July 21 and 22, 2022 – The Boy Quickly Becomes a Finesse Bass Fisherman – Susquehanna River

Boy's best on Thursday night.

For our second father-son fishing adventure this month, the boy and I did a split trip with Chris Gorsuch of Reel River Adventures on his jet sled up on the North Branch of the Susky.  Because Chris is a friend of young Kenny and Stan (of Fitt Premium Lures fame), who fish with him at least once a month throughout the year, and I have fished with Chris several times, I knew the boy would have a great couple of days and receive some valuable instruction along the way.  Chris did not disappoint, as usual.  There are a lot worse things to be doing during these dog days of summer, and Chris has it set so we all work smarter (and cooler) not harder.  A few years back, Kenny and I suffered through a full-day in August, and I am sure others had done so too (not to mention the captain himself) so not long after that Chris began doing these split trips as the summer heat becomes too much.  

Endless Mountains, bald eagles, early morning and late evening beauty.

Basically, he booked us an air-conditioned RV in the campground right on the river for Thursday night—he was even kind enough to start the a/c before we arrived, which definitely made packing in and going to sleep later a lot more pleasant!  We arrived after 5 PM and fished the evening bite, and then we woke at 5 AM and fished the remainder of the 8-hour trip in the morning.  In this heat, it made for a comfortable and really productive mid-summer fishing trip.  We clocked over 70 bass up to 17 inches in those 8 hours, plus the boy landed a PB smallie and even reeled in a huge channel cat as our final fish on Friday.

A sunset, a boat ride, many ned fish.

Frigging Google Maps navigation!  I have been reminding myself to download Waze on my phone for far too long.  The ride up was uneventful until we got within about 15 miles of the campground and launch, then Google told us to take a left, an algorithm shortcut, no doubt, which took us into some Deliverance type territory….  Thankfully, the boy has not yet seen the film, so he had no images of Ned Beatty in tighty whiteys as we stopped near an early 19^th C cemetery on the top of a mountain ridge to have a long-overdue piss break.  For the last 8 miles of our trip, we travelled an unimproved mountain road surface through a ghost town, I believe.  We did arrive safely and had a good fishing night on Thursday, where the boy learned to fish a ned rig and landed his best smalljaw, a fish about 16 inches.  Within 45 minutes, he had the technique down and was matching Dad fish for fish, maybe even beating me on the dink count!  He has the right patient temperament for this finesse fishing and really stuck with each cast’s potential for a fish.  Me, I am always looking for the next target, especially drifting on a river, but that patience pays this time of year.

Dubs on Thursday night

At one point, the boy had a pig on and thought he was snagged.  Chris took the rod to snap the line and try to get the lead back, and it started moving!  The fish jumped off after that, of course. The boy also had another fish on after Chris freed a snag, which prompted me to see if jerking the jigs would elicit more strikes, but the pattern was not so simple.  Slow and steady fishing on the bottom netted the majority of fish on a productive evening.  We rolled into the ramp before 9 PM and then took a ride to the closest Dandy, the only thing open at that hour, to scavenge some food for late dinner and early breakfast.  Because of our detour and a later than expected start on Thursday, we did not follow our previously discussed plan-ahead model.  We had plenty of snacks and drinks, but after this short ride on Thursday night, we also had a convenience store dinner and breakfast for an early rise on Friday.  Chris launched the boat before 6 AM on Friday morning, and surprisingly the boy got right up with our alarm set for 5 AM, so after an iced coffee, a quick yogurt and bagel breakfast, and a sit down at the clean and conveniently-located bathhouse across the field from our trailer, we were ready for day two of our fishing trip to begin.

A couple more chunks.

I wanted a few on topwater this morning, so I had my own rod rigged with a classic Heddon Baby Torpedo in baby bass pattern.  YOY are feeding on bugs every evening and morning this time of year, so I am sure big mama and papa are eating YOY!  Chris said the early morning had been slow the last couple of days, and it was, but we did get some fish on neds in the first hour.  I also got my wish and had a solid 17 inch bass eat my topwater in a perfect back eddy.  It was the best fish of the trip thus far, and would ultimately be our best of both days, so I was willing the thing to stay on for both me and Chris as it jumped three times in a row with the bait in his mouth.  No repeats of when I dropped a crankbait fish in the twenties earlier this year with Chris and Kenny, thank god!  We tried to get the boy on one with the whopper plopper, but the topwater bite did not really turn on.  I think I got a couple more and a very brave or really hungry ‘gill on top before I turned back to neds and swims.  I am not a soft plastic swimmer devotee, but I know they work, so I stuck with it enough to land maybe 5 on it today.  The rest for Lukas and me both came on the crayfish-colored neds.  Chris even photographed a bass with a crawdaddy in its throat for his FB page if you care to look!  

My topwater fish early Friday morning.

I slept very little on Thursday night, but it was actually the boy who was looking tired on Friday.  It was warm even by 8:30 AM, so that no doubt contributed.  He eventually woke up and carried his weight until we topped 40 fish for the morning, and he was given “permission” to sit it out and rest.  Besides the 17 on top, we both landed a couple other decent fish and a lot of well-fed averages and smalls.  It was even hotter by 11 AM, and the boy was sitting out, but Chris stopped at one last riffle where I notched a couple more and Chris even took some casts.  One of his Fitt swimbaits got grabbed by a huge fish.  Chris urged the boy to get up and take the rod, and it took him a minute to agree to land this pig.  We did not think bass, and a musky would have jumped by now, so we had no clue what Chris had hooked.  Eventually, we saw a flash of channel cat in the current.  It was a Boga-worthy fish that the boy got to enjoy fighting.  It may have been the biggest fish he has ever messed with, so it was worth putting down his phone, for sure!  That was a great note on which to end the two-day excursion.  If the goal of these trips this summer was to give him a good shot at steady action and some nice fish, not to mention establishing some annual traditions before he gets too old for his dad, then I definitely met that goal.  I think we need to get an instructional half-day with Sam and a fly rod going for the future, maybe even on a private stretch of water, but I am just going to enjoy having an excited young fishing partner for the time being.

A couple of that cat, another of my best fish, boy with his good one.