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I have only fished the Susquehanna Flats twice in my life -- last April I did well on stripers, this April I caught no stripers but got some big LMBs. I started thinking about how I fish the Flats from my kayak -- I troll paddletail plastics for several hours in 4 to 6 ft depth. I'm sure there are plenty of other ways to fish the area, but that is my technique.
Given the poor reports from the Flats recently, and having heard reports of anglers catching stripers from the shore farther south, I decided to try using the same techniques on shallow water areas near the mouth of another western shore river. I paddled steadily for over 3 hours (at least half of that was getting from the launch to my targetted area). Once I reached the area, I trolled 3 rods with different sizes and colors of paddletails. I paddled at a speed ranging from 1.5 to 3 mph. Once I reached the target area, nearly all the water was in the 5-6 ft depth range. After trolling all that distance, I finally found one area about the size of a tennis court that held 15" to 16" stripers. Time after time, when I made a pass by that spot, one of the rods went down. I ended up catching 8 stripers of about the same size, and all were taken in the same small area.
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My last fish of the day came from the same area. As I wound the lure back to the boat, the fish was not silvery nor did it have stripes. When it got close, I could see it was a very skinny 20" pickerel. The pickerel spawning season is just about over -- this fish may have had a tough spawn or was otherwise beat -- it had scars and marks over its body. As I laid it on the Hawg Trough for a measurement, many slender worms came off the fish's body. You can see a few of them in the photo.
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I caught many pickerel this winter, but all of those came from wooded or grassy shorelines in the tidal creeks. This fish came from open water in any area where I would not normally target pickerel. I cannot explain why it was there.
I mentioned that I tried trolling a variety of different paddletails. Surprisingly, 7 of the 8 stripers as well as the pickerel hit the same lure (the 5" chartreuse with red band on a 1/2-oz jighead). When I fished the Flats several weeks ago, the hot lure was a 6" Storm Shad. Today it got no bites. Of the other lures shown in the photo, one fish was caught on the light green 3" Storm lure -- the rest got no bites.
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I was hoping for some bigger fish, but was happy to get some pullage and some good exercise. The weather turned sunny and warm during the afternoon. The wind began to build such that I had 2-ft following seas on my way back to the ramp, which provided a nice push. The take home lessons were: a) keep searching -- the fish are out there somewhere. If I had stayed in just one area, I might have missed the school; and b) use a variety of lure types to determine what the fish want on that day. If I had not had that one popular lure out there, I might have gotten skunked.
Given the poor reports from the Flats recently, and having heard reports of anglers catching stripers from the shore farther south, I decided to try using the same techniques on shallow water areas near the mouth of another western shore river. I paddled steadily for over 3 hours (at least half of that was getting from the launch to my targetted area). Once I reached the area, I trolled 3 rods with different sizes and colors of paddletails. I paddled at a speed ranging from 1.5 to 3 mph. Once I reached the target area, nearly all the water was in the 5-6 ft depth range. After trolling all that distance, I finally found one area about the size of a tennis court that held 15" to 16" stripers. Time after time, when I made a pass by that spot, one of the rods went down. I ended up catching 8 stripers of about the same size, and all were taken in the same small area.
003.JPG
My last fish of the day came from the same area. As I wound the lure back to the boat, the fish was not silvery nor did it have stripes. When it got close, I could see it was a very skinny 20" pickerel. The pickerel spawning season is just about over -- this fish may have had a tough spawn or was otherwise beat -- it had scars and marks over its body. As I laid it on the Hawg Trough for a measurement, many slender worms came off the fish's body. You can see a few of them in the photo.
001.jpg 002.JPG
I caught many pickerel this winter, but all of those came from wooded or grassy shorelines in the tidal creeks. This fish came from open water in any area where I would not normally target pickerel. I cannot explain why it was there.
I mentioned that I tried trolling a variety of different paddletails. Surprisingly, 7 of the 8 stripers as well as the pickerel hit the same lure (the 5" chartreuse with red band on a 1/2-oz jighead). When I fished the Flats several weeks ago, the hot lure was a 6" Storm Shad. Today it got no bites. Of the other lures shown in the photo, one fish was caught on the light green 3" Storm lure -- the rest got no bites.
004.jpg
I was hoping for some bigger fish, but was happy to get some pullage and some good exercise. The weather turned sunny and warm during the afternoon. The wind began to build such that I had 2-ft following seas on my way back to the ramp, which provided a nice push. The take home lessons were: a) keep searching -- the fish are out there somewhere. If I had stayed in just one area, I might have missed the school; and b) use a variety of lure types to determine what the fish want on that day. If I had not had that one popular lure out there, I might have gotten skunked.
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