Susky River Rat

Almost everyone here knows I run a jet boat in the Susquehanna River. The Susquehanna is extremely shallow and rocky. I run a G3 center console tunnel Jon boat with a 115/80 Yamaha outboard jet. Which is a great platform. Like everyone we all want to upgrade our rigs. I decided to get versaflex 225 (better known as K5) sprayed on my boat hull. This is a pure polyurea that was developed as a blast resistant polymer. After this gets put on wet lander is the final coat to make it super slick. All this is to protect the hull from rock damage and glide over them easier if I do hit. It did make loading and unloading a breeze. It feels like it’s a roller trailer. I feel less flex through the hull. I did bump into a rock while drifting down fishing and it just deflected right over it. It did. It hang up like I normally would have. It does take me a little longer to get on plane and I may change impellers to counter act that. I do not draft any lower and can still run in 3” of water on plane. Here is a sample of some of the sections I run. You can see all the shallow rocks and area I go. I do this on plane to remain in complete control and run the shallowest I can.

One of my pet peeves is when I ask my co angler what he thinks of a situation or what we should do next and his reply is “you’re the captain”. At least give some input when asked. Even if you say something like “you know this body of water better but, is there anything like this near by?”

I try to get it back by pulling different ways on it. Sometimes in the river that isn’t possible before my line snaps.

Here I thought we were going to start nicknaming people

@Dooger thank you! @Bazoo you’re welcome man. Reach out if you need anything.

@Overslot FL 2 in square bill cranks in shallow rocks is what I was getting them on in the port deposit area when you posted this. Sorry I didn’t see it sooner.

@Bazoo focus on what your bait is doing and any feed back from nature or electronics. Focus on how it feels when you hit bottom. how you feel it coming through the water. If it has rattles can you hear them? Focus on controlling your bait every inch of the cast. Not just reeling it in or letting it drop etc. count your seconds for pauses. How far when you hop a jig is it moving? That’s the stuff. I know I down play myself or come off as a fool but I pay attention to all that every cast.

@Bazoo i am always fully locked in while fishing. I have a blast doing it though. The mindset isn’t about serious or not having fun. It’s finding and chasing the fish you need to catch to win. A bag of barely legal fish aren’t going to cut it. Even in the measure kayak tournaments most fisheries it takes 90plus inches to be in contention. You are looking for the big bites. If you’re catching a certain size range that aren’t helping you have to make a change and make it quick. 8 hours sounds like a lot but, it goes faster than any work day I’ve every had in my life.

@Bazoo I was for sure bummed. The mindset of tournament fishing is completely different than just going on. You have to catch the right fish to be competitive. It’s something to experience. Especially a bigger event like that one.

@Kayak Koz so I do blame myself for not taking charge more. It was a buddy tournament and after I got a few striper I said I don’t think the bass are here anymore. I asked him what he thought and if he thought we should leave. He’s more of a sound mind and I’m just run gun and catch fish. He said wait it out we have plenty of time. I knew deep down it was a bad idea but, he usually ends up being the grounded one and making better choices.

@Kayak Koz i knew my biggest issue was putting. Pretty much all my eggs in one basket. I fished the area I knew best. With normally pretty good success and fished my strengths. @T.J. When I fish down there it’s almost always from the Amtrak train bridge up to the top of last big island toward the wingo. Sometimes I’ll go a little further up depending on tide and outflow. The issue with the jet was the wind out on the flats blowing up The Chesapeake.

@pdxfisher aren’t they all till they don’t work 😂😂. I though it was solid for sure.

I like 832. Cortland master braid is my favorite. I’d rather use mono than spool up with PP.

Man I never got into color names. I just throw what is similar to what has worked.

@gim thanks man. It was tough but, that’s the way it goes.

I recently did the Ike foundation tournament on the upper Chesapeake Bay. I am not a tournament angler by any means. I just wanted to do this. I put on my big boy pants bit off more than I can chew and forced myself to swallow it. The plan: My plan having a shallow running jet boat against bass boats was to run about 15 miles up in to the lower Susquehanna River to shallow rocks. Now I can do about 32 mph on a good day. With lots of number crunching a little hope we would have about 2-3 gallons of gas left round trip. The Execution: We were boat 44 out of almost 100 boats. Flight 5 Weigh in time 2:40. We launched and made the run to the rocks. The water was very calm other than the wake from bass boats blowing by us at 70mph. We knew none of these guys would be going where we were. We had the turn up into the Susquehanna and when we got past the no wake it looked like there was a bunch of boats up just below the rocks we wanted to fish. There ended up being about 15 boats a few kayaks in this area. We start fishing and about 10 casts in I hook up. I yell back to my teammate this is a good one this will really help. He starts getting the net. Once the fish surfaces I grow very concerned. It’s a striper. If there is one there’s going to be more. They are only in this area for a short time but, will be here in numbers. I catch about a dozen more. Which I should have left this area sooner because of this. I start going down a channel near there drop shotting and than caught a catfish. I notice the wind picking up and know we need to start getting back. This is roughly 11 am. We had back get to the no wake area and flipped some down trees. My partner ends up getting a largemouth here so in the live well it goes. The wind is picking up more and we end up in a small craft advisory. This wouldn’t be an issue but, this is the down fall of a jet. For the next 10 miles back to the ramp I can’t get over 8 mph or I will suck much air. This will cause my motor to over rev and eventually do damage. We limp it back towards the ramp. We fished a spot near the ramp ended up getting two more keepers. It was 20 minutes left till we had to weigh in. We ended up letting them go. We knew 20lbs is where we needed to be to have any shot. We figure it would be better for the fish instead of putting them through weigh in. Finishing thoughts: I was very thankful I got to do a tournament this big. It was an eye opening experience. I know if the right fish were up in that area we had a chance. It was a blow to my ego that I failed that bad. I did learn that water that big is the limit for my boat set up. I knew I would struggle in wind. I was never in an unsafe situation. I was just at a huge disadvantage. I would not do a tournament on water like that again. I wish the Susquehanna had some more tournament options other than kayak tournaments. I will not be getting a kayak 😂

I use super fast cure model glue

@casts_by_fly gotcha! Us shallow river rats don’t play with that tomfoolery 😂 If it was legal I would have just harvested the fish took the meat and my bait. Ultimately is a sad reality in our sport that happens at times.

So what am I missing? What’s a coike?

If you don’t practice in the yard you can’t compare lol. All seriousness though I never practice anything in the yard. I just go out and fish. Probably an unpopular opinion. I get most my casts, pitches and flips where I need them.

@scaleface a square bill will back out and get snagged less.

I was up in that area today. All I got was stripers which is cool. Not when I’m in a tournament though 😂

@BrianMDTX I like your thinking. I go play in the rocks but, that’s the kind of boat I have. Something with a little bit of a V is king down there We maybe able to meet up down there sometime. Disclaimer: we will hit rocks and my dog with be with.

@BrianMDTX another over 10mph usually becomes a small craft advisory down there. Going south from the lapidum launch you’ll be in 30-70fow till you get to the flats for the most part. If you go towards the dam it will be shallow and rocky.

@Bandersnatch I really think you’re over thinking it to much. It’s fishing not NASA spaceships.