Susquehanna Flats Fishing Update April 27

Great topwater fishing, but tough fly rod bite!
Once again this week we have had unpredictable fishing on the flats, go figure.  Any days we have had heavy wind, the fishing has been poor. I find this mostly because most of the fish we are catching are really shallow, and the skinny water tends to dirty quickly during a blow. Except for an occasional morning or evening we have not had good fishing in areas other than the shallow flats.

It has been really tough catching fish on the fly this year on the flats. I have never caught so few fish on the fly in a season .  The overall numbers of fish which showed up were down, especially the schoolie sized fish, so this did not help with the fly fishing. Also, with the amounts of grass present in the skinny water areas we are fishing it is tough to present anything but a popper or  some other sort of surface fly.  For some reason the fish will just not take the fly poppers like they will the larger spinning rod poppers. Even when trying bait and switch techniques and every pattern in the box, we have come up short.  Thanks to those of you who came out and cast until your arms fell off trying.

The good news is that there has been an awesome topwater bite many days in the last week or so on light tackle. Large poppers have drawn some awesome strikes in 2-4 feet of water.  Most of the fish we are catching are large, many over 20 lbs.  We have had many days with multiple topwater strikes and on our best day landed over a dozen fish.  I am hoping this topwater bite will hold up until the scheduled season end date of May 3.  Here are a some shots from the week.

 

I have two of evening trips later this week still open for those of you who still might want to give the fishing on the flats a shot.  Just let me know.   We will likely be fishing with light spinning tackle and poppers.
 
Gunpowder River Notes

The fishing on the Gupowder had been good despite still low flows. One of my regular sports gave me a calll yesterday and reported catching 8 good browns from 10 to 13 inches on an evening outing earlier this week above Falls Rd.  The fish were taking Hendrickson duns and midges.  Water levels are still in the mid thirty cfs range, and recent rains should continue to help with water levels in Prettyboy.  One thing is for sure, we are shaping up for a good late Spring and summer with a full reservoir on hand.  Let’s just hope the city manages the water well.

Check out my friends at Backwater Angler in their new location on York Rd. in Hereford at the intersection of  York and Monkton Rds. opening May 1.  Stop in to shop for any of your fly-fishing needs, stream reports and friendly advice.  Backwater Angler has served our local fly fishing community for 7 years as the regions “go to”  fly shop for Gunpowder River fishing.

2008 Morel Hunt

As you may know my next favorite thing to fishing is mushroom hunting!  This Spring has been awesome.

Susquehanna Flats Update

We have been fishing steady on the flats the last week with varied success. This past weekend brought some good fishing for those who put forth the effort.  The larger fish being caught on lures and flies are being taken in mostly shallow water.  Early morning and late evening have been good for fishing these areas in 3 to 6 feet of water. Many fish are falling for large surface plugs and some taking other lures and flies. Though spotty, if you are in the right spot you can definately move some fish.

We had some schoolie size fish show up and they offered fast paced fly fishing action for a few days.  We had some fish good fish on the fly up to about 12 lbs.   We fished mostly staple patterns like half and halfs and decievers.  This week has been tougher since the early week north winds, and I am hoping for some good action in the next few days.

Water conditions are excellent.  We have good temperature and clarity, and really just need a good push of fish to make for some good fishing.  I will keep you posted as we go.  Trying to put together a video update to give you a look at some of the fishing.  Good weather forecast for the next few days.  Hopefully good fishing too.

Susquehanna Flats Fishing Update

We started fishing on the Susquehanna Flats this week.  Despite being open since March 1, the fishing is just now getting under way due to turbid water and cool water temps. Each year we deal with the same condition issues on the flats so you get pretty used to the unpredictable nature of the fishery. This week surface water temps hung in the mid 40’s to just over 50 degrees in a few spots yesterday afternoon.  The water clarity ranged from one foot of visibility to an easy 2 feet in other areas.

The fishing was spotty to say the least.  As typical the folks who choose to fish with cut or live baits are managing to catch some fish.  The bait fishing was pretty consistent  from all reports I recieved and from what I saw this week.  Catching them on lures and flies, however, was another story.  I had to cover lots of water to catch some fish.  Most of our success was in shallow water, from 3 to 8 feet.  We caught all of our fish this week on lures, large lures.  The biggest swimming plugs we could throw brought the most success.  All of the fish we landed were large, 34 inches+.  We landed one Friday close to 35 lbs.  Bites were few and far between.  Hopefully this is just the beggining of some good fishing to come.

 

This nice 20 lber fell for a 7″Bomber  swimming plug in chrome/blue.

 We have yet to land one on a fly yet this week, but I’m sure it’s only a day away.  Water conditions are improving daily, and with a little luck we’ll have some awesome fishing this coming week. 

Gunpowder River Quick Update

I have guided several trips on the Gunpowder River in the past week or two.  Though water flows are still low, the fishing in areas has been great.  We saw some awesome midge fishing on the upper river last week and were able to land good numbers of fish on each outing while fishing a variety of midge patterns.  Dark midge patterns in gray and black fished dry on a 7x leader worked well on risers, as did pupae patterns fished short under an indicator.  A bead head zebra midge in a 22 gray worked great.
I ‘ll keep you posted.