Susquehanna River Level Forecast

As of today, 8/31/06, the Susquehanna River at Harrisburg is forecasted to be at 10.3 feet at 8 am Sunday morning. The river forecast calls for a level of 11 feet, caution stage, by Monday. This is due to the large amounts of rain the Northeast part of PA received as well as New York.

Anglers wanting to fish moving water this upcoming holiday weekend would be wise to fish smaller rivers/creeks depending on how much rain we get Friday/Saturday.

The bass fishing at Pinchot is starting to pick up some as the water temperatures fall due to cooler night and daytime temperatures.

Tim

Susquehanna River - Monday Aug 28

My wife and I did a short float trip Monday to beat the rain, which never came. We floated above Harrisburg in my ODC 1624 on a trip that is 2 1/2 miles long and only took us 3 1/2 hours. The middle of the river over to the West shore along Route 15 was pure mud. The middle to the East shore was much clearer with a nice green tint so we stayed in the middle for most of the trip.

I only landed 9 smallies, all on a 1/4 oz Gray Shad spinnerbait. Biggest were a trio of 16 inchers caught within 200 yards of each other. The rest of the smallies ranged from 10 to 15 inches. I tried tubes, crankbaits and soft jerkbaits but there was too much snot grass floating so I stuck with the spinnerbait. Even with the spinnerbait I was getting tons of snot grass on every cast. I did have one good sized musky totally rip the spinnerbait off my line next to the boat towards the end of the float.

The fish I caught were all in push water, the water just upstream from a ledge. Nothing below ledges or around grass beds.

The river forecast calls for a level of 6.5 feet later in the week which is needed badly to flush this snot grass off the rocks.


Tim

Power Worms Back In Stock

We received a shipment in today of Power Worms- 4, 7 and 10 inch lengths. To meet customer requests, we now stock every color of 10 inch Power Worms. We also received various colors of 2 and 3 inch Power Grubs.

If you read back through our reports, you will see that anglers have been doing well on Pinchot fishing 10 inch Power Worms, and 7 inch Power Worms too, fishing deeper drop offs.

Tim

Pinchot

Anglers coming into the shop this morning report good catches of channel cats up to 18 inches on nightcrawlers, chicken livers, medium shiners and raw shrimp. Best time is early morning or late evening.

Panfisherman are having a blast catching tons of bluegill with a few nice crappie mixed in. Small twister tails, nightcrawlers and fathead minnows being the better baits.

Bass anglers are struggling on the lake. One angler this morning reported catching just a couple of bass all day long yesterday.

Tim

Pinchot Stocking Info?

I contacted the park office at Pinchot Park to inquire if the Fish Commission stocked hybrid stripers and channel cats last week in the lake. The park office is unaware of any stocking done by the Fish Commission recently. The Fish Commission told me they do not give that information out. So unfortunately we are unable to verify if the lake was stocked last week or not.

Anglers are still reporting catching large numbers of small hybrid stripers up to about 10 inches and lots of channel catfish up to 15 inches.

Tim

Opossum Lake Snapping Turtle

Here is another big turtle picture! This bad boy was taken from Opossum Lake and weighed over 20 lbs!! Great job!

Snapping Turtle Picture

One of our regular customers, Jamie, brought in a picture of a monster snapping turtle he caught while turtle hunting the other week. It weighed in at a whopping 42 lbs! Check out the head and neck on this bad boy! Good job Jamie!

Opossum Lake Catfishing Aug 19th

My wife Kim asked me to take her catfishing again Saturday evening at Opossum Lake. We fished from 7 pm until 9:15 pm when it started to rain. We caught 17 catfish. I had 11 and she had 6. She was up 6 to 2 when I went on a hot streak, HA HA! I also caught a 14 inch largemouth and 5 turtles including 3 big dudes. Biggest two turtles were the size of garbage can lids and mean as heck when they hit the bank. We used raw shrimp again. Beautiful evening to be out! All fish were released back into the lake to fight another day.

Tim

Pinchot Stocking?

This week anglers are reporting catching a lot of 6 to 10 inch hybrid stripers and also 10 to 15 inch channel cats. This started around Tuesday/Wednesday of this week. It appears the Fish Commission stocked hybrids and catfish in Pinchot this week but we have been unable to confirm that info with the Fish Commission.

We are also starting to receive reports from bass anglers that the grass in Pinchot Lake is mostly gone now. The park must have sprayed the lake as the only remaining grass can be found near the main swimming area.

Tim

Pinchot Report

Bass fishing on Pinchot continues to be slow for most anglers. Not to sound like a broken record but anglers doing the best are using plastic worms, 7 and 10 inches long, along deeper drop offs in at least 12 feet of water.

Catfisherman are having a ball catching some monster channel cats with some going over 30 inches. Stinkbait, shiners, raw shrimp and chicken livers are working well. A few catfisherman using chicken livers reported today that they caught several small hybrid stripers this week. Those are the first stripers we have heard bring caught in the lake in several weeks.

Panfisherman are also having a ball. The cove by the main boat ramp is providing tons of action of young anglers with larger panfish being caught along the breast of the dam.

Crappie anglers report action is hit or miss with a few nice crappie being pulled off of brush piles in 10 to 20 feet of water. Lots of smaller bass are being caught off of these same brushpiles.

With the cooler night temps we have been having, it should really help the action pick up quite a bit on the lake.

Tim

Smallie Pictures

Here are some of the fish Mike and I caught on Sunday. Mike is over 6'6" and 350 lbs and the fish he is holding are between 16 and 17 inches.

My buddy Mike came over from NJ and we floated in my ODC 1624 Sunday and Monday. Sunday was the best day of the two.

We floated from Duncannon to Dauphin on Sunday and landed 24 smallies, biggest was 17 inches. Average size was between 16 and 17 inches. Small soft jerkbaits, such as a Zoom Super Fluke Jr, were the best bait. I also got a couple on a spinnerbait.

Mike got a couple on a crankbait, NOTHING on tubes. We would cast out the soft jerkbait, give it a couple twitches and if we didn't get a strike we would reel in for another cast. The fish hit on the end of very long casts due to the low, clear water. Water was clearest in the middle and on the West shore.

We saw so many smallies cruising it was silly including many, many 3 to 6 inch smallies. Most fish were caught from ledges in 2 to 5 foot of water with moderate current. A conservative guess would be that we saw well over 100 smallies crusing along current seams below ledges. With the low water, it was easy to see the fish once we floated near them. Baitfish were everywhere along grass beds but we didn't see many crawfish. We saw tons of carp and suckers and at least a half dozen channel cats over 25 inches, some over 30 inches.

Monday we floated from Marysville to Enola. At the current river levels, I picked a bad float but we needed a shorter float as Mike had a 2 hour drive home. Not enough water on this float to make it worthwhile. We only got 9 or 10 smallies, all decent size between 15 and 16 inches. Small soft jerkbaits were the ticket again today. Saw some smallies cruising but not as many as on Sunday. Just not enough water to hold them this time of year. Mike lost two pigs today, one on a crankbait and one on a Rat-L-Trap.

Tim

Summer Sale/River Report

Just a reminder that our Summer Blowout Sale starts tomorrow when we open at 7 am! The sale runs through 5 pm on Sunday. Awesome deals and free lunch on Saturday so stop in and get your tackle!

The river is falling with a forecasted level of 3.6 by the weekend at Harrisburg. This means wade fisherman will have access to lots of different areas now. Anglers that do float trips will find some nice floatable water. Jet boat fisherman will need to use caution of course.

River anglers stopping in the shop offer a mixed report. Some anglers reported catching up to 100 smallmouth bass per 2 anglers in a 10 hour day. Other anglers reported catching 10 to 12 smallmouth bass per 8 hour day. LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION. If you find yourself fishing an area that is fishing slow, don't hesitate to move to other areas. The bass are there and hungry, you just need to find the best location for the time of day you are fishing.

Most bass in the river are being caught along current seams below large rock ledges. Grass beds are starting to heat up too as the level drops. Crankbaits, tubes and soft jerkbaits are what anglers are catching most of the fish on this week.

Catfish anglers are doing very well on shiners and raw shrimp fishing the river in many different areas - Fort Hunter, Duncannon, Goldsboro, Marietta and below the York Haven Dam.

Pinchot bass anglers still report slow fishing. Tuesday night's lunker tournament only yielded 8 largemouth bass weighed in for 56 anglers. Lunker was right at 3 1/2 lbs. The best bet for Pinchot Lake is using plastic worms in water at least 12 feet deep. Don't hesitate to bottom bounce a 1/2 oz or larger spinnerbait on deep drop offs.

Tim

Opossum Lake Catfishing

My wife Kim and I fished Opossum Lake for 3 hours on Thursday evening, targeting catfish using raw shrimp. We landed 13 catfish and 2 snapping turtles. We were the only ones fishing the lake on Thursday.

Saturday evening we fished Opossum Lake again for catfish from 7 to 10 pm. We caught 25 catfish, 2 bluegills (10 inches and 11 inches), 2 largemouth bass that were 14 inches and one little snapping turtle. Everything was caught on raw shrimp. Lots of anglers out on the lake Saturday evening including bank fisherman, boaters and kayakers. Some anglers caught largemouth bass and others caught plenty of panfish.

The best action both nights was between 7 and 8:30 pm in 4 to 5 foot of water.

Tim

Bald Eagle State Park Crappies

My wife and I went camping up at Bald Eagle State Park Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Due to the heat, we only fished for a few hours and that was starting right before dark until a couple hours after dark. We targeted crappie off of the handicapped fishing pier.

Monday night we fished from 6:30 pm to 10 pm. We caught around 70 to 80 crappie. Kim caught several in the 10 to 11 inch range. I had some between 9 and 10 inches, the rest were between 6 and 8 inches. Kim used fathead minnows and I used a hand tied marabou crappie jig in white.

Tuesday night we didn't start fishing until 8:30 pm due to the intense heat and fished until 11 pm. We hung one propane lantern over the side of the pier and tied it off so it was right at the top of the water to bring the crappie shallower after dark and it worked pretty well.

Kim was on fire starting out catching crappie on every cast. We caught quite a few crappie. We both used a white hand tied marabou jig. Average size was much smaller with the fish ranging from 4 to 6 inches. Not any size but lots of fun. Total crappie caught in around 6 hours was approximately 125 crappie.

Tuesday night I also tossed out a line with a whole raw shrimp trying for a channel cat and I connected with one nice channel cat between 26 and 28 inches. Fought hard with some long, drag screaming runs before I got it in.

This was Kim's first time fishing in two years and she had a lot of fun. We packed up early Wednesday morning to beat the heat.

Tim