JPascavage52

http://fishandboat.com/watertrails/juniata/juniata_lower/juniata_lower_guide_map.pdfa There is a map of the access points, along with some more information about the area. Also, there are some pull off areas along 322 where you can park and walk in down the bank.

Anybody fished for smallies yet this year? Thinking of taking a trip up the last weekend of April, went up in mid- May last year, and absolutely hammered em.

Wellsboro Tackle Shack, and Susquehanna Fishing Tackle.

I would also recommend checking out the Juniata River, if you are able to go that far into Central PA. The area up around Huntingdon below Raystown is my favorite, but there is also good fishing on the lower portion from Lewistown down towards the Susquehanna inflow. Plenty of places to wade, and I've had triple digit fish days. Also, on the Susquehanna, there is a boat launch in Marysville that my father and I used to wet wade at, and do really well.

I finally got the video of my weekend up there up on my channel, took so long because my home computer wasn't working.

Welp had a pretty good weekend. Saturday, fished the bay as well as the main lake off the stacks and cribs, caught 37 bass total, including two 5+ers, about a 50/50 split on largemouth and smallies, had good luck skipping senkos under some docks, as well as jerkbaits and green pumpkin tubes. Sunday it seemed to slow down a bit, got some smallies on the main lake and two drum, and missed a bunch as well, for some reason just couldn't find a good hookset.

Thanks, sounds like good news.

Let me start by saying that I don't think there is anything wrong with being a Senko first type of guy, I'm the same way myself, and every angler will have their baits and techniques they are most comfortable and confident with. Heck, Gary Yamamoto himself is a top pro, and I saw a video with him where he said he's been able to do almost anything he's needed to do with plastics. It's one of those lures that you simply need to let do the work for you, which is what makes it so versatile. And hey, unless you are fishing among elite pros, I believe the guy who is consistently catching a limit of solid keepers each time out will, over time, do better than the guy who is inconsistent, and gets an occasional hawg That said, some other things to consider are the forage base of where you will be fishing (bluegill, perch, bream, shad, shiners, other baitfish, crawfish, etc), and the conditions (water clarity, light penetration, etc.) If the water is going to be clear, and the day sunny, you will want to stick with more natural colors (watermelon, green pumpkin, brown and orange, baitfish colors etc), if the water is stained, you will want to use colors that will be easier for the bass to see. Also, remember that lures have different purposes, a crankbait is meant to be a search bait, and draw reaction strikes when it colides with cover, as are topwaters, these can help you eliminate a lot of water quickly, which comes in handy in a tournament on a large lake where your time is limited, and you don't have much time to fish every nook and cranny thoroughly. Flipping jigs, and heavy rigged texas plastics, are great for weeds, lily pads, and heavy cover, and there will ALWAYS be at least some bass in these areas. When the water is cool, or a front has come through, fish will sometimes use these areas as somewhat of a blanket. In addition, bass will often construct spawning nests here, and go deep into weeds in the summertime for cover, oxygen, and ambush points. You can also try probing the edges of weeds with your senkos. For your specific situation, I would still expect to see bass on the beds, and shallow. Remember that not all bass spawn at the same time, and it is quite possible for bass to be in different "seasons" at the same time. I've caught spawning bass as late as July and as early as March here in PA. Check main lake shorelines, flats, and shallow structure for spawning bass, in addition to the backs of coves and creeks. For baits, your senkos are a great place to start, in addition texas rigged lizards are incredible during the spawn, as lizards are notorious for ransacking bass nests and eating eggs. A tube jig can be key, drag it along the bottom slowly, and hop it occasionally. If nothing shallow, check structure and points where coves and creeks intersect the main lake, as these areas often hold post spawn bass, as well as the first breakline. Keep an eye out for drop offs, and sudden depth changes. In the rocky areas, and ledges, try a crawfish colored crankbait or black and blue football jig with a craw trailer. Good luck and let us know how you do.

I see that area on the map. What were you guys using, if you dont mind me asking?

Hey guys, got a trip planned to Erie planned this weekend, wonderin if anyone is getting smallies in Presque Isle Bay yet? Heard some guys got into them on the main lake pretty well

Agree with Martintheduck and jhoffman. I've been heavily scrutinizing Craigslist ads for the past week or so, and the earliest I plan to make a purchase is this fall, wouldn't mind getting the boat a few times in the late season, and gaining experience in the offseason with storage, maybe some work, and decide if I want to make any changes. I guess my next thing would be, when you went to meet the seller in person, and see the boat, what all did you look at, and what tests did you do before buying? Appreciate the help!

Thanks for the replies everyone, very helpful so far. I will probably perform most maintenance myself, I'm pretty savvy performing repairs on my own car, and I'm more than willing to spend a few hours of aggravation to save a few hundred on labor. My budget will probably be in about the $5,000 range, although I'd be willing to fluctuate that, hence why I'm assuming it will be used. Not going to buy the next boat I see or anything, but I want to be prepared when I see that good deal for sale. Not looking for anything too fancy or showy, just something reasonably comfortable that will hold up well for a few years, and will get me from point A to point B at a reasonable speed to get on some fish. I guess my next question would be, what would be the year of the oldest boat you would consider purchasing? I know a guy who purchased a 1988 Lund for about $2,000, and he has had no problems with it whatsoever.

Hey guys, I'm in the third year of my first job out of college, and have saved up a decent amount of money, and I'm beginning to plan my first few "big asset purchases" I'm planning to trade in my sedan for a small pickup/ SUV probably in the next month or so. And, this has gotten me into thinking about purchasing my first entry level, probably used "bachelor" bass boat. I currently do my own bass fishing out of a small fishing kayak, and fish several local club tournaments each year as a rider, but I would like to be able to have the freedom to fish more tournaments in other areas, without having to wait for someone to invite me. I fish a wide variety of bodies of water, mostly medium sized lakes (Raystown at about 8,000 acres being the largest), as well as a few rivers. I'm not much of a "run and gun" fisherman, I like to heavily scrutinize an area, and make repeated casts to structure, before moving. I've never been one to use electronics much, my father raised me against them, but I would like to utilize them primarily to find fish in summer on deepwater humps/ offshore structure. I'm looking at aluminum, because I've heard it's more durable and cheaper. Also, many of the tournaments I've seen require you to have a 25 HP MINIMUM motor to compete, and from what I hear, even this will leave you seriously underpowered. I wanted to get some opinions and experiences from anyone out there who was in a similar situation to me, or what you went through when you bought your first bass boat, such as - Did you buy used? What were your costs for the boat, and any maintenance/ upgrades over the next few years? What were some red flags during the buying process? - How did you store the boat when not in use? Did anyone rent extra space, or some kind of storage unit for it? Thank you very much for the help.

Sounds to me like there are still bass that are spawning, but some are moving into post spawn mode/ summer mode, and this is a good time to be in. It's been my experience that bass will come up to spawn when the water temperature hits about 55, and fish will come and go to spawn as the water warms to as much as 70. For this reason, I would suggest you concentrate on both deeper and shallower structure and patterns. I would also suggest fishing slower, and putting the A Rig away for now, switching to some smaller plastics, and fish slower. As has already been suggested, a T rigged Senko is a great start, cast it to some structure, let it sit for awhile, give the rod tip a small tug, let it sit again, and the begin working it back towards you, raise the rod tip all the way up, reel the slack line up, count 5-7 seconds as it falls and sits, repeat. Some other good plastics are tube baits, and lizards, T rigged or Drop Shotted. Make sure to alter the color to natural forage of the water you are fishing. For example, in the lake I fished the other night, I know that primary forage includes crawfish, brown lizards, dark brown frogs, shiners, fat heads, and stocked trout. I fish jigs, dark colored zoom lizards, and Senko in watermelon, anything with gold flake, and rainbow trout colors. Target shallow structure, shallow waters 1-6 feet deep for spawning bass, as well as deeper structure (especially curved grass/ weedlines, as these often indicate structure and/ or rapid depth dropoffs.

Lol first of all, whoever told you that needs to seriously reevaluate their technique. I mean, it's true that you will get many "reaction" bites on the initial fall when you cast, but there is a lot of water to be covered between you and where you cast to. Also, 5 inches is my favorite size for senkos. I would suggest that you also add black w/ blue flake to your repetoire, these seem to work well for dark, cloudy days, or for murky water. Another lure you may want to try is a Zoom Salty Centipede. As for the technique, I texas rig 90% of the time, because I love the "see-saw" motion that it does on the way down. This is very similar to a dying baitfish sinking to the bottom. I would suggest starting with no weight, and when you need it, going with the least you can get by with. You may want to try a pinch-on split shot rather than a bullet weight, as I find this allows the worm to keep it's natural motion better. Because there are so many factors, you really need to adjust until you find what the fish want on that particular day in those particular conditions. If you're attempting to fish deeper water, and locate structure, I like a Carolina rig, fished similar to a jig. Regardless of how you rig it, the casting and presentation method is essentially the same. Get within casting distance of the structure, cast parellel to the lengthwise edge of it, getting as close as possible without getting hung up. Allow the bait to fall, and sit on the bottom for a bit. Then, reel up enough slack to feel a tight line, and then lift the pole up slowly, giving it a slow short jig, allow the bait to fall on it's own again (be alert though, as many of your strikes will come when the bait is falling, and this is what you are trying to do). Let the bait pause on the bottom, and then repeat. In fact, I like to get into a little mental rythym, (reel-jig-pause, reel-jig-pause), which helps to cover as much water as possible, yet still allow you to work the bait slowly. Don't be afraid to make many casts to an area, especially if it's one of those where "there's just gotta be something." Also, be on the look out for schools of baitfish, and surface activity, you can often get bites by throwing into these.

I am asking when to use a jig vs soft plastic, specifically crawfish (or when trying to imitate them)?? I say jig and pig to include both jigs fished with pork rind trailers, as well as plastic trailers. I generally use Berkley Chigger Craws, and Zoom Super Chunks (both marinated in lunker sauce) as my trailers. I've had some success with pork trailers, but I don't like how after awhile, they tend to slide down the shank of the hook, rather than staying put. And, if you let them dry out, you need a chainsaw to get them off the hook. Anyway, I went to Cabelas tonight, and picked up a couple of plastic craw imitations (some Havoc craws, and some beaver tails). Theyre each about 3-4 inches long, and I'm planning to Texas rig them on 2/0 or 3/0 EWG hooks, with a bullet weight on the line above the bait. Is this the best way to rig them for fishing offshore/ deep water structure, as well as edges of grassbeds (where I catch most of my hawgs in the summertime). I also have a few 3/0 weighted EWG hooks I've used to get Senkos and Brush Hawgs down faster without sacrificing too much action..

I was hoping y'all could help me out with something.. I have really gotten into jig and pig fishing over the past few years, and it has become one of my more productive lures, especially black and blue colored, as well as peanut butter and jelly, green pumpkin, and brown and burnt orange. I also like to use it on deep water flats in order to kind of explore and search the bottom to get a feel for underwater structure, and every time out, I get at least a few pick ups on it. However, the past two tournaments have been strange. In one of them, I had no luck whatsoever on 3 different colors of jigs, yet my boater was fishing a watermelon plastic craw (a Havoc Craw Fatty I think) and he caught the lunker and multiple keepers on it. This past weekend, I was fishing a lunker tournament, and had caught a few barely legal fish, and decided to work some offshore structure. A few minutes later, I hooked up with what ended up being the winner, a nice size smallie. So, my question is this. I know jig n pigs are supposed to represent crawfish. How do you decide whether to use a jig n pig, or a plastic crawdad? What are the factors involved with the decision? Thanks for the help

We have a couple of club tournaments coming up in the next few weeks at Hunter's Lake, in Northeastern Pennsylvania. I've never fished it before, and I'm planning to do some prefishing in the coming days to get ready. I was wondering if anyone has fished it for bass before, and could give me some tips on areas to try/ baits to use? Its one of those lakes where, according to my research, the structure near the shoreline isn't all that impressive, but the structure is mostly in deeper water, so that's why I'm asking. Thanks!!

Hey guys, I just moved to the Berwick area (from Central PA) for a new job. I was wondering if anyone from that area is on here, and would like to fish sometime, or could at least point me in the direction of some hotspots on the Suskie. I currently fish out of a kayak that I store at my apartment (obviously, being right out of college, can't afford a boat or anything to tow it with yet.) Particularly, I wanted to see if there are any Columbia County Bassmasters members on here, since I was thinking about joining as a rider. I know there's an "Open Buddy Tournament" over at the Test Track on June 23-24 I'd like to fish, and was also wondering if anyone was looking for a teammate to fish that. Thanks!

Right, so I have tomorrow off, and I was thinking about taking the boat out to Raystown, I'm not quite ready to put it away yet. In the past, I've had luck there with largemouth and smallies in the weedy coves near Aitch (including a 6 pounder this past summer.). However, I've read that this time of year can be the best time to catch stripped bass and walleye, and I was thinking about giving this a try tommorrow. So, I was wondering if some more experienced people could give me some good locations on the lake to catch stripers and walleye at this time of year, and what baits/ lures should I try out? I'm looking for numbers of fish rather than size, if possible. I was thinking about trying near the dam and Mile Marker 1 and 2, would this be a good idea?? Thank you for your help