North Branch Smallmouths.

Sometimes you need to stray off the beaten path, especially when you're chasing bronzebacks. Whether that means bouncing down a dirt road or two, balancing on a railroad track for a few hundred yards, ignoring all the annoying POSTED signs that scold you every 30 feet, or ending up with one nasty case of poison ivy, the point is simple: take your shirt off and bust out those crusty old river shoes, the smallies are on fire.


Summer in northeast Pennsylvania brings with it different things for different people, but for my friends and I, summer brings a stable river level and excellent smallmouth fishing. When you've spent close to 20 years growing up less than two miles--a stones throw if you have an arm like myself--away from the north branch of the Susquehanna River, an addiction to bass fishing is easily acquired. I'll even make the bold claim that you can bet our river shoes are a little crustier than the next guy's, considering the fact that we've been wearing them for 11 out of those 20 years. With an addiction like this, new shoes are hard to come by.


For the past few weeks our fishing party has mostly targeted the section of river between the town of Tunkhannock south to the town of West Pittston. Most of this stretch is easily accessed from Route 92 for wading and shore fishing; and there is plenty of public boat launches to push off from with the trusty old flat bottom on both the east and west sides of the river.

Anglers can find plenty of good structure and habitat that smallmouths savor: rapid sections (which provide cooler conditions as the water warms), plenty of gravel underneath, and several island points and shelves to fish as well. As the summer progresses and water temperatures begin to warm up, anglers can find several deep channels and rock ledges where smallmouths will be congregating because of the cooler water present there.

Artificial lures that we've had the most productivity on over the past few weeks are: 3-inch white Mister Twisters on yellow or white 3/4 ounce jigheads, 3-inch watermelon seed tubes on 3/4 ounce yellow jigheads, and 4-inch Power-Craws rigged Texas-style. For live bait we've been using leeches and nightcrawlers, but haven't had quite as much success with those in comparison to the soft plastics.

Fishing the Susquehanna River during the summer months has undoubtedly heightened my passion for Pennsylvania's great outdoors. Wading waste-deep and throwing lures all day alongside my best friends is something that will put a smile on my face throughout my entire life. And even though we always wager 5 bucks on the first fish on, somewhere deep down inside our inner tackle boxes we know that fishing together under a hot June sun is priceless, whether you land that 5 bucks or not.

Of course, I'm so sick and tired of taking my friends' money that I opted to finally pay them a compliment here. I owe it to them anyway. Fish on!