North Branch Susquehanna Smallmouth Exploration

The day before the Bassmaster Kayak Series tournament on the Susquehanna, I went with three buddies up the North Branch Susquehanna in search of big smallmouth. Steve and Josh found several, but I was destined to ride the struggle bus to dink town. Not my day, but it was fun to explore new waters and new ways to rig a Z-Man 7 inch Scented Jerk Shad.

[@johnwhite993]

Nice paddling skills there Jeff. Somedays you ride the struggle bus and somedays are so bad your driving it. Still a good day fishing. No bad days on the water.

[@TheLittleStuff]

That inflatable is an easy one to line up with a draw stroke.

[@davecunningham4726]

Very good! Thanks Jeff. The way you are burning that plastic and having trouble hooking up, I might be inclined to high stick a jerk bait across there instead. You get the advantage of 9 hooks, and a little more erratic retrieve. The days when they are biting short can be frustrating. I love soft plastic as much as anyone but you need a hook in the back. Been thinking about using a trailer hook on my jackhammers. I use a 5” white grub trailer.

[@TheLittleStuff]

That’s a solid logic right there. As long as there isn’t leaves and floating grass it should work. The real answer on days when there is grass and they are tail grabbing is to stop pulling until the white of the bait disappears, and only then set the hook. High sticking during the fast retrieval might be part of that.

[@davecunningham4726]

Around here I find in crystal clear water, anything but a jig bite they will be very apprehensive. I have come to the conclusion that the main reason for this is our overpopulation of a certain bird that everyone thinks is so precious.

[@davecunningham4726]

Especially in sunlight

[@brendanlee8287]

Jeff great video. Seeing what your buddies use is a plus. thanks for sharing your catches weather they are 20"er's or dinks. The way you think through and analyze things is what I am doing more of. I can't get out enough. Will be out on Friday

[@TheLittleStuff]

Good luck on Friday!

[@ryandoll3684]

My dude Josh keeping the lips closed with the juice 🤐 Good stuff as always Jeff !

[@TheLittleStuff]

He talked about a huge musky eating his bull shad, going airborne then cutting it off. It was his only one, and was the bait he caught most of his bigs on day 1. He told the story at the awards ceremony.

[@riverrat92]

Nice! Your on my home stretch. I fish from Danville to berwick.

[@TheLittleStuff]

It’s a beautiful section of the Susquehanna! We drove through the set up for River Fest on the way in that morning. Steve walked up the hill to check it out at the end of the day and said, “There’s a whole lot of fried food up there!” 😂

[@georgetollefsen994]

Awesome Jeff. Thanks for sharing 👍

[@TheLittleStuff]

Thanks for watching George!

[@bryanknatz6067]

Valley Hill makes a plastic pipe that you can shove into bait to make baits line through. It’s called trembling through pipe. It’s out of Japan

[@TheLittleStuff]

I’ll look into it. Tim gave me some needles to do this, and they have worked well.

[@aaronbilansky374]

Another great video as always. I actually used to go to the Berwick area a lot in my youth with my father. The nice thing for me is that part and the Hburg area are about the same drive for me. Most of the river is about a hour drive.

[@jasonvenesky2438]

Sorry to hear about your rod. It’s extra sickening when it’s a rod you built yourself. The nicest fly rod I ever built fell victim to a motor home furnace exhaust. I didn’t find out until I hiked miles into a native trout stream. First cast and snap. I had leaned it against the motor home earlier that day and it got heated/burned by the exhaust

[@TheLittleStuff]

I look at it this way. I get to build it again and it will be cleaner this time.

[@davecunningham4726]

Jeff , I’m driving East this weekend, goona be wade fishing. Looking at the Juniata or sesquehanna. Any good suggestions on location. I don’t like civilization either. Thank you.

[@TheLittleStuff]

There isn’t bad water anywhere between Harrisburg and Sunbury. The further north you go, the less civilization.

[@Hookyhook1]

Try shady nook boat landing Selinsgrove Lots of good grub n suds around there Marzonis’s is a must it is located besides the Sheetz store