Fly Fishing Stripers on the Susquehanna River

I took a vacation day off on Friday to head to the Susquehanna River below the dam my grandfather helped construct to try for stripers.  The season is winding down as the water temperatures rise, and the regulations allow one fish between a narrow slot limit of 17-24 inches.  My goal was to hook up a striper on the fly.  Luckily my brother is a local to the river and knows all the deep holes where these fish hang out.  This was his first trip of the year for him as well, due to the amount of upstream rain and water conditions that have kept the river high and chocolate for most of the spring.

I arrived at my brother's house at 7am and planned to launch canoes and float and fish downstream. My brother and I were in one canoe and only used fly fishing gear, while Chris's friend Dave was solo in a second canoe using spinning equipment.   I had my 8 wt rod with sinking line, about a 4-foot tapered leader ending in a 10-pound test mono tippet as the water was still a tinge off color.  I was mainly using unweighted Lefty Deceiver patterns in a chartreuse green large variation approximately 5 inches long with a 1/0 long shanked hook I tied.  Here are some replacements I tied after the trip as I lost 3 flies to snags.  Lefty used to joke on a few videos I saw of him striper fishing, "If it aint chartreuse, it aint no use" and that was true again today.

The weather started out overcast as we began fishing and I missed a hit that swirled the top not long after I started casting.  Chris was doing all of the paddling leaving me to fish.  We rounded the bottom side of an island and I was casting slightly upstream and across when I got a hit.  Having a bit of upstream slack in the line I didn't get the Hook set I wanted but I was fighting a good-sized fish for about 10 or 12 seconds ending in the fly pulling out.  

I was bummed, but excited as I was getting the action on the fly.  Our spin fishing friend missed one as well by this point I believe.

Chris was using a smaller clouser and was hooking up on rocks a good bit, but shortly he had landed the first fish.  It was a keeper at 17 inches so we put it in the cooler.  

We were taking our time picking our way along the bottom of rapids where Chris knew there were deeper holes.  I snatched up a decent sized smallmouth that hit the big fly.

We caught up with Dave, who was not having any luck besides a couple pound catfish he caught on a spinner when Chris put us in a known hotspot he knew.  He was paddling us up in while I was casting across until the canoe speed pulled the fly.  I was dragging my deceiver just about to lift for another cast when it was sucked down in a swirl.  I set the hook and the fight was on.  I landed it in short order, and the tape said just above 17 inches.  We could have kept it but already had a keeper in the cooler and this would be it, so we decided to release it in the hopes of a bigger one.

I was thrilled!  

We decided to go back up and float that hole again.  Shortly I was hooked up again!  This one gelt a little bigger and had bigger shoulders.  It was a battle but I had him in to net.  This one taped out to 20 inches and we put him in the cooler.  We were now fishing for fun as everything from then on must be released.

As the morning moved to afternoon, the sun came out and the fishing slowed.  Still Chris managed to wrestle another undersized striper before we hit the pickup point.  

We came out pretty well and had a blast.  This was one of the few trips where the flyrods out fished the spinning gear as we had 4 stripers to one blue catfish landed.  

Trout Holiday - Fishing the Leftovers

Seeing how the Federal Gov. Was closed yesterday I had planned on taking a trout day and putting a few more in the freezer.  I wanted to go back to the larger Antietam creek where I could keep my limit of trout and get some more casting experience on a larger body of water.  My plans however were dashed as a series of severe storms put down probably 6 inches of rain over 3 days.  The big river was blown out again.  So back to the mountains I went, stopping first at the medium sized creek that is now catch and release for the leftovers.  The creek was also about 2 feet high, but the water was clear enough to fish with a bit of cloudiness.  My plan was to fish here for a few hours before looking for the put-and-take stream a little closer to the PA border in the mountains.  I figured there would be less action there and had no idea where to go.  I wanted some experience catching a few first.  

Getting there around 9:30 I fished until noon and caught 7 nice rainbows to about 14 inches.  Most were caught on a micro jigged streamer olive with a squirrel zonker tail size 12 long shank hook, or a cream-colored mop fly.  The streamer kinda looks like this with some flashabou though I don't have a specific photo of what I tied. 

Didn't catch any browns which kind of surprised me as they tend to have an affinity for the streamer and I know there are some in there.  The rainbows however where active.

I drove a lot of back mountain roads until I got to the next creek.  I stopped at a bridge with the first state put-and-take signage I came to.   Even with the rains the stream was very skinny and I saw no fish.  I hiked up and then down in this area and fished for about 30 minutes even after finding a deep stretch that looked like it should hold trout, but nothing but a creek chub hit my flies.

I drove a few miles downstream and passed a few smaller tributaries that added to the water flow.  Finally, I found a pull off with a deep pool and started fishing.  This stream was dotted with huge boulders with deep fast pools.  I had no luck for a while until a 13-inch rainbow popped out of a deep pool and grabbed my streamer jig.  Finally some lunch!  There was definitely less fish in this stream but there were a few hold outs.  

About a quarter mile downstream I found a very large deep pool after a set of long rock almost like a dam.  I was fishing this fairly well with no action when the sky started to get very dark.  The torrents of rain started not long after.  I was soaked in no time which didn't bother me; however I could watch the run off make the creek muddy within a period of 10 minutes.  I sloshed back to the truck.  Totally soaked, but enjoyed my fishing holiday.  I am now up to almost 60 fish this trout season, way more than I ever caught with spin gear or bait.

Saturday, I leave for a week at deep creek lake for more pike and bass action with the kayaks. My timing is impeccable, as a heat wave is due here for 3 days with temps near 100 and high humidity.  Temps out where I am heading should only be in the mid-eighties.   There are also a few good trout streams out that way, but my attention may be filled with fishing the lake and I may not want to drive around to explore.  Will see as I have a week, so I will bring both my 8wt and 3 wt rods.

I have not made my elk hunting arrows yet, but have a few prototypes and I have been trying to shoot at least one shot with a broadhead a day.  Really concentrating on that one first shot.  I am agreeing with the set up well and have some confidence building. 

I am making a case to transport my new vintage coleman model 228 and have set the October dates for fall deer camp.  I am using a white bucket with screw top lid as it is a little tall for other types of buckets and the shade is much wider than any commercial lantern nowadays.  The fuel tank and glass shade is also bigger, so I don't want to break it.  I am going to glue some foam board into the bottom of the bucket with a hole cut to fit around the fuel tank.  Together with the top nut fitting into the recess of the screw top lid this should be very secure.