August 22, 2024 – Some Piggies on the Twilight Cruise with the Boy (and Glenn) – Susquehanna River

Bass before back to school.

These August rains continue to pay dividends.  It started with the cricks, of course, but as the water has moved into the rivers, it has opened up even more possibilities.  Thanks to Glenn at Reel River Adventures, the boy and I took advantage of the good flows to get some bass on the main river.  I was slow to reserve a split trip with Chris Gorsuch this summer (and last), so he was booked up solid, but when we communicated, he said Glenn might run 4-hour evening trips if the flows cooperate.  Kenny and I fished this spring with Glenn, who is also an excellent guide, and we had a great trip.  He mentioned he did these twilight trips in the summer, which is what prompted me to ask Chris about them as an alternative to the overnight, split trips.  Glenn has his own teenaged son, and he really worked with my boy this evening too.  Not only did he get him on fish, but he improved his casting and probably his fish fighting skills with his attention.  Me, I was just out there killing it, at least for the first half of the trip!  At the first stop, while my son was still shaking off the cobwebs and getting with the program, I landed 9 fish over 17 inches, including two or three over 19 inches (one 20 if we pinched the tail). 

Dad caught some big bass.

A school of big bass were stacked up in the push/cushion in front of an island and readily took rattletraps. I even dropped a tenth big fish that jumped on a long line out in the current.  A handful of fish took the bait the minute it landed, a crank or two of the reel and they were on.  The boy got into the flow and landed a good one too.  When the bite died after about 90 minutes, Glenn bounced around to a few other spots where he caught nice fish while scouting this week.  We caught some fish, but it got tough, and the size got much smaller.  By then, the boy was on his A game and caught a good number of fish up to 15 inches.  He was ready the next time opportunity knocked, but the big ones stayed quiet after that first flurry.  I picked away at some dinkers, but not as many as we would have liked.  The white flies were starting to swarm an hour before dark, and I have a theory that the topwater bite is affected by this sundown event.  Even on the Juniata at the Josh Jamboree, we had no topwater bite until the sun set and the bass started taking bugs.  Before that, during the usual magic hour, nothing happened.  It’s almost like they refuse to look up until the time they know that dinks and bait fish will begin gorging on mayfly spinners.  It’s a theory, anyway....  The water clarity was still off, so there are other reasons why the bite might have shut off with the dying sunlight.

Glenn working with the boy; check out the girth on those two (three if you count a mitch).

Glenn stayed out at least a half hour longer and worked with the boy and a whopper plopper around the islands looking for the one!  They had one blow up that looked to me like a smaller fish, or at least a fish that did not inhale the big topwater bait.  That would have been the proverbial icing on the cake.  Still, I know that boy had a blast catching some hard fighting smalljaws, and I was glad that we were able to arrange this alternative plan with Glenn.  We had so much fun that we talked about doing the overnight trip with Chris on the North Branch AND a night with Glenn next summer.  I have to take the boy out to York County for the SAT (don’t ask why I have to drive 2 hours) and will only be 12 miles from the river.  I have three hours to kill out there, so don’t be surprised if you see a few more bass pics this weekend 😉

A couple more good basses.

A few more bonus shots.