Smallmouth Bass (Catch & Release)
I figured some of you might enjoy these Pics, and another Bear story:
My Dad, My Son, and Myself have done a lot of fishing over the years. We fished most of the Trout Streams in 6 of the Eastern counties of PA, and most of the Lakes that were open to the public, and a couple of Rivers. My Dad & I spent many a day & nights on the Delaware River, that runs mostly between PA and NJ. We mostly fished from shore at night, for Catfish, and by boat during the day for Smallmouth Bass.
So after teaching Bear Jr most of what I know about fishing, he has since branched off into Shad Fishing, and He also ran up to New York for the Salmon run, and then a month later for the Huge Trout that go upstream to eat the Salmon eggs that were just deposited. I’m talking Trout in the 30” range!!!
Anyway—Bear Jr decided he wanted to know more about another Pennsy’ River.
We never did much fishing in the “Susky” Susquehanna River, because in my day, I believe the Delaware had more to offer, and it was a lot closer.
When I was in school, from about 5th grade on, my Dad & I used to sometimes run over to the River (Delaware) after school, during the week. My Dad would put the 12’ Aluminum “Smoker Craft” boat, In the back of his truck by himself, load up all of our fishing stuff (including a bucket of "Killi Minnows"), and wait at the end of the driveway for me to get home from school. My Bus stop was almost a mile from my home, and there was a big bend in the road, and when I came around that bend toward My Dad, sitting in his Truck waiting, I better be Running at Top Speed, because if I aint running, that means I don’t want to go bad enough, and he would just leave without me, and catch all the fish by himself!!!
<<< End of Bear’s “Flash-back”>>>
The Susky is allot more shallow, and full of rocks & boulders, and seems to be very hard to fish, so Bear Jr decided instead of taking a lifetime to learn how to fish it, he would pay a Guide to take him out on it, and see how much he can learn that way.
So he found a Guide & boat that he liked, and he took his Wife Bethany along, from 2 PM to 7 PM. He learned that this guide knew where many of the rocks are in at least a few miles stretch of the river, and with a Jet powered boat, you can maneuver your way between and around the rocks, if you’re very careful.
They were busy pulling Smallmouth Bass in for the whole time they were out there, and caught 62 Smallmouths between them in 5 hours. Bear Jr figures most were between 10” and 12” long, 6 or 7 of them were over 15”, and one was over 17”. He said he also had one on that jumped near the boat & shook the hook, that be believed was at least 20” long. The Guide agreed with the estimate.
So they had fun, and caught a lot of one of the hardest fighting freshwater fish we know of, and he’ll be going back to catch more, and maybe bring some home to his Dad. This package he had was only for “Catch & Release”. My guess is they don’t want to help people to catch fish & keep them, and eventually fish themselves out of business.
I selected 3 of the best pics for you guys to see.
Hope You enjoy them:
Bear
Bear Jr, with a Nice Smallmouth Bass:
Bethany trying not to be outdone:
Another Nice Bronzeback:
