The Susquehanna River, in all it spendor and glory, winds down though Pennsylvania’s spectacular Endless Mountain Range in North East Pennsylvania. The river is the 16th largest river in the United States. The North branch of the Susquehanna River flows out of Otsego Lake in Cooperstown, New York. It then flows south all the way to Northumberland, Pennsylvania where it meets the West Branch then continues south into Maryland and eventually into the Chesapeake Bay.
The North Branch of The Susquehanna River has a world renowned smallmouth bass fishery. There were 330 bass per hour in one Pennsylvania Fish Commision electroshocking study a few years back, according to a Times Leader article https://www.timesleader.com/sports/665965/smallmouth-bass-thriving-in-susquehanna-river. The number of bass 15 inches and over (over 5 years) are increasing do in part to catch and release and successful multi year spawns.
Pictured above Joe, Bill, Ricky, and George all had successful outings on the North Branch of the Susquehanna River despite some very difficult conditions. High dirty water, transition between spawn and post spawn, and temperature swings all can be debilitating conditions that without a great fishery and experienced anglers can lead to a failed excursion. On the first jaunt the pair landed 25 fish with 3 inches of visibility. The smallmouth bass would not hit a swimming bait such as a crankbait or spinnerbait . The dual focused on slow moving bottom baits that produced all the bites. The second pair of anglers used swimbaits particularly Keitech Swimbaits most of the time and found success in the stained water (12 inches) . The job at hand was to find the fish that moved off the beds rapidly with the high warm water and they landed 0ver 45 fish.
The Susquehanna River Fishing under good conditions can provide hours of non stop action. 100 fish days are common events and throw in a couple of large channel cats or walleye and you have a tremendous outing!
