Pacemaker Fishing Forum

Craig, the guy that Ernie and I met at the Thousand Islands during our fishing trip earlier this Summer, and I went up to Harrisburg PA to fish the Susquehanna for Smallys this weekend in kayaks.  Weather was great all weekend.  Saturday we fished the Juniata from the Duncannon boat launch to the confluence with the Susquehanna down to the takeout in Duncannon near Sorrento's Pizza restaurant.  The Juniata looked very fishy.  Lots of grass but fishable and lots of structure.  We started at 6:30 am and didn't get off the river till about 4 (with 30 minutes onshore for a thunderstorm).  Craig caught 1 decent fish and 1 dink.  I caught nothing!  We threw everything we could think of at these fish and couldn't catch them.  Eating at Sorrento's helped make up for the lousy day of fishing.  Craig called a friend of his who guides in Harrisburg.  He asked he what to do and his friend said "Go Home!".  I guess nobody catches anything in August.  Made me feel better about the skunk on Saturday. Going home wasn't an option so he asked him for more guidance.  He said "Throw Whopper Ploppers all day and don't stop".  So, on Sunday, that is what we did.  We put in at the Halifax Park boat ramp and made a loop around Clemson Island.  We did better but not great.  Craig had a rough day from the beginning with things not going right.  Couldn't find his glasses or depth finder for a while and just everything was a mess.  Finally found everything but I think he only caught 1 fish all day.  I think he would have rather stayed in bed!  I did better and caught 6.  Several in the 9-14 inch range and a 16 incher and a 18+ incher.  Whopper Ploppers paid off!  The 2 bigger fish were caught at the downstream tip of Clemson island.  But the back side of Clemson island was SHALLOW!  I swear we dragged our kayaks about half a mile in 6 inch deep water.  I am exhausted!!  The rivers are beautiful and we will go again.....but not in August!!

Last edited by GregF (Aug-24-20 11:03AM)