River Update

Our employee Tim fished the river today, Sunday, with his brother. They fished above Harrisburg and had a great day. They landed 15 smallmouth bass, 13 of them were over 17 inches. The biggest smallmouth was caught by Tim, in the picture above, and measured 19 1/2 inches and extremely fat. 2 fish were caught on tubes, the rest came on HawgHead spinnerbaits. Tim caught all 9 of his bass on the color Gray Shad in 3/8 oz.

Most of the fish Tim caught were along some type of wood, either a log jam or a laydown tree, on the sides or below islands. A couple of smallmouth were caught from current seams below islands. His brother landed some of his bass on a new color of HawgHead spinnerbait called Baby Bass.

Visbility on the river ranged from several feet on the West shore to just a few inches in the middle and East shore. The majority of the fish were caught from islands in the middle of the river. Water temperature ranged from 52 degrees in the morning to 56 degrees in the early afternoon.

Weekend Update

We wanted to provide an up-to-date fishing report for this weekend. Just a short while ago, a very happy young angler brought in a large female crappie to be weighed and measured. It weighed in at 2 lbs and 4 ounces, 16 1/2 inches long and a girth of 13 inches. We kept it in our bait tanks to keep it alive and then the angler took it back down to the lake and released it. This way it could finish spawning. He caught it on a minnow. Other anglers are doing well on crappie today on small shiners and fathead minnows.

Trout anglers also reported good catches today. Fathead minnows and Super Duper spoons are catching most of the fish. The best colors of spoons are gold and silver/red.

What a beautiful weekend!

We are in store for one beautiful weekend so if you can, get outside and do a little fishing.

One angler reported catching a 21 inch brown trout on the Yellow Breeches yesterday. He uses fathead minnows and is averaging 12 to 15 trout per trip. He is mostly catch and release but will keep a few for dinner from time to time.

Crappies in the 15 and 16 inch range have been caught every day this week. Fathead minnows and small shiners are the best baits lately with the lake still being a little dirty. Try to find any stump, tree, laydown, etc that you can and you should find a few hungry crappies. The bite has slowed of soft plastics. GIVE THOSE BIG CRAPPIES A LITTLE BIT OF MEAT!

Bass on Pinchot are still extremely slow with fish being caught sporatically on tubes, spinnerbaits and Rat-L-Traps. These cold nights have dropped the water temperature a few degrees again. Muskies are still being caught in the upper end of the lake.

The Susquehanna River is slowly falling and still a little dirty, but clearing up some. Spinnerbaits along current seams and tubes will be catching most of the smallmouth now.

REMEMBER, May 6th walleye/pike/musky come back in season. Guys fishing for walleye now, catch and release of course, are doing extremely well on small shiners and fathead minnows below the York Haven Dam.

Enjoy the sunshine this weekend and we'll see everyone at the bait shop!

More Nice Crappies

Anglers are reporting that the crappie action yesterday on Pinchot was a little on the slow side but they did get some nice ones. Several 11 and 12 inchers were caught along with a nice fat 15 incher. Fathead minnows and small shiners did best for anglers yesterday.

Trout anglers reported that yesterday was the day of the spinner! Silver Blue Fox spinners and gold CP Swings continue to bring in many trout from the Yellow Breeches.

White Perch action on Marburg is really heating up now. Fish the second bridge with nightcrawlers and you should have a blast!

Fishing Update

The Yellow Breeches creek continues to produce good catches of trout for anglers using Fathead minnows and CP Swings. They indicate the clarity/level is perfect and the trout are hitting hard!

Pinchot - Musky are being caught in good nubers, mostly by bass anglers using Rat-L-Trap lures. Crappies are hit and miss still as the clarity of the lake is a little on the dirty side. A few bank anglers are battling some big catfish on chicken livers with one fellow almost losing a rod to a hard hitting channel catfish.

River anglers are doing well, mostly on spinnerbaits in 3/8 oz and 1/2 oz sizes.

Lake/Stream/River Conditions

Just wanted to update everyone on local water conditions so you can plan your trips this week.

Lake Pinchot - the lake rose 2 feet with the rain we received over the weekend. The visibility is 2 feet, maybe a little more. That made the crappie fishing fairly tough on Sunday with just a few over 12 inches caught. They were caught on fathead minnows and small shiners. Crappie anglers reported catching a few nice largemouth bass too.

Yellow Breeches - the level has come down and the creek is clearing up nicely. Anglers are reporting awesome fishing trips the last few days on fathead minnows, Rooster Tails in White Coachdog and Gold CP Swings.

Susquehanna River - level is up to just about 5 feet with a slight stain in some areas and a heavy stain in other areas. Areas of the river right below where creeks dump in is dirtier than other areas. Anglers are reporting good catches on tubes, hair jigs and spinnerbaits. Spinnerbaits are getting the larger fish lately.

That's it for today.

Wet, Wet, Wet....

We sure do need this rain so beak out the rain gear this weekend! You should find the lakes, rivers and creeks a lot less crowded this weekend. Several trout anglers had success this morning on the Yellow Breeches using Red Meal Worms. Others did well with Wax Worms.

There's a few crappie anglers on Pinchot today and hopefully they are finding a few fish. Reports keep coming in from the river and the numbers of fish being caught is outstanding!

So get out if you can!

Trout/Fishing Report

Local trout anglers have been having spotty success on the local creeks, mostly the Yellow Breeches. With the water being low and clear, early morning and late evening are going to be your best times. One clear water trout tip for ya - take a Gold Swiss Swing or CP Swing spinner and get out there early, about 4:30 am, sometime before sunrise. We know that's early but if you want to catch a bunch of trout now with low clear water, that's the way to do it. The fish are a lot less spooky when it's dark and they feed a lot more.

Bass in Pinchot were cooperating for a pair of anglers yesterday who reported catching 8 keeper sized bass on soft plastic worms. But most anglers are still reporting slow catches for bass. Crappie are still being caught with some real nice ones coming in this week. Fathead minnows has been the top bait the last day or so.

The Susquehanna River at the York Haven Dam is on fire! 3 fisherman caught a total of 218 fish yesterday, consisting of walleye and smallmouth. They were using fat head minnows and SLOWLY bouncing them along the bottom. Their biggest walleye was 21 inches and their biggest smallmouth was 20 inches.

White Perch are being caught on Lake Marburg. Fisherman are having the best luck at the second bridge. They are using a heavy weight on their line to cast as far as possible. Most are catching the white perch on the bottom on a small piece of nightcrawler.

Fishing Report

This warm weather sure has the crappie on Pinchot good and hungry. Yesterday many of the crappie anglers stopped by our shop reporting good catches of crappie over 12 inches. One fellow had 15 crappie over 12 inches. They seem to be slowing down on the red/white shad darts. They were using Gitzit Little Tough Guys crappie jigs, fathead minnows and some white and pink/white twister tails.

Bass anglers on the lake are a little frustrated with how slow the bass are on Pinchot. Most bass guys are only catching 2 or 3 largemouths each trip with maybe one of those around 15 inches, the rest are smaller fish. They are throwing Rat-L-Traps, spinnerbaits and jerkbaits. Water temp in the shallow areas is up to 63 degrees as of yesterday afternoon.

Fishing Update

Tim, our shop employee, took his Dad out fishing Monday and Tuesday near his hometown of Williamsport, PA. This is Tim's report -

"I took Dad out fishing Monday at Little Pine State Park for trout. We had a pretty good day and brought some trout home for the grill. The weather was beautiful. A little chilly in the morning but it warmed up nice. Tuesday we went to Bald Eagle State Park looking for crappie and we found 'em!. We brought home several nice crappie including a 9, 10, 11 and 12 inch white crappie. That's the best trip we had in over 15 years at Bald Eagle for crappie. Most of the time they average 6 to 9 inches long but we found some big ones on Tuesday. We caught them on a mixture of soft plastic twister tails in white, white pearl, chartreuse and orange head/chartreuse tail. We also caught some on small hand tied feather jigs tipped with a Berkley Power Wiggler. TAKE YOUR DAD OUT FISHING!"

The pictures show Tim's Dad holding up a nice 10 inch white crappie. The other pictures are Tim holding up his 12 inch white crappie and a smaller black crappie.

Back to some local info - the river continues to be low and clear. Spinnerbaits and hard jerkbaits are catching most of the smallmouth. Anglers are also reporting finding small schools (8 to 10) of walleye in slack water areas. The walleyes have been caught on hard jerkbaits. Don't rule out hair jigs or tubes either but the fish are in more of a chasing mood so a moving/reaction bait is better.

We're starting to hear of some striper action on Pinchot finally. A couple of local anglers report seeing large explosions near the dam and a few nice hybrid stripers are being caught on big jerkbaits like a Lucky Craft Pointer 128 or 100. Laser Rainbow, Chartreuse Shad and Pearl Ayu being the better colors.

Happy Easter With Big Crappie Pictures!

Happy Easter everybody. One of our regular customers named Hal stopped in this afternoon to show off some beautiful crappie he caught today. We weighed them quickly so he could release them back into the lake. One weighed an even 2 lbs and the other crappie weighed a whopping 2 1/2 lbs. Great job Hal!

Trout Season is Here !!!!

Well, tis the season, trout is in and the weather is absolutely fantastic here in south central Pennsylvania. This will be just the first of many reports and pictures of the fish that are caught by the local anglers. We encourage everyone to either take your own photos or better yet, bring your fish to us for photos. We will get it on our website right away.

Here is Amanda Williams who caught this nice Brook Trout at the Yellow Breeches Creek with a wax worm. The fish weighed in at 3 pounds and was 18 inches long.....WAY TO GO AMANDA!!!

Check back often for more photos and a precise report after this opening day of trout season.

Check Out These Crappie!

One angler brought in a couple of big female crappie on Tuesday afternoon for a quick weight and picture. He then returned them to the lake to finish their spawning activity.

These were caught on fathead minnows on a jig head, fished below a slip float. The larger crappie, the one on the left in the picture (the angler's right hand), measured 16 inches long with a girth of 14 inches! It weighed just under 3 lbs on our certified scales and qualified this angler for a PA Fish & Boat Commission Angler Award program. The other crappie in the right of the picture was just a little smaller but still a big beauty. Again, he put them back into the lake to finish spawning.

This angler also caught a nice 30+ inch channel cat this week while fishing for crappie. He said it put up a good fight on his crappie rod!

Bass fishing on the lake is starting to pick up a little with the warmer weather. Herd jerkbaits such as Lucky Craft Pointer, Smithwick Rogues and Rapala Husky Jerks and X-raps are catching most of the bass right now.

On the river, the spinnerbait bite is just starting to kick in which makes for some awesome spring time smallmouth action! Hard jerkbaits and hair jigs are also catching a most of the fish but don't be afraid to chuck those blades now too!

Fishing Report April 7th

We wanted to give a quick fishing report to let everyone know what to expect this weekend.

The Goldsboro area of the Susquehanna River has picked up quite a bit. 1/8 oz brown and 1/8 oz black hair jigs are getting some nice smallies in the boat. Some jerkbaits are working too but due to the cold front that came in this week, the hair jigs are doing better for fisherman.

2 1/2 inch Right Bite tubes in Green Pumpkin, Roadkill and Green Pumpkin Purple Flake are doing very well for anglers too!

North of Harrisburg in the area of the Juniata River, anglers are reporting large smallies over 18 inches being caught on bucktail jigs and jerkbaits as well.

Fishing on Pinchot has slowed just a bit for crappies due to the recent cold front/high winds that came through. But they are getting some nice crappies over 15 inches up near the bridge. Average numbers per angler is around a dozen per angler per trip.

Bass fishing is still pretty slow. One angler reported catching a single bass on Thursday between 9 am and 3 pm. He also landed two musky though, on a Rat-L-Trap, near the Rossville bridge. One was just 40 inches and the other about 38 inches. That is the 7th and 8th musky we know of that has been caught in Pinchot in the last 10 days. Most of the musky have been caught up near the Rossville bridge as they are moving up there to spawn. The average water temperature on Pinchot right now is only 48 dgrees.

Weather for the weekend calls for some showers on Saturday but a much nicer day on Sunday with plenty of sunshine. Get out there and enjoy the weekend!

New Hours at the SHOP!!!

Hey all, just a quick update on our Hours for summer. Our current business hours have changed to Monday through Saturday 6am to 7pm and Sunday 6am to 5pm.

Also, we will be open on April 14th until 10pm, which is obviously the day before opening day of trout season. On April 15th we will open at 5am. As it stays light later in the evening we will increase our evening hours also, so stay tuned or feel free to call us toll-free anytime.

For those who are wanting to order bulk bait from us for any reason, IE trout, please give us a call and order ASAP if you want it for opening day of trout.

Again, we appreciate your business!!!

Big Crappies - OH MY!

The lake at Pinchot is seeing a lot of action the last few days with the warmer weather. One angler brought in a crappie this morning (4/1) to be weighed. It was 15 inches long and weighed in at 1 lb 13 ounces. Another angler stopped by our tackle shop with a pair of 16 inch crappies. Fathead minnows and small shad darts in red/white are catching most of the crappies now. Most of the larger crappies are being caught off of any type of wood cover such as lay down trees, stumps and brush.

The largemouth action on the lake is picking up slightly with anglers reporting 8 to 10 bass in an 8 hour fishing trip so they are starting to get a little more active. Most of the bass are being caught on hard jerkbaits with an olive or green back. The best baits lately are olive backed Rapala X-raps, Lucky Craft Pointer 100's in Pearl Aju, Mat Pumpkin and also Laser Rainbow. Chartreuse Shad Pointers are always a good bet for Pinchot largemouth too!

The river level continues to drop. Anglers are reporting that hair jigs and the same hard jerkbaits mentioned above doing well for them. Other river fishermen are using 2 1/2 inch Right Bite tubes in either Green Pumpkin or Green Pumpkin/Junebug Tail with good success.