Several recent trips on the Susquehanna: Several 18's and 19

[Jeff Little]

I've been fortunate enough to be on the water three of the last four days. Saturday was a solo trip, Sunday with the boys, hitting a creek mouth, and today I took two Confidence Baits customers, Jed and Larry. A quick list of highlights: Larry's personal best today on a jerk bait (was a double with Jed). A flurry of 5 fish 18 inches or better in less than forty minutes late on Sunday. The boys each got to reel in a few. Lot's of good underwater footage today in the grass beds - crawfish all over them! And I got to practice hook removal from Larry's leg. I embedded a treble hook from a Pointer 100 in the side of his calf. Chad's trick with tripled up monofilament did the trick with minimal bleeding and teeth mashing. Here come the pics, then a summary of patterns working now.

An 18 incher from my solo trip on Saturday. Hit a Little Tube in clear water near the bank.

One of many caught with the boys on Sunday afternoon on Little Tubes.

The largest of the last few days, a 19.25 incher that cleared 4 lbs.

Jedediah's thick 19 incher that hit a jerkbait today.

Larry's personal best 18.5 incher was part of a double. We returned to the spot where Jed caught his 19 early in the day, they both launched the first cast in at the same time, and both hook up. Should make for an incredible episode and part of the Spring DVD.

Patterns:
Little Tubes sitting still in CLEAR water on bedrock or chunk rock. Saturday started slow, but late in the day, I managed to catch a few in the 17 to 18 inch range by doing very little with a Little Tube in clear water. Toss it in and let them happen upon it. That day I tried a little bit of everything. This was the only thing that worked.

The Little Tube also worked wonders in a creek mouth, again with super clear water on Sunday afternoon with the boys. There were anglers and fish EVERYWHERE in this creek, but no body was catching. We didn't get the first until late in the day. Launch the tube out at a great distance, let it sit for minutes and they would find it and eat it. This accounted for about a dozen fish, five of which were 18 inches or better.

Because I struggled so on Saturday, I played phone tag with Mike. He and his crew did very well upstream in somehow more stained water with suspending jerk baits ripped hard with two second pauses near current seams. I tried it on Saturday along with several other tactics including rattle traps, cranks, spinnerbaits, jigs and other assorted soft plastics on Draggin' Heads. I can't tell you how or why the jerkbait thing worked so well for him miles upstream on the same river, but I couldn't get them to buy it where I was. But on Tuesday morning, I got it to work in a big way with Jed and Larry. The better fish came from eddies caused by submerged grass beds that were less than obvious. There were plenty of scrub islands to fish, but with the lower water they preferred the more subtle current breaks. They were typically near current seams when they hit.

OK, need to hit the rack. Brent is joining me again tomorrow on the river! Yee-Haw! and Happy Spring everyone!

[oubassman]

Thanks for report & info Jeff. Sounds like you worked pretty hard a few of those days for big fish.

I'll be out tomorrow on the Potomac for 5-6 hours!

[Roostertail]

Great report Jeff! Going to take a break from reading posts from the PA area, so jealous I wanna puke Just kidding...but seriously.

[JeffA]

Great going, Jeff. We had a good day last Friday in a jet boat, 69 bass between three of us, but no real big ones. You'll be pleased to know that I caught the first three of the day on a Little tube. The action on jerk baits was much slower.

[chickenfoot ju-ju]

Hey hey there guys , I just wanted to add a couple of the photos i had on my camera from yesterday and , to say thankyou very much to Jeff and Larry for an awesome time on the river . . the excitement never seemed to leave the boat in one way or the other. . .looking forward to getting out with you guys again , take care

[chickenfoot ju-ju]

and mr. Larry

[ReelYankee]

WTG guys! Looks like you really wore'em out!

[Turtle135]

Great report as always Jeff. Looking forward to the spring DVD.

p.s. what is the "AMI" score on catching "Larry" (or is the catch invalidated because you foul hooked him?)

[Flatbottom]

This was my first time fishing with Jeff and Jed, and also fishing on the Susquehanna. Had a great time with them and can't wait to hit the river again. I am also pleased to say that after being hooked by Jeff, I was "released" safely and practically unharmed. It was definitely a day I won't forget anytime soon.

[Jeff Little]

I was thinking the same thing on the multiplier. It's all for not though. HOOK 1 needs to make a measuring board up to seven feet now.

I got out again today with my four year old Cooper. He's coming along well with casting distance. I think he prefers using my camera and video equipment to using the rods though. He screws with the depthfinder a lot too. Found some features I didn't know existed. Here is the first 18.5 incher of the day:

He did that with the little camera remote in his hands. It was the first 18.5 incher.
We probably got two dozen fish today, mostly on jerkbaits ripped with no pause. Covering water seemed to do the trick. The best targets were eddies caused by grass beds that were submerged. The water is low, so many of the grass beds are dry. The dry ones are obvious and I think that means they get fishing pressure. The better ones are subtle. You have to move slow to see them, but they hold the better fish. Again, ripping the jerk reeling in the line to catch up and going immediately into the next rip caught most of them, and certainly the bigs. We did get a few here and there on finesse jig n craws, birds and Little Tubes, but it seemed to be a lesser pattern.
This is the second 18.5 incher of the day. Both bigs hit jerks.
Water temp was 59 degrees. Weird conditions, weird that the two workable patterns are so divergent: super fast jerkbaits and deadsticked small bottom bouncers.

Today was good quality time with Coop.