This month with A Susquehanna Fishing Guide
Lance Dunham
This month we’ve got a few things going on. We not only have very low water now which has made for some tricky river navigating but we also have had some cool nights which has knocked down most of the algae bloom making the river clear. Now when you’re going 40mph in four inches of water you don’t always like to look down and see clearly the river rocks that could just ruin your whole day in a split second! And on the other end of the speed spectrum when you need to go very slow such as driving your jet boat on the trailer in a very low and tight water situation you want all the boat control you can get. Anything you can do to accomplish better boat control you will do when you need to be on the river every day. So, this is what I told Alan Coy of Snake Creek Marine when I stopped in for a chat last month. He brought out to me this new product called a Jet Wing. It goes on the lower unit of your outboard jet motor with the existing bolts that are already there. It was made out of a heavy plastic and had a price tag of around a hundred bucks. “I don’t know Alan, I think my 115HP Mercury Optimax motor will snap that plastic on a sharp corner turn”. Alan told me that it has a good warranty and maybe this is what I’ve been asking for. “Put it on, I’ll take it” I said with some concern in my voice. Alan had never steered me wrong before and this new Jet Wing product claimed to do what I was looking for so I was anxious to try it out. The next day I was out on the river and I could notice the difference it made in my ability to slowly steer the boat on the trailer. On high speed turns I could turn sharper corners and even though the manufacture doesn’t claim it, I could swear that it got me up on plane quicker. I was the happiest boater on the river and then it happened. When I checked it out at the end of the day it was cracked on the port (left) side. I was really disappointed and took it off the motor. I knew I didn’t hit a rock or anything like that so it had to be the stress the motor put on it when I took that extreme 40mph turn testing it out. Now who in their right mind would take a corner at 40mph in a boat! Yep, that would be me on a test run seeing how far the boat would skid sideways and folks, please don’t try that on your home waters, after all these years I knew that there wasn’t a shallow rock in the area I was in and the river was dead calm with no waves so there was no risk in flipping the boat. As soon as I got back home, I contacted Dan Griffin, the inventor of the Jet Wing who lives down around Bloomsburg Pa. I was expecting the usual “we don’t warrant the use of our product on a commercial basis”. This is what manufacturers always seem to say to guides because they know we are on the water more hours in one week than the weekend boater is all season and the risk of breaking their product is magnified ten times over. Instead I was greeted with a polite southern mans voice that asked if he could help me. I told Dan my name and what I do for a living and instead of the usual run around about commercial use, he even offered to come up to New Albany and install another one! I thanked him and told him that wouldn’t be necessary and instead sent him the broken Jet Wing. He called me as soon as he got it and put a new one in the mail the next day. He couldn’t find where I hit anything either and until now didn’t know about the test run. It took me about ten minutes to install the unit and for the last three weeks it has been working great everyday under normal guide wear and tear which is more than most boats go through. And I promise folks, no more 40mph turns, you’re safe with me.
With that clear low water and overhead dark sky or no direct sun, the top water bite has been great! The water temp has been in the low 60’s making the fish come alive. I’ve been using the Hubs Chub surface lures a lot lately and we’ve been having a ball watching the fish explode on them. However when there is little in the way of clouds around the fish are more tentative to lightly hit or even sip the big drake mayfly and cadis hatches coming up now and were ignoring our 3” long Hubs Cubs until the late evening hour before sunset. “Wish I had my flyrod” I was thinking one afternoon while I was watching the fish sip at the mayfly hatch. But I can’t use a flyrod while my customers are fishing with a spinning rod, it wouldn’t be fair for them not to be able to cast a fly with me. Besides, with the barbaric way I use a flyrod, nobody is safe! The answer was to use a clear casting bubble with flies tied behind on a clear 3x leader. I would put three flies on the leader and I started to catch what I found out to be mostly small bass. I had to be very careful that I didn’t set the hook too hard or I would rip the tiny size 10 hook right out of the fishes mouth, it was more of a lift than a set. Then every so often a big bass would hit the clear bubble. I wanted the big fish! So I used a 3” Hubs Chub and took off the front hook which just unscrews from the lure. I plugged the screw hole with a drop of glue and tied on my leader with my two flies behind that. Now when the bigger bass hit the Hubs Chub I had him. Why did I take off the one treble hook from the Chub? Because you are only allowed three hooks per line and I wanted to trail with two dry flies. I’m still experimenting with this system to get it perfected and have asked Dave Pelechek of JJ’s Jigs to make me some bigger flies with bigger hooks. Also you need to spray on dry fly floatant more often because you are not whipping off the water from your dry flies with a flyrod when you cast but it didn’t seem to deter the fish much from striking, you just couldn’t see them when they did.
With all the top water action going on in the shallow river I see this mistake go on every day. The customer will get a nice bass on his line and the first thing I hear usually from his buddy is “Keep Your Rod Tip Up”! The next thing I see is the fish jumps out of the water and gets off the hook which has its barbs pinched down if it’s one of mine. Unless you have a flyrod or a 12ft noodle rod, Do Not help that fish jump out of the water! You are helping the fish create slack line and a bigger hook hole in its mouth when you do and that’s when it gets off. Fight it in the water if you want to land it. Ever watch the bass pros on TV? They will keep the rod tip bent and reel the fish down to the water if it’s going to jump. That old saying of keep your rod tip up came from deep water anglers where the fish is going for the bottom and you have room to play them. In the river they are already on the bottom and are most of the time in 6ft of water or less. The only way is up to throw the hook for the fish, so why help them if you really want to land it.
The last thing I want to mention is a little in the way of conservation. October starts the new minimum harvesting size for smallmouth bass on the river from 12” and keeping 6 fish to 15” and keeping 4 fish. I don’t know which genius at the Fish and Boat Commission came up with that idea, when I asked they all said it was before their time. Well it’s your time now gentlemen and you can change this if you want to. We know that the age of the fish in the North of the North Branch for a 15” smallmouth bass is on average 7yrs old. A rare 20” smallmouth has to be close to a teenager! These are the main breeder fish and are much easier to catch in the fall of the year. We also know that the longer a fish stays in the river the more heavy metals and toxins the fish flesh will absorb which is hazardous to humans. So why force those who do actually eat the bass in the river to kill the main breeder fish and risk their health more while doing it? What is the end purpose?
Well that’s all I have for this month. For more reports, photos and chartering information, please visit my website at
www.ldguideservice.com . Good healthy fishing and I’ll see you on the river.
