First blast of river bass ushers in the spring season
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First blast of river bass ushers in the spring season
By Walt Young, sports@altoonamirror.com POSTED: March 22, 2009
According to the calendar, spring finally arrived last Friday. And is sometimes the case here in central Pennsylvania, nature punctuated that event by sprinkling the day with a few snowflakes, probably as a reminder that a late-March snowfall is always in the cards too. Personally, I rarely consult the calendar to tell me when spring is at hand. For me it is spring when I set the hook on the first smallmouth bass of the year; and that usually occurs sometime in March.
Using that guideline, "my" official spring arrived last Sunday afternoon when I landed a chunky 15-inch smallmouth bass from the Juniata River in Mifflin County. I was fishing with my friends Brett Shaffer and his dad, Butch, of Belleville. Brett had called me several days before, telling me he was "on some good bass." We had a grand day on the river together last spring, so no coaxing was necessary for another outing this year, just the detail of picking a day when our schedules meshed.
Although we didn't get on the water until early afternoon, we still had a splendid day, boating and releasing about 50 nice smallmouths between the three of us in about five hours of fishing. My biggest bass that day was about 18 inches long, while Butch landed one a little over 19 inches, and Brett caught one that was just under 20 inches.
Overall, our most productive lures were soft-plastic tubes in smoke/purple flake or green pumpkin. The Shaffers fished theirs on 1/8-ounce jigheads, while I Texas-rigged my tubes using a wide-gap worm hook and an internal tube weight. I also caught several fish on my favorite river bass bait, a 3-inch Bass Pro Shops Stick-O in green pumpkin.
My second river bass trip of the year came just three days later, as I launched my kayak at one of my favorite springtime smallmouth spots in Huntingdon County. Air temperatures that day were in the 60s and the water temperature was around 48 degrees, so I was confident the fishing would be good. My second cast with a green pumpkin tube produced the first smallmouth of the day, followed by another fish on the next cast. The third bass was a fat 16-incher that crushed a Bomber Fat Free Fry, a medium-diving crankbait and one of my favorite early-season smallmouth baits.
For the remainder of the day, I switched back and forth between the tube and the crankbait with good results right until sunset. Once the sun disappeared, the evening chill quickly set in, and the balmy afternoon made a jacket unnecessary. But I had already landed 30 bass by then, so I was content to call it a day.
Water level in the river is considerably lower that it was this time last year, and unless we have quite a bit of rain in the near future, it will remain that way. Lower flows also make the fishing less problematic during this pre-spawn period for river smallmouths. Keep in mind, however, that while March and early April can produce some of the best action of the year, especially for the larger bass in the river, practicing catch and release will help to ensure this great fishery remains that way.
(Raystown.org publisher's note: This article reprinted from www.altoonamirror.com with permission of The Altoona Mirror.)