Susky River Rat

@Choporoz I do not think that really matters. You have a lot of people who have home field advantage on that river. That should far exceed what they could discover during the practice time and talk about. The river fish move so much. The hot spot today can been vacant tomorrow. I can honestly tell you I didn’t come close to the size of those fish caught this weekend for me. Different area different pattern but, they are still that much better.

@gimruis you and me both lol. That’s just what was working for me that day.

A bunch of kayaks were torn up this weekend on the susky at the bass master event. River fishing can be the greatest or worst thing you ever do. I have never river fished in a kayak but, here are some general river fishing guidelines. i would take the motor but, you need to make sure it can be easily retracted. You will hit bump and rub things. The biggest thing wether in a kayak or boat you need to learn to read the water in a river. Not only to find fish. This will keep you safe. It will be the different of you damaging your yak or possible capsize. Always have an escape plan. Also on the safety note. Look for any dams broken dams talk to people who fished it. Lowhead dams are like trains. They don’t move but, if you risk it they will win. Disclaimer: right or wrong if a jet boat blows your doors off it’s usually for one or two reasons. Reason one. He didn’t see you. Reason two that is where they need to be to operate the boat and/or cannot come off plane for risk of hitting.

@gimruis the top 3 were very close. Interesting all of them were talking about crushing it on top water. I was drop shotting at the edge of a channel today.

Top 5 with an hour till lines out

this is the quote from the leader of day one. Also one of the many reasons the river can be extremely hard to fish at lower levels. One primary area, a spot where heavy current meets slower-moving water, produced several key bass. With the bass sitting in 2 feet of water or less, topwaters, spinnerbaits and swimbaits were key choices for Rabbitt. He isn’t exactly sure why those bass are there other than the area is loaded with baitfish.

When people have extra cash they buy toys. Every month bills keep going up for people and the toys are getting put aside. I’m starting to see a drop of people on the water. Whether they can’t afford it or just don’t have the time I can’t answer that. i know it’s not good for the sport but, I can’t wait till the days of only the “regulars” being out. edit: maybe the are doing a push in their factories to start manufacturing more electric outboards.

@Kozahh I am thinking of the hobie series that has been run in previous years. I was probably 6-7 miles from the last launch they can use.

@Koz I thought they couldn’t run motors at all except for practice? The susky is 100% brutal. It was lower a week ago.

I always keep my hand on the reel and either net it or grab the line. That’s just me. I may not be doing the best practice either.

@MediumMouthBass the fishing is back to being very good after about 10-12 years of it being terrible. They took lots of measures to fix this. No tournaments, no target bass at all during spawn, catch and release only, installing new fish ladders, investigating and finding companies polluting the river, river run off. I’m sure most of this only came around because of the pressure to save the Chesapeake bay. The fish and boat commission denied the problem for years before action was taken. This is all on the main branch from sunbury down. I fish the Harrisburg stretch a lot. I can tell you I have never personally seen diapers go down the river. Now when the river does get to a certain level raw sewage does end up in the river from the city of Harrisburg. Brunner island every year is good for doing something to cause a fish kill. You can bet spring time they screw something up and kill thousands of fish.

River is jumping up about a foot for the tournament!

Glad it went well! First time jitters always get people. I do recommend getting comfortable with power loading. In wind and current it will save you a lot of head aches and struggling.

I am just going to be candid and this is not how I personally think just trying to answer the question. It’s harder for women to be taken seriously in a “man’s sport”. Harder to get sponsors etc. Sadly It’s stereotypes that hold them back I would think. I hope I am wrong. Maybe someone else has insight. I do believe there is many women who can out fish a lot of men and should be on the tour.

@ol'crickety I think we are on to a business venture!

@ol'crickety I’ve caught these river smallies on musky gear and at first thought they were small musky. I’ve had those fish swimming up stream pulling drag! The LMB are like wet socks here. it would be interesting if we could get all these different fish in a tank, tag them and see who is king!

People ask me all the time why I don’t go in the ocean. Now there is video proof. sounds like an insurance commercial. At least there is video proof.

@TOXIC is spot on. When I raced we were taught to practice like we race.

@Craig P I am part of the ziplock bag crew too. Keeping it simple.

I will put the susky small mouth up against any other region of bass there is. They are extremely hard fighting and strong.

This may have been the time frame Yamaha was having issues with their motors in the states due to ethanol. I think corrosion and eating away of the gaskets was common. It’s something you may want to look into. If there is a gasket that has failed it could be creating some of these issues. I do not know the full extent of all this or if your motor would fall into this time frame of issues.

I can tell you that the susky has improved over the last 15 years. However the pressure has got more intense. Which I think most of PA has an insane amount of pressure.

@gimruis better add 10k to that this year lol

I always suggest going with the biggest boat and motor you can afford. Everything else can be added later. The only asterisk to this is storage. I won’t buy a boat I cannot fit in my garage. as far as what brand? That’s like anything else. It really comes down to what you want and looking at a lay out that will suit your needs the most.

Have fun and be safe with it. Hopefully you can/have got out on one with someone to see where to run in certain areas.