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I decided to combine two completely different fishing trips today when I visited the lower Susquehanna and the Flats. First, I began casting from the shoreline at three different spots on the lower Susquehanna. The water was moving pretty fast, and the initial fishing was fast too. On my third cast (using a new 6' light rod and reel I bought last week to replace one I dropped overboard from my kayak), I hooked up with an energetic hickory shad. On every cast for the next 15 minutes, I either felt a bump or hooked up with shad. When the hot bite ended, I had caught and released 11 shad, including 3 doubleheaders.
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Then that pulse of fish must have moved away -- the bite stopped. I moved to a second location and caught two more, but the bite was not as fast as the first spot. I then moved to another location where a half dozen anglers were set up on the shoreline, plus two guy parked their boat at a popular creek mouth, disrupting the casting pattern for the rest of the anglers. After catching one shad there and tangling twice with other guys' lines, I left.
The next part of the fishing program was trolling on the Flats from my kayak. I launched from Tydings Marina about 9:45 to flat calm seas and warm weather. Once I reached 4 ft depth, I put out three medium spinning rods (one with a 6" Storm Shad, and the other two with 3/4-oz jighead and a 5" paddletail).
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I paddled slowly around for more than 7 miles. Whenever I was in water less than 6 ft, I had trouble keeping the lures clean -- they tended to hit the bottom and pick up grass and other plants. I had short conversations with sparky1423 and Goody. I also met Wavy Davy on the water -- we spent about half of the trip fishing in the same general area.
Neither I nor the other kayakers I saw today had caught any rockfish at the time I spoke with then. But the trip was still successful for me. I ended up with 5 largemouth bass ranging from 16" to >20". The first one of the day was massive. It came unhooked at boatside so I was unable to get a photo. The largest two bass were my biggest ones ever.
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Later I felt a strong strike and began to fight a large fish. I assumed it was a 25-30" rockfish, but when it finally got near the boat I saw brown color and no stripes. As it finally rolled at the surface, it proved to be a big fat carp of nearly 30". That fish was very strong and made numerous runs back and forth near the boat, including slapping the kayak hull with its tail. I eventually tired it out, lipped it, and removed the Storm Shad from its mouth while the fish remained in the water. In my relief to get it unhooked safely, I forgot to get a closeup photo of the carp. You can see it's outline in the water in the photo below (original image and digitally tweaked image).
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Although I did not find any rockfish today, I still caught plenty of shad, got some hefty LMBs and a surprise carp that bit a 6" lure.
002.jpg 003.jpg 006.jpg
Then that pulse of fish must have moved away -- the bite stopped. I moved to a second location and caught two more, but the bite was not as fast as the first spot. I then moved to another location where a half dozen anglers were set up on the shoreline, plus two guy parked their boat at a popular creek mouth, disrupting the casting pattern for the rest of the anglers. After catching one shad there and tangling twice with other guys' lines, I left.
The next part of the fishing program was trolling on the Flats from my kayak. I launched from Tydings Marina about 9:45 to flat calm seas and warm weather. Once I reached 4 ft depth, I put out three medium spinning rods (one with a 6" Storm Shad, and the other two with 3/4-oz jighead and a 5" paddletail).
014.jpg 016.jpg
I paddled slowly around for more than 7 miles. Whenever I was in water less than 6 ft, I had trouble keeping the lures clean -- they tended to hit the bottom and pick up grass and other plants. I had short conversations with sparky1423 and Goody. I also met Wavy Davy on the water -- we spent about half of the trip fishing in the same general area.
Neither I nor the other kayakers I saw today had caught any rockfish at the time I spoke with then. But the trip was still successful for me. I ended up with 5 largemouth bass ranging from 16" to >20". The first one of the day was massive. It came unhooked at boatside so I was unable to get a photo. The largest two bass were my biggest ones ever.
010.jpg 011.jpg
Later I felt a strong strike and began to fight a large fish. I assumed it was a 25-30" rockfish, but when it finally got near the boat I saw brown color and no stripes. As it finally rolled at the surface, it proved to be a big fat carp of nearly 30". That fish was very strong and made numerous runs back and forth near the boat, including slapping the kayak hull with its tail. I eventually tired it out, lipped it, and removed the Storm Shad from its mouth while the fish remained in the water. In my relief to get it unhooked safely, I forgot to get a closeup photo of the carp. You can see it's outline in the water in the photo below (original image and digitally tweaked image).
012 - Copy.jpg 012A - Copy.jpg
Although I did not find any rockfish today, I still caught plenty of shad, got some hefty LMBs and a surprise carp that bit a 6" lure.
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