A Wildy Good Time (part 1)

This past offseason I was presented with the opportunity to join the Wilderness Systems Fishing Team. One thing you have to know about me is that I'm not a pro-staff guy. In fact, I've never been on a pro-staff of any kind. No knock on those guys, because I have friends that have done it very successfully. It just hadn't been a desire/goal of mine. I was attracted to the Wilderness Systems opportunity for a several reasons, but the biggest being the people associated with the brand. As a dedicated river angler, for years I had followed guys like Jeff Little, Juan Veruete, Tim Perkins, and Jedediah Plunkert, all whom are in my estimation, pioneers of the sport. I selfishly wanted to be a part of a team that had anglers of that caliber on it. So, you can only imagine when I saw the plans go out for a team get together on the Susquehanna River, I got that fuzzy feeling inside. Not only would I get a chance to fish alongside some of the guys that I had admired from afar, but I would also get to check off a bucket list smallmouth destination. For those who don't know, the Susquehanna River is widely considered one of, it not the top Smallmouth river in the country. Add in the fact that it's almost custom-built for kayak fishing, and you can see why this was a place I had targeted.

The drive from Indy was roughly 9 hours, but honestly seemed more like 9 minutes because I was so jacked to fish this place. I arrived around 3:00 in the afternoon on Friday to a deserted camping area. The guys who had arrived before me had set up camp and were already on the river fishing. In typical fashion, I wasted no time in setting up camp and getting my boat down to the launch. As I slid my Atak 120 into the water, the overwhelming size of this river hit me. It is a HUGE river. I knew that it was a mile wide in places, but nothing does it justice until you are actually there. I started paddling upriver, working my way towards the guys that were already fishing. There were appealing targets to throw at everywhere, it was a sort of sensory overload for a guy like me. Instead of just chucking my bait out there, I did some paddling for the first 10 minutes or so and tried to observe the river and what it was presenting. Anytime I am on a river that I have never fished before, I try to break it down mentally. This particular stretch of the Susky had quite a bit of consistent current pushing throughout the whole width of the river. There were what I refer to as "primary" islands (big islands with mature trees), scrub islands (smaller islands with smaller trees and scrub brush), and grass islands. Other than the occasional submerged boulder, this was the main habitat that existed in this stretch offering good ambush points for smallmouth. I had watched some videos Juan had put up in the past week, and grass islands seemed to be mentioned a lot, they were also the most abundant, so that is where I started.

There were sections of these grass islands where several larger ones would be bunched together. I fished some of these with a topwater bait, but wasn't getting any to commit. I had a nice fish swipe at it on the front of one of the islands, but still no takers. It wasn't long before I abandoned the topwater for a fluke (surprise, surprise). It was about this time that I ran into a few of the guys that were on the river already. About 50 yards across the river, I saw Chase Tanner hook up. His rod bent over and he screamed "Fish on!". I witnessed what looked to be a monster smallmouth take a 2 foot leap out of the water. I couldn't tell exactly how it happened, but I saw Chase lean over and groan. Ahhhh, must have gotten off! After paddling over to talk with him, he was still in a micro depression. He informed me that the fish he lost was over 20 inches, and 5+ lbs. He also said he had a couple 18's in the boat and a 19.5 landed. It immediately got my adrenaline pumping, as I knew it was only a matter of time until I got on to some fish.

Chase "The Senko King" Tanner with a healthy Susquehanna smallmouth

I kept plugging away at the grass islands, and picked up a couple smaller fish on the back side corners of the islands where the current was pushing around and creating a seam. I was immediately impressed with the fight of these fish. There were thick, and they were hard fighters. I was pumped. I pulled up on a nicer looking isolated island, and threw my fluke up on to the right rear corner of the island. What happened next was a first for me. I saw a large tail and dorsal fin of a smallmouth come out of the water near my bait. The fish looked to almost push its nose down to the bottom where my fluke was resting, with its entire back side sticking out the water like a carp. It surprised me so much I realized that I was watching all this play out and not taking the steps to land the fish. As this reality hit me I picked up my rod tip and started reeling. This fish must have had my fluke in its mouth the entire time. It took a run around the edge of the island easily owerpowering the drag on my reel. Then with one jump, her gills flared out, shet sent my fluke flying through the air. Heartbreak, and only 30 minutes into the trip. This was a BIG smallmouth, no doubt about it. How big? Well, lets just say I wouldn’t get a shot at one this big the rest of the trip. Oh well, that’s just how it goes sometimes.

I continued to fish upstream and had a chance to introduce myself to Troy Meyerhoeffer and Adam Corry who were both part of the Wildy team. I could immediately tell these were some cool dudes, and this was going to be a fun trip. I had picked up a couple 17's and 1-18 in the next couple hours, but fishing wasn’t crazy good to this point. I had 6-7 fish in the boat, but I knew that this should change as the evening bite was about to come on. In a group text we had going, Juan had informed everyone to stay on the water as late as possible, as the hour before dark was the “magic hour”. I’ll be honest, I was a little nervous to stay out that late due to the vastness of this river, and the unfamiliarity of where our camp was, but nevertheless the fishing was too compelling. The listed sunset time was about 8:45, so I figured I had until 9:15 or so before I needed to be close to camp. I had paddled further upstream than the rest of the group in order to get some unmolested water. Each grass island I came to would reveal an additional appealing grass island a few hundred yards further upstream. This carried me about 1.5 miles or so that I would have to cover back to camp. As dusk approached, the “magic hour” was about there. I had decided that I would fish until 8:30 then proceed to power fish my way back to camp. Just about as soon as the sun dropped below the horizon all hell broke loose. Smallmouth were chasing and breaching the surface everywhere! Those grass islands that were yielding fish on the backside earlier on the day were all ripe with activity on the front sides. As I started floating back downstream, I positioned my boat to have one really good cast at the front of each island I passed. First one, BAM, an 18.5 crushed my spinnerbait. No sooner than I could get the fish back into the water, did I approach another grass island, first cast BAM!...another 18! This was crazy! I was literally getting an 18” every single cast I was making. This is what the Susky is all about! I worked my way back to camp in the next 20 min and totaled 6 fish over 18” and another 5 over 17. IT. WAS. NUTS! I got back to camp, and discovered I wasn’t the only one who had success. Everyone had stuck ‘em pretty good!

I spent the rest of the evening chatting it up with the guys, and downing a couple hot dogs and beers before passing out in my tent ready to wake up at 4:00 am for my first full day on the Susquehanna River! A day I had dreamed about for quite some time.

An early morning wakeup call had us on the water about 30 min after first light. We had a new team member, Tom Philippi, drive down from New Jersey to fish for the day. Tom is a really cool dude, and it was awesome sharing the water with him on this day. A cold front that pushed through the night before had produced a drop in temps and blue bird skies. The water was slightly muddy from some precip upriver, but it wasn’t anything too terrible. While these weren’t perfect conditions, I knew we could still catch fish. As a couple of the guys finished running the shuttle, I slid my kayak into the water for a little bonus time. A small ledge system was creating some current at the front of a primary island that made for a real nice feeding spot. It looked good enough for me to dock my kayak on the island and get out and wade. My efforts were rewarded as I hooked up immediately. It was a morning feeding frenzy. Each cast of my fluke was producing a nice fish. Eight fish in the boat and we hadn’t even been on the water more than 15 minutes. Barry Davis joined me a few minutes later as the fish seemed to leave the spot. We kept fishing for a few more minutes as the other Juan and Chase pulled up onto the island, but clearly the fish were done with their window of hyper feeding. Just as I started to pull away, the legend known as Juan Veruete hooked up in the spot I had abandoned. An 18” slammed his topwater plug. A lesson learned from one of the best to run this river. Never leave the big one behind.

We spent the next several hours floating sections of the river, then grouping up and having Juan give us some intel on the section ahead. At one point the river split in half with an island in the middle. Juan warned us that if we picked the wrong side that we would end up 1.5 miles past the take-out. Man, this river is something else! We all fished the day out, with several good fish caught. At one point we all stopped near the end of our float and ran a class 2 rapid. It was a nice change of pace to end out our float. I believe I ended the day with 27 fish, with 2 being over 18”. Several other 18's were caught within the group, and I think maybe a 19 or 2 by Chase. The grass island pattern held up with a spinnerbait being the lure of choice for the day. I did end up going out for another evening bite, and was rewarded with 13 more fish and another 18. Not a bad day at all.

This night was most remembered by the master chef, Troy, prepping a great meal for the team. A delicious pasta dish was shared by all, and many friendships were forged on this night. This was great day, and one I will remember for a long time. We all sat by the fire and drank beer for a couple hours before calling it a night. We had discussed our fishing route for the next day and had landed on trying a trib of the Susky, The Juniata River. I was very excited to give this river a try as it was more in my wheelhouse being a smaller river. Another day of river exploration and trophy smallmouth lie ahead. I couldn’t wait. To be continued…