick with the floods this past week but everyone seems to be coming together and helping one another

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post #87 of 177
9/13/11 at 8:16am
Thread Starter 
HJS....that is a great stretch, plus you can go to the deck bars on the west shore and just relax and watch the river.

Tabidon...that is the key, working together. If you have lived in the river valley any length of time you know this is going to happen from time to time. We lucked out this time if it would have rained one more day it would have been really bad. I spoke to one 84 year old woman calmly sitting on her porch from my boat as the water was coming up. She raised her family in the same house for 60 plus years and was alone now. I asked if she wanted to go now ? She calmly said, "don't you worry about me young man, I've seen plenty of these, come back in an hour or two I just want to be here for a while in case I don't get back." Now that's spirit !!!!
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post #88 of 177
9/13/11 at 6:02pm

where ar you at in PA

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post #89 of 177
9/14/11 at 10:04am
Thread Starter 
In order to divulge that information I would have to see your " papers, security clearance, finger prints, and retina scan". biggrin.gif South Central PA.....look at my posts, I'm an open book. I do fish 100 plus miles of the Susky and try to keep that part, at least as far as locations go, understated.
Edited by riverrunner - 9/14/11 at 2:50pm
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post #90 of 177
9/14/11 at 4:20pm
Thread Starter 
Way AWESOME day !!!! Took the boat out a week or two ago. Put in at a close launch just to get fishing faster. The east side was major brown color gradually tapering of to a color line break on the west shore of about 500+ yards to shore. Flow was practically non existent, the one thing I didn't like . Should be easy....slow float a good section and hammer the structure, many fishies. Two plus hours not a tap. We decided the only thing missing was the flow. Pulled the boat and drove 45 minutes to a new section. When we put in the east shore side was now an awful brown mess. As we headed to some flow and highly oxygenated water we lucked out and had a color line of about 100 yards to shore. First cast, bang, nice plump one. Second cast, bigger jumper. We fished for about four hours and lost count of the fish we caught. Easily 20+ quality fish. And to make it even better they were literally jumping out of the water 4 and 5 feet when they hit. Of those 20+ fish 6 were in the 19 to 21 inch range some topping 5+ pounds. That is hard to do...some times you fish for days and can't connect with a biggin.

Bait Caster....12 lb test.
War Eagle 1/2 oz. spinner bait.
Water temp...72 degrees. Air temp high 80's.
Key...Fish the color line in the most oxygenated water that could be found.

Here is a smorgyboard of the day. Pics would have been better but wifey used it before and didn't charge the batteries.

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