Fishing Report: Small Creek

First smallmouth of the day caught on a sluggo

Report for 5/21/05 and 5/22/05

Small Creeks in the central Pennsylvania are starting to heat up and so is the smallmouth bass fishing. I hit a small creek on Saturday and landed four smallmouth bass, three rock bass, and a nice brown trout. I started out throwing a Yum Dinger but only managed one half hearted bump. After about thirty minutes of throwing the bait, I decided to switch to a Yum Crawfish. Once again, I was not getting hit. Desperate for a solution and knowing I was fishing good water I switch over to a white 3” sluggo. This proved to be a good move. On my first cast, I connected with a nice smallmouth. I caught three other smallmouth on the bait with the largest being 13.5”. This is a fairly good fish for the water I was fishing. I was also pleasantly surprised when a nice brown trout whacked my sluggo.

I duplicated a similar strategy with the sluggo again on Sunday and landed three more smallmouth with the largest being 14”. I also spotted a fish that probably went 18 inches or so. The fish was cruising in fairly deep water and retreated deeper when he saw me or heard me wading. I fished for several minutes in the area but unfortunately was not able to catch the fish.

Pattern
On Saturday the areas I caught fish from had a combination of three things going for them. First, I fished areas where the stream cut steep banks into the side the adjacent mountains. Second, these areas, where also on the “sunny” side of the stream which meant the water, would be warmer. Last, banks where lined with chunk rock the size of large bricks and fell very steeply into about 4 feet of water.

On Sunday the fish had retreated into the deeper holes so I fished deeper off the banks to catch fish. This was probably due to the fact that the sun was more intense.

Weather
Saturday: Sunny, intermittent cloudiness and a little rain. Air temps 65.
Sunday: Mostly Sunny. Air temps 65-70.

Water Conditions
Both days: 60-65 degrees. Water levels a little low. About three feet of visibility