ice, snow, kayaks, and smallmouth bass

[Juan Veruete]

Juan Veruete
Kayak Fish PA, LLC

What do these four things have in common? Well..I don't know because i'm just a dumb kayak fisherman...not a philosopher :)

I  spent a few hours checking out a "new to me" warm water discharge on the Susquehanna River this past Saturday in search of smallmouth bass. The discharge wasn't running at full tilt so the water was still quite cold ranging from 35 degrees to about 40 degrees. What the discharge did do, is create a "swath" of water clear of floating ice chunks. The strip of clear water extended about 3 miles below the discharge and ranged from 1/3 the width of the river or a little less in some areas.

I ended up with 2 smallmouth in about 4 hours of fishing. I spent a lot of time paddling. As a matter of fact I paddled about 2 miles upstream scouting various areas. I found two really promising looking areas. One didn't produce but I'm confident it holds fish. The second area was a nice eddy caused by a "small wooded point". This area produced two fish for me. A 16 incher and a nice 18.5.

All my fish came on a Winco's Chillee Willee. I hate to sound like a broken record but that bait has been producing for me this winter. A slow drag and a looooong motionless pause was the ticket. I felt taps on both fish but they were VERY faint. I missed a third fish in the same area.

The water was very low and VERY clear. Air temps while I was fishing ranged from 18 degrees to a high of 25 degrees. It was snowing...it's always a blast to fish in the snow!

here are a few pics of my little adventure...

When you see on of these it may not be a good day to fish :). check out the ice chunks on the river in the background. You can barely make them out...but they are there.


No Wade, I'm not going YakSledding  :)


Preparing to launch in the snow.

[Juan Veruete]

nitro- things should be thawing out down your way this week?

Randy - that may be a real possibility. I don't start guiding till April. March is an open book. Tell me more about this striper fishing!

[Nitrofish]

I'm glad you found some open water. Everything down here in north western Virginia is frozen hard as a rock. You can bet as soon as I can paddle between the icebergs I will! I agree about the "Not as cold as some people think". Even a slow to moderate amount of paddling keeps you warm and the river is never crowded.

[Randy Scott]

March-April you will have to come do some Hudson river striper fishing :)

[Juan Veruete]

Thanks Randy. I really enjoy winter fishing. Not as cold as some people think..with the right gear and the fact that you are paddling.

[Randy Scott]

you "THE MAN" ! it's nice when you can extend the season. Do such discharges around here, everything is solid.