Zigs Jigs

December 31, 2010

7:00-11:45am

  The last day of 2010 was upon us. GZ and I made plans to fish the morning hours at our normal section of the warm water discharge area on the Susquehanna. My mind was still on the panfish, but his had wondered into 2011 already - he wanted to do some catfishing.

As we loaded up a cooler with cut bait (the gizzard shad caught on a previous trip), bluegill scraps, and the commercial bait I received as a Christmas gift I could sense the excitement in GZ's actions. I stuck his panfish tackle in truck before we headed out, as I had a hunch things weren't going to be as fast paced as he is used to.

Once we made our destination, and I showed GZ how to operate the clicker on the Ambassador reel he would be using, I set him up and proceeded to start panfishing the now lower river level (4.03ft) and noticed the greatly increased water clarity from the previous trips.

I was carrying a 10ft. Ozark Rod Company ultralight that was rigged with a double jig set under a pegged, Thill float. The lower jig was a 1/64oz. chartreuse yellow/blue Kipper; the upper jig was a 1/64oz. jighead tipped with a 1" GULP! smelt. The float was pegged at 32" above the lower jig, with 12" between jigs.

The decision to use the GULP! smelt was a collection of information I received from friends that had fished the area a few days prior, what we have been seeing in the stomachs of the fish we kept, and my desire to give this product one last chance. (Previously I was much less then impressed with the results we saw from any of the GULP! products)

The lower water levels had relocated the panfish from the wood structure, to using more of the open water areas. The bluegills were the first to show themselves from the slower water within the eddies. The first fish started making my mind up once and for all about the Gulp! products as it took the hair jig.

That one however proved to be in the minority, as the upper jig started bringing more and more fish to hand. Rockbass, bluegill, crappie, green sunfish, and hybrid sunfish all seemed to have a preference for the plastic minnow bait.

 I was fishing each location for 20-25 minutes to give GZ a fair chance at finding some catfish. I have to give him credit, he stuck to it much longer then I thought he would. We made three(3) location changes before I heard him say, "Daddy, I'm really getting tired of watching you catch all those fish. Can we go back and get my panfishing stuff?"

While the quality fish I was looking for were no where to be found, the smaller fish were being quite cooperative.

The second pass through the eddies brought more of the same - smaller fish telling me the Gulp! plastics may be worth keeping as an option. GZ was fishing a Maki plastic under a float with very little action to speak of. I had switched locations of the jigs I was using in order to see if water column position had any bearing on the amount of fish being caught on one bait vs. the other. It didn't matter at all. The only change that did start evening the catch rate was when I went to a chartreuse green/purple Kipper. This color combination was more productive then the yellow/blue combination even when it was tipped with a Berkley Crappie Nibble.

We covered quite a bit of ground searching for the deeper sections of water, as the majority of this stretch was now 3-4ft deep and very clear. There was very little in the way of quality in what we were catching. The best fish I handled for the morning was a slot sized fish with broad shoulders that couldn't let the plastic smelt go by.

We did run across the results of what could only be a wasteful angler. Either someone didn't have a clue how to unhook a panfish, or had started keeping some for a meal then decided against it at the end of their trip:

There were ten(10) small bluegills dead at the edge of one of the areas we fished.

GZ never did hook-up with any catfish, and only helped with one(1) of the 47 panfish we totaled for the trip, but we both came home with another angling memory.

January 1, 2011

12:53-4:04pm

  The next day, ZZ and myself came back for more punishment. This team member wants to panfish, so this trip was slightly more focused. I came equipped with a search tool and a dedicated purpose - I wanted trophy class fish and was willing to go fishless in order to stay on track. ZZ just wanted to catch fish, so he made certain he had his Berkley Honey Worms along. I was going to fish a bladed jig and the Berkley GULP! smelt only.............

I planned on concentrating on three(3) deep(er) water areas we found fish in yesterday. The water level was down a bit more to 3.97ft. with water temperature at 59.2 degrees, a .3 degree drop from yesterday. The fishing was tougher as well. We, or maybe I should say I, worked hard for the twelve(12) fish we caught. I really didn't contribute much to the tally today, and I certainly didn't find any trophy class fish during this trip.

ZZ on the other hand...........he started 2011 with a series of above average fish. I took the opportunity to capture a few different views of the world most only guess at.

As I started setting up an angle to photograph how ZZ's bait was being presented, I was surprised by the sudden appearance of a very nice bluegill - and managed to capture the take as it happened:

This picture also brought quite a bit of information together that we had collected from this fishery. I had been looking for weedbeds that I thought were being used as feeding grounds by the panfish in this waterway. What I saw in this picture as I processed it was patches of the exact weed growth we are seeing in the stomachs of the fish we kept. ZZ's bait was drifting mere inches off the bottom in 4.5 feet of water when this 'gill rushed in to take it. It came in fast, stopped and looked at the bait for a second or two, then sucked it in without changing position. ZZ is obviously keyed into what his float transmits, as the 'gill was quickly yanked upwards. I know the float was never pulled under, and he knew I wasn't close enough to it to be messing with him.

A few drifts later in this same area, he hooked into another nice bluegill that I was able to capture during a "swim-by".

I noticed the running gear on this fish instantly, and knew ZZ was going to have a blast fighting it. When I saw the height of the fish and the small face, I had to get out of the water and get the tape and scale ready. I thought for certain he had a new Personal Best on the way in; turns out this one was a chunk, but not quite the weight it should have been. (9", 8.1ozs.) ZZ confirmed it "fought like it was twice that size" - thanks to those tailfin muscles!

He continued to pull fish above our slot size from their world into ours. (note the waders in the backround)

Then, while I was away from him trying to find my own collection of fish, he hollers at me, "Dad, I think I got a big one here". His voice had that excitement in it that any angler knows as soon as they hear it.

He did have a big one on..............the largest he has caught to date at 9" and 9ozs.

Watching him gently release this fish back into the system was the real prize for myself. Knowing that I have been able to teach at least two(2) next generation anglers that stringers full of fish don't prove angling success, but selective harvest does means everything to me. As he watched it swim off he said, "Go grow bigger so I can catch you again."

I simply smiled, told him I was proud of him, and shook his hand.   

I hoping I can get him to the 3/4lb. mark before we leave this section of the Susquehanna in the spring. Until then, we'll have fun trying.

December 18, 2010

2:00-4:00pm

This week was another trip to a warm water stretch of the Susquehanna for bluegill. ZZ decided to come along on this trip. During the ride from the house, we talked about keeping a few bluegill for a fresh fish meal this weekend. We figured 8-10 bluegill would be just about perfect for all four(4) of us, as long as we stuck to keeping only those fish that fell within our slot limit.

Had we known what we were about to experience, other plans may have been made!

The river was still flowing higher and faster then I like when we arrived. This time however I didn't worry about the conditions since they were very close to what I fished last week with some level of success. (5.19 - 5.17ft)

ZZ and I put on our waders, grabbed our rods, and started the short walk to the first eddy we typically fish. I was using the 7'6" Stradivarius rigged with a 1/64oz. bleeding eye jighead tipped w/a watermellon green Maki Stoni. ZZ was braking in his new Berkley Amp rod rigged with a 1/64oz. jighead below a Thill Float-n-Fly pegged slip float. He had plans on starting with Berkley Honey Worms, by far the bait he has the most confidence in(and for good reason).

I have lost a lot of faith in this first location since the wood structure that used to border one side of the pool washed out. It does still have all the right structural means for a panfish holding area: slower current, various sized rocks, weeds, a back current, etc. It simply is missing wood, which I'm finding to be a valuable key in holding the largest concentrations of panfish in this area. ZZ set himself up at one of our vantage points and started drifting his bait along a current seam. I opted to walk out along the rock ledge that makes the pool tail end and fish the ledge cuts.

It wasn't long before I saw ZZ pull the first fish of the trip out of the water, followed by: "Daddy! Should I keep this one?" Since I had taken my concentration off the drift direction of my own jig to watch him, I ended up setting snagged and tearing off anyway. Off I went to see what he had.............

An 8" bluegill was a great way to break in the new rod for ZZ, so we started the stringer for the day with it. I was somewhat intrigued by how quickly he managed to hook-up with a slot fish in this pool, so I opted to stay close by. Pulling from what we learned last week, I rigged up a 1/64oz. hot pink/chartruese yellow Kipper hoping to accomplish two objectives: find the weeds patches, and see if I could target the largest bluegill in the area with a jig that was as long as the baitfish seen in previous stomach contents. What I ended up with still baffles me.

On my third drift, with a slow lift/drop retrieve with the current, I saw the line jump upstream quickly. As soon as the hook was set, whatever was on the other end made a strong, drag pulling run upstream. When it came completely out of the water, not five(5) feet in front of ZZ, he let out a, "Holy Cow that thing is HUGE!!" 

I wasn't nearly as impressed, but began to ponder exactly what I had hooked. It looked like a small channel cat when it came out of the water, but was making some strong runs in all directions - unlike a channel of the size I saw. (keep in mind, I am using 2lb. test mono and an extreme ultralight rod, so my drag is set accordingly)

When I was finally able to bring the fish to shore, I was even more surprised at what I had just experienced.

17", 1lb. 13ozs. of gizzard shad had my hair jig firmly set in the roof of it's tiny mouth!

I'm going to claim this one as my PB, and highly doubt I'll ever beat it with hook and line again. These are foul, slimy, stinky fish...............perfect for catfish cut bait. On the stringer it went.

We fished the pool for a short time longer, but figured that the herring had spooked the entire pool with it's antics, so we moved on.

Our next stop was another eddy that we couldn't coax so much as a take from, so we continued downstream. ZZ and I talked about what I experienced last week, what we saw in the stomach contents, and how we would want to fish some wood structure next. It was quite cold since the cloud cover had moved in, so ZZ took a few minutes to put on his gloves and warm up his hands while I switched baits back to a Stoni to fish the blowdown we just came to.

From this point on, things went a bit crazy.

I began fishing a blowdown that laid quartering across the river flow. By casting over the main trunk and swimming the jig with the current over the wood, I was able to drop it precisely into the current break the blowdown created. This precise drop triggered a hit each and every time I executed it.

It wasn't the amount of fish being caught that made it interesting - it was the size of the fish being caught that I wasn't prepared for. 9's, 9.5's, 9.75's..............all bluegill that were above our slot limit, and all healthy, solid bodied fish. Once ZZ saw what was going on, he opted to fish more open water downstream from my location to hopefully start catching fish to put on the stringer. I was perfectly content having bluegill this size pull drag and double over the Stradivarius. Every so often I would bring a slot fish to hand.

This would mean I needed to walk down to ZZ, put the fish on the stringer since he wasn't going to give it up, then walk back to the structure I was fishing. That was fine until the game changer came up from the dark water, slowly throwing his head from side to side. There's one fish that can break my concentration on bluegills.............the crappie.

When a 12" crappie shows itself, I'm going to do one thing and one thing only.............try to catch more of them. It's not so much because they are in some way harder to catch, it has something to do with that slow thump you feel from a decent crappie tossing it's head around on the way to the surface. I put it right there on the top of my list with the way a decent bluegill turns sideways and comes from deep water with that surging, circular resistance. Those two experiences are just panfishing at it's finest!

Sorry............got pretty excited just thinking about it again.

In any event, now that I knew I had crappie in the area, I switched baits again. This time I went with a 1/32oz. chartreuse green/white Kipper and tipped it w/a silver flake Berkley crappie nibble. Since I had been casting from shore, and knew I would fair better being able to present this hair jig from a more vertical direction, I entered the water and placed myself so I could simply swing the jig to where I wanted it and have it hang vertically from my rod.

This worked great.............for more large bluegill! The first fish on the new jig fell 1/16" short of the famed 10" mark. I now firmly believe I will be able to mark a few of that age class from this waterway, as 2 others of the same family followed in just as many drops. Since I had caught the first crappie on a Stoni, and since the bluegills were obviously ruling the hair jig race, I opted to switch back to the plastic again.

Very first drop with the Stoni, brought a smaller crappie to hand. It was mental anquish at it's best; switch to a bait that's tailored for 'gills and catch crappie, switch to a bait tailored for crappie and catch bluegills. The best part was the fact that now matter what I used, I was bringing bluegill, crappie, and the occasional rockbass to hand.

ZZ had stopped fishing at some point and was sitting on the ground behind me just watching everything go down. As I caught fish within our slot, he would take care of the stringer responsibilities. When I tore off the last of my hair jigs to a snag, I looked at the counter and eyeballed the stringer. 47 fish caught, a combination of nine(9) bluegill and crappie on the stringer, and one(1) slimy gizzard shad dragging below the panfish. It was time to head home.

Once we finished cleaning the fish for our family meal, we decided no more panfish will be kept this season from the warm water. SInce the crappie we kept were full of eggs:

The bluegill were starting on egg development:

And we didn't see anything new in any of the stomach contents, the rest of the winter season will be in pursuit of trophy panfish. I believe we know enough about the lifestyle the panfish are living, and have a fairly solid understanding of where they are throughout the day.

There is one correction I have to make from a last week's journal: I identified one of the stomach contents as a possible caddisfly larvae. That, I believe, is completely incorrect. I found this in one of the stomachs this week:

It is obviously the remains of a baitfish. Looking back at the picture from last week, I now believe what I was seeing was the backbone remnants of a digested baitfish. There was a high presence of baitfish in the fish that were kept this week.

Breakdown of this weeks keep

• Gizzard Shad     17"   1lb. 13ozs.
• Black Crappie   12"        13.7ozs. 
• Black Crappie   10"         6.3ozs.    (baitfish)
• Bluegill                8.25"     6.8ozs.
• Bluegill                8"           6ozs.
• Bluegill                8"           6.3ozs.    (baitfish)
• Bluegill                8"           6.8ozs.    (baitfish)
• Bluegill               7.875"    5.6ozs.
• Bluegill                8.25"      6.7ozs.
• Bluegill                 7"           4.6ozs. 

There was a great deal of talk over the panfish fillets about catfish. Who knows what the next trip will target?

The scientific part of the trip came together like this:

Bluegill #1

• 8.25"
• 6ozs.
• male
• 3.5 year old

The stomach contained vegetation clippings, various macroinvertebrates, an unidentified mucus mass (I believe this may be the remnants of a baitfish), and wood chips.

My best identification attempt:

I'm presuming this is what remains of some type of caddisfly. This was measured at 5/8" in length. I found it interesting as it closely resembles the profile of the Maki Stoni.

Bluegill #2

• 7.875"
• 6ozs.
• male
• 3.5 year old

This fish had a single object in it's stomach. A 2.25" bait fish. If I was to take a guess at what species it was, I would presume a killifish as they are numerous in the area this bluegill was removed from.

Bluegill #3

• 8"
• 5.4ozs
• male
• 3 year old

This fish had the same stomach contents as Bluegill #1 with the exception of the amount of macroinvertebrates present. There was one larval stage present, but not enough intact to identify.

There is a common presence within these stomach contents that points to a very important structural component to finding the larger bluegill - weeds. I had taken a walk in this area of the river this past summer when he water level was down and noticed patches of weedbeds along almost the entire length of where I've been concentrating my time. The presence of wood pieces also points me to what I experienced on this trip - the blowdowns are collecting a lower part of the food chain as well as offering a current brake. Now I'll have to see how the flucuating water levels play into the use of these areas by the panfish.

The last note of interest I experienced was the movement of the bluegill within the wood structure pattern. The lower the light level, the farther "out" the bluegill traveled along the main truck of the trees. Earlier in the afternoon, all the fish caught were taken along the thickest part of the trunk.The farther toward the end of the trunk I presented baits, the fewer takes I had. When I returned to a few of the blowdowns later in the day, the fish location was just the opposite - with no fish being taken from the main trunk and more activity coming from the thinner wood farther from the base.

After a few weeks of staying away from the warmwater area of the Susquehanna River due to the Thanksgiving holiday and a period of high water, I couldn't wait any longer for the water to come down.

I would be on my own for this trip, as the boys opted to stay home and help clean.

The river level was at 5.35ft when I walked to the water's edge. My heart sunk as I looked downstream:

Any hopes I had of putting more of this warmwater panfishing puzzle together were immediately wiped out. I looked at the 1/64oz. twister tail I rigged on the Stradivarius and started looking for the first dark water area that was either off the main flow, or showing the reverse flow of an eddy.

The first hour of my afternoon was spent alternating retrieves with the white twister tail with not so much as a bump to show for my efforts. I began to question, once again, if the bluegill were even in the area. Having packed a container of Gill Pills (spikes), the decision to switch to a search rig was made. A 5/8" Thill Float-n-Fly pegged slip float was set 32" above a 1/64oz. jighead tipped with five(5) end hooked spikes.

And the search continued............

It wasn't until I came across the first fallen tree that things started to happen. The first three(3) bluegill that came to hand weren't the quality I was looking for , but they answered the question that continued to go through my mind - they were indeed here! (At least at this location)

The first bluegill fallen victim to Gill Pills

Now that I knew my target species were present and willing to feed, I made another rig switch. Taking the float off and switching the hot pink jighead out for a 1/80oz. chartreuse yellow jighead tipped with a Maki Spiini, I send another cast out to the downstream side of the blowdown. Before the jig stopped falling, I saw the line twitch and set the hook.

This fish showed me my rig change was a move in the right direction, as seen in the deep set hook:

Now I was getting somewhere! The fish were starting to tell me exactly what they wanted. Now I needed to find out if they were relating to the wood structure only, or if they were spread out along the different flow characteristics.

I fished the next open water areas that had the same water depth and offered a slower flow along the main flow. These areas offered no takers, even when presenting hair jigs and marabou jigs under floats and free lined. Farther downstream, I came across another blowdown, this one not quite as far into the river as the previous one; it also was laying out over deeper water.

Not wanting to waste time, and curious if I was about to solidify a pattern, I switched out the hair jig I had rigged and went with a 1/64oz. chartreuse green jighead and a black Maki Spiini. Since I didn't have a float to control the depth at which the jig stopped at, I sent a cast over a submerged portion of the blowdown I could see, and quickly retrieved it until it just passed over the wood. As soon as I lost sight of the jighead during it's free fall, I felt a solid take and instinctively set the hook. I knew instantly I had hooked up with a nicer fish.

Slot sized bluegill

This fish was released before I realised it would be to my benefit to keep a few slot fish to investigate stomach contents and get an idea of the age class of the fish that are 7.5 - 8.5". It wouldn't take long to start putting fish on the stringer, as this wood pattern remained fairly constant for the rest of the evening. Having to cull through smaller fish to get to the larger fish with the Spiini, I switched over to a Maki Stoni to present a larger bait that I hoped the smaller fish wouldn't take as quickly.

This last change proved to be ideal. I had 22 fish on my clicker, 3 fish on the stringer, and a list of new information to use during the next trip.

During the 2hrs. 40 minutes that I fished, I made quite a few rig changes to fine tune what the fish wanted:

1/64 and 1/80oz. baits used on this trip

Live bait and artificial scents

The next trip will be started with the plastic bait that brought the largest fish to hand - both slot and above slot sized fish. Being able to drop this bait vertically through the tangles of newly dropped trees and control what it did in the current that flowed throught the wood was very important in fishing this structure.

Maki Stoni on 1/64oz bleeding eye jighead - best bait of the trip

There will be another part to this entry after I process the fish that I opted to keep. We'll look at what they were eating and hopefully be able to put together a few more ideas to fine tune our approach on future trips to this waterway. I put three(3) on the stringer as I felt they would be enough to get me a fairly accurate view of what their world consisted of. I use a self-imposed slot size of 7.5-8.5" whenever fish are kept, as this size makes for a nice pair of fillets and allows the smaller fish to grow large enough to compete with those that are over our slot.

   An early morning trip to the Susquehanna River was nothing more then presentation practice. I had plans to concentrate on an area downriver from where we were a few weeks ago, with the thought that maybe the bluegill hadn't experienced cool enough water temps to pull them upriver into a warmer location. I'm not certain at this point if my thought process was correct or not.

For the first time, ZZ and GZ were together on this trip as shore anglers. They have spent time together in the boat, but never with the freedom to "move away" from each other and fish their own section of water. Having three of us fishing the same area is always refreshing to myself as it allows me to cover more water, with multiple presentations, faster. It was a day like today that made all those fishing trips that lasted only a few minutes when the boys were first being introduced to the sport well worth while.

The early morning chill made me sway from the plan of starting on new water. I decided to get a feel for the bite at the section of water we last fished, first. As soon as we caught a view of the river, it was apparent we would be faced with a different set of conditions. The river gauge at Harrisburg showed 5.92ft during the time we fished which was almost 2ft. higher then the previous trip.

We presented waxworm tipped jigheads under floats, fly larvae tipped jigheads under floats, Maki Stoni, Maki Draggi, and marabou jigs free lined without so much as a pick-up in a few proven locations.

 After spending three(3) angling hours (1hr/3 anglers), it was obvious what the bite was like. We packed up and moved downriver to the Accomac/Marietta area hoping to add a few fish to our catch rate and/or scout a few new locations that are being used by the panfish during their fall/winter migration. 

The area downstream seemed to have its' own set of conditions. While the water level was still high, this location was more like a reservoir then a river. The water was smoother and slower, which suited us just fine. I felt somewhat lost however, as the water level wasn't favorable to figure out where structure breaks happened. We concentrated on fishing what we could see, which was either shoreline structure, rock ledges, or back current areas. Between the three of us, we worked through color, size, and structural options. It really didn't matter, as none of us could say we even had a pick-up anywhere in our travels.

Maki Stoni

Maki Draggi

I have some thinking to do before the next trip for the Susquehanna panfish. I believe we did everything we could as far as bait presentation, size, and color. The one question I continue to ask myself is, "Were they there?"

I'm not familiar enough with fish movements when water levels rise on this waterway, nor am I familiar enough with the seasonal movements of the panfish to understand if we were at the highest percentage locations or not. These are the things we need to figure out.............which brings us to planning the next angling adventure.

1/80oz. Marabou jig

Last winter my oldest son and myself spent all of our time enjoying the panfish population of the warm water discharge below Brunner's Island. This area consists of a few miles of year round open water, with a fairly stable water temperature throughout the colder months. It is a very popular location with the smallmouth, walleye, and catfish anglers. We found that the panfish grow quite well here as well as develop an attitude slightly elevated to their lake dwelling cousins.

This trip (10-31-10) was simply to blow off the dust from the rods and to see how much things had changed over the summer.

Things definately changed. Old wood structures were gone, new wood structures were present, flows had been re-routed, and the fish are adjusting to the changes as well.

My fishing partner for this trip was seeing this waterway for the first time. GZ had spent all of last year waiting on the sidelines as ZZ enjoyed trip after trip along the river bank.

We were armed with our normal tackle: GZ with his 5'6" UL Ugly Stick, 4lb. test mono, and micro jigheads. He has gained quite a bit of confidence in fishing a 1/64oz. jighead with a yellow, Berkley Honey worm threaded on the hook and suspended under a pegged Thill Float-n-Fly float. This setup does suit him well as it offers enough weight for the short rod to cast in a controlled manner, and with the float pegged it is quickly and easily adaptable to the changing depths we find at different locations.

I have had a terrible time not reaching for The Stradivarius since purchasing it last year. This 7'6" custom rod matched with 2lb. test mono and a 1/80oz. jighead is absolutely the best ultralight  microlight combination I have ever handled. My jighead is presenting one of many different Maki plastic baits. I stayed with the Stoni on this trip as, well............it worked.

Bluegill with Berkley Honey worm

The few hours we fished, we concentrated on the slower moving pools and wood structures that acted as flow breaks. Most of our success came from mud bottom, open pools away from the wood structure. I'm not certain if the fish are just now finding their way back into the area, or if there was a presence of predators that were keeping them out of the wood structure. The average size was much smaller then we have experienced here as well, with only a few making our self-imposed slot limit size of 7.5-8.5". None were over our slot, however all fish were CPR'd. We'll wait to see if the population will increase with more fish moving into the area over the next few weeks.

What we lacked in size, we made up for in variety. The three(3) species that are common for us to catch here are bluegill(BG), red breasted sunfish(RB), and green sunfish(GS). This trip was no exception. GZ showed me that the time I have spent with him over the years fishing wasn't wasted. He was just as excited to identify the different species he caught as he was catching them.

GZ and a small GS that couldn't resist his Honey worm

GZ felt it would be fun to challenge myself to a "who catches more" competition. One of these days he'll learn. We finished the trip handling a total of 21 panfish. GZ with 10 on the honey worm and myself with 11 on the Stoni.

RB taken on a 1/80oz. Maki Stoni

Next week, we'll be walking another section of the Susquehanna doing what we enjoy................fishing for Pa's panfish!