Pacemaker Fishing Forum

Ernie · May-31-10 6:38PM

Andrew, Curly and I left Ashburn around 5 AM and headed to PA to meet Dave Shindler. We were north of Harrisburg and then drove another 20 miles north to Taylor's Landing. No clue where that is but we were on the water by 8:15 AM.

We tried a slow creek at 1st....

....but found no love.

Once we got on the main stem, Curly takes the skunk off the boat with this littel guy.

This man does not like these kind of photo ops! Curly landed 4 more fish, this being his largest one.

Curly caught them on a small white whacky and a craw crank.

Finally, Dave caught a nice one....

....but Andrew and I still had the stink on the boat. This stretch of water is usually a whole lot more productive than it was for us and after almost 4 hours of this torture, Dave signaled that we were going to make a move.....

....and we did, about 50-60 miles south! How this man finds these ramps, I will never know!

Once in our new location, we literally pounded the water (strained it too) with every lure in the boat. We simply could not get a hit to save our lives. We fished shallow and deep ledges, grass, rocks...you name it! We moved several times and finally, I threw a whitish crank and on the 1st cast....this nice one, my 1st (and only) fish of the day! I caught this guy at 3:35PM!

I did not hurt that fish.....

I was really starting to feel bad for Andrew because his goal was to catch his 1st ever keeper sized smallie. Dave was worried and was even biting his fingernails. Andrew had missed on 1-2 fish earlier and some thunder boomers were looming over the horizon. But....we saw a fish jump behind the boat and the reason was that Andrew was hooked up. As he brought the fish in, Dave said he would jump in after it if something went wrong. Thankfully, Andrew landed it....at 4:21PM!

We were staring to get nervous with the weather building up on us so we decided to head back up towards the ramp but not until Dave caught this guy on a spinner bait!

We fished for a bit more but we were wiped from all the casting and the heat so we called it a say just after 5PM.

I know that Dave was frustrated and he would have stayed out there longer were it not for the weather. I really appreciated his efforts (and concern) even though the fishing was slow. Apparently, the craw dads decided to molt early (we saw tons of them) and the smallies are feasting on them!

Would I fish with Dave again? Absolutely! I am looking at some late September dates.

Hopefully, the other crew members will chime in with some other info and observations.

It was a hot day but great to experience a new body of water.. And did I mention that Dave has a nice boat (barge)?

Curly · Jun-01-10 4:33AM

It was a great trip. Too bad the crayfish molt was on and the smallies had gorged themselves already. Those smallies were just sitting on the bottom saying, "Oh..........my belly!", when they'd watch our lures go by..........

Dave literally tried everything to find a bite pattern.

AndrewDo124 · Jun-01-10 5:01AM

I feel like everything went well except for the fishing. as bad as that sounds, it was a great outting. the cards just weren't in our favor. I really think the crayfish molt had a BIG part it in. I think I remember Dave saying he purposely doesn't book trips mid june to avoid fishing the crayfish molt, so that a lone tells me we did fairl Too bad for us, the molt came early.

It wasn't as hot as I thought it'd be (and was prepared for it to be), the drive wasn't bad, the water looked great, and the guide was one of the best i've ever had. The fish just weren't hungry. We tried spinnerbaits, swimbaits, pop-rs, cranks, flukes, senkos, scrounger heads, tubes, spooks, mice (yes, mice), jerkbaits, you name it, we threw it.

It was a pleasure fishing with these guys and would definitely do it again.

Thank you Ernie for driving and setting this up!

Thank you Curly for sharing that delicious sausage!

Thank you Dave for making, what could have been a very miserable day on the water, a very pleasant and memoriable one.

Osprey · Jun-01-10 7:15AM

Glad you guys had a good trip, too bad about the crawfish molt. Combination of full moon and crab shed did me in for shallow water stripers on Saturday. Still a beautiful day, if it was only about the catching half of us wouldn't even bother going.

Ernie · Jun-01-10 7:33AM

Osprey wrote:
if it was only about the catching half of us wouldn't even bother going.

Exactly!

captmikestarrett · Jun-01-10 9:08AM

Both spots where dead on for good smallie action. I am familar with those areas and have fished them many times over the years. I will say that south of Harrisburg I see more sores on the fish than I have ever seen before.

But it can be so over the top above Harrisburg these days and it is just like it used to be, below Harrisburg in 2004.

It still is a great fishery above Harrisburg. Sorry to hear they lock jawed on you. I would have pulled out the fly rod and a sneaky pete for gills and had a blast. But I see the boat was bit crowded. Nice boat BTW..

Capt Mike

Dave Shindler · Jun-01-10 9:10AM

Chewing my fingers... I had to sew new ones on last night. You guys were an absolute pleasure to fish with. Apparently Mid June came a little early this year. Its pretty rare to fish the two strectches of river we covered and land so few fish with such GOOD fisherman. These guys can all fish and the fish just did not commit to any pattern at all. I believe we had 11 or 12 fish hooked on 6 different lures.

You guys should feel a little better after we talked to the guys in the morning that had live shiners and caught 4 fish in 8 hours.

Anyway thanks for being such good sports and I look forward to fishing with you again.

Dave

Dominion Dan · Jun-01-10 11:26AM

Sorry to hear the fish didn't cooperate. It's a good thing that fishing isn't entirely about catching fish. I know I still had a lot of fun on the New River despite getting skunked.

This report has me thinking...I believe I need to schedule a visit with my grandparents soon so I can go fish the Juniata.

Ernie · Jun-01-10 4:44PM

captmikestarrett wrote:
Nice boat BTW..

I agree...I love fishing out of that thing. We had 4 guys casting and rarely had any issues.

But....it was funny watching Dave watch Curly in the beginning. Curly would hop from spot to spot on the boat, just like he fishes the ponds. Three casts and move. Dave didn't know what to make of it until I explained it.

Pacemaker Fishing Forum

#1 May-31-10 6:38PM

Susquehenna River report, 5-31-10

#2 Jun-01-10 4:33AM

Re: Susquehenna River report, 5-31-10

#3 Jun-01-10 5:01AM

Re: Susquehenna River report, 5-31-10

#4 Jun-01-10 7:15AM

Re: Susquehenna River report, 5-31-10

#5 Jun-01-10 7:33AM

Re: Susquehenna River report, 5-31-10

Osprey wrote:

#6 Jun-01-10 9:08AM

Re: Susquehenna River report, 5-31-10

#7 Jun-01-10 9:10AM

Re: Susquehenna River report, 5-31-10

#8 Jun-01-10 11:26AM

Re: Susquehenna River report, 5-31-10

#9 Jun-01-10 4:44PM

Re: Susquehenna River report, 5-31-10

captmikestarrett wrote:

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