S8, Ep 52: Hot Days and Night Bites: Brian Shumaker’s Guide to Pennsylvania Smallmouth Fishing

In this Pennsylvania Smallmouth Report from The Articulate Fly fly fishing podcast, host Marvin Cash catches up with Captain Brian Shumaker of Susquehanna River Guides for a midsummer conditions update on the Susquehanna and Juniata rivers in Central Pennsylvania. With temperatures pushing 100 degrees and topwater season in full swing, Shumaker breaks down the blue damsel bite, the approaching white fly hatch and how he adjusts popper color and pattern selection as the surface bite develops through the day. The conversation also covers recent heavy rain and receding flows on both rivers, the seasonal shift toward nocturnal feeding by big smallmouth once water temperatures climb into the high 80s, and a recap of the Bass Thumb tournament. Shumaker closes with a look ahead to his open guide dates for late September and early October as anglers start planning around the fall cooldown.

EPISODE SUMMARY

Guest: Brian Shumaker - Captain/Guide at Susquehanna River Guides (Central Pennsylvania)

In this episode: Captain Brian Shumaker returns to The Articulate Fly's Pennsylvania Smallmouth Report to share midsummer topwater strategies for the Susquehanna and Juniata rivers. Topics include damselfly and white fly hatch timing, popper selection and color, high-heat fishing tactics and post-rain water level trends.

Key fishing techniques covered:

• Topwater popper fishing for smallmouth bass during blue damsel and white fly hatches
• Matching popper color (blue, white, yellow, green) to hatch activity
• Fishing Clouser's Floating Minnow with white bucktail during heavy white fly emergences at dark
• Reading post-rain water levels and flow trends on the Susquehanna and Juniata
• Night fishing tactics for beating extreme summer heat and targeting nocturnal-feeding big bass

Location focus: Susquehanna River and Juniata River, Central Pennsylvania

Target species: Smallmouth bass

Equipment discussed: Boogle Bug poppers (Carolina blue, yellow, white), small Blockhead poppers, Clouser's Floating Minnow with white bucktail, size 12 white Wulff dry fly

Key questions answered:

• What flies work best for smallmouth bass during a white fly hatch?
• How do smallmouth bass feeding patterns change once water temperatures top 85-90 degrees?
• When does topwater season peak on the Susquehanna and Juniata rivers?

Best for: Intermediate to advanced anglers interested in Pennsylvania smallmouth topwater tactics and summer heat fishing strategies

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Marvin Cash00:00:00

Hey, folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of The Articulate Fly.We're back with another Pennsylvania Smallmouth Report with the man himself, Captain Brian Shumaker. Brian, how are you?

Brian Shumaker00:00:12

I'm doing well, Marvin. How about yourself?

Marvin Cash00:00:15

Just trying to stay out of trouble. And, you know, we've had a fair amount of water under the bridge since we last spoke. It's been over 100 degrees.You've had like an incredible amount of rain, and it's getting ready to get hot again in your neck of the woods, kind of. What are you seeing on the water?

Brian Shumaker00:00:28

We are in our prime time top water season right now. The blue damsels are coming off real heavy late morning, into the afternoons, into the early evenings. We'll soon be having.The whiteflies will be rolling in end of July, beginning of August. So it is top water season.

Marvin Cash00:00:53

And so do you just kind of normally start the day out and see if they're turned on. On top? And if you do just kind of ride that train the whole day or do you have kind of a different strategy when you first put it in the morning?

Brian Shumaker00:01:02

No, we're gonna. We go right to top water right away.When I have two people, usually I have definitely have one with a popping bug on, and I'll have one with a, with a streamer or a crayfish. And we'll see what's going on first thing in the morning and go from there.So it could be either gonna roll with the top water or have a little bit of mixture. But then by, you know, I'm going to say mid morning, we are all top water for the rest of the day. Yeah.

Marvin Cash00:01:34

And so on the top water side, you know, for like damselflies, are you like a Carolina blue boogle bug popper guy or do you have some, maybe some more realistic imitations? How do you like to fish those guys?

Brian Shumaker00:01:44

Basically just like the boogle bugs, the Carolina blue. I do these smaller blockhead poppers, and blue, they work real well.And you, you can still fish, or not olive, but you can still fish like a yellow popper yellow boogle bug, because we still have some sulfur and stuff coming off a little bit. So they'll eat. They'll eat basically blue, white, yellow, or sometimes green. So that's. That's pretty much the game we got going on right now.

Marvin Cash00:02:20

Got it. And so when the white flies come online, you know, is that gonna be a drier, bushy or bug, or are you gonna stick to the popping bugs?

Brian Shumaker00:02:26

Oh, I stick with popping bugs or a very good fly for the white fly. Because when you. When the white flies come off here, I mean it's.It's a real heavy hatch and it comes off at dark and you can throw dry flies like a white Wulff or something like that, size 12. But you know, it's like trying to find a needle in a haystack. If you're throwing something realistic like a white Wulff.I like to throw Clouser's floating minnow and it's got a white head. You know, it's got white bucktail coming off the back. It just gives them something a little bit different. And you could take a white boogle bug.You don't want to go real big, but smaller size and you can just twitch out across the surface and those fish will come up and eat it. It just gives them something different.

Marvin Cash00:03:15

Got it. And you know, obviously you got a big shot of rain, right. So, you know, or how are you looking? I would imagine your water's probably up.But are things kind of stained and blown out on the Susquehanna Juniata or are they pre fishable now?

Brian Shumaker00:03:25

Juniata is still, still dirty and it's dropping and so does the Susquehanna it's dropping. We did get a nice slug of water, which made it real nice for this time of year. And now it's starting to drop.But I don't think it's going to get down where it's going to get too bony.After we get through by the end of the week, we're supposed to be through this heat wave and we can have some rain coming by the end of the week.And then of course, if you want to trust the weather, man, the long range forecast looks like we might have some rain early next week, which will be good. It'll keep the flows consistent, keep them up a little bit.

Marvin Cash00:04:01

Yeah. Which makes everybody's life easier on the casting front so they're not having to air. Air mail out like 70 to 80 foot casts every time rain.

Brian Shumaker00:04:08

Exactly. And it helps the guides in the boats too, you know, that way you're not beating and banging, playing like a pinball machine if it gets too low.

Marvin Cash00:04:16

Yeah. It makes it a whole lot easier to epoxy the hull of your boat in the off season, right?

Brian Shumaker00:04:21

Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Marvin Cash00:04:23

Yeah. And so, you know, I guess you were. You did a little bit.You guess you had a fishing tournament this week and you guys were out with the bass thumb tournament, right?

Brian Shumaker00:04:31

Yeah, we did the bass thumb tournament. It was Friday and Saturday of last week. That's a real good event, a real good time.You know, you get your team and you go out there and you try to catch the biggest. Well, it's five fish a day. Your top five from the first day and top five for the second day and that's your total.And you try hopefully can find some big fish to bring your totals up. But it's a good event. You know, you have, you have a real good time doing. They, they do a good job putting it together.

Marvin Cash00:05:08

Yeah, I saw the pictures on Facebook. Look like you guys had a ton of folks.

Brian Shumaker00:05:12

Oh, it was, yeah, it was, it was good. It was a real good time.

Marvin Cash00:05:16

And so, you know, as I know you're probably, you're pretty well booked out probably for the next six weeks or so, but probably what cruising into hopefully the cooler part of late summer, early fall, you might have some dates for folks, right?

Brian Shumaker00:05:27

Absolutely. I got some dates. Getting like the last half of September, the first two weeks, October, I got some availability.

Marvin Cash00:05:35

Yeah, I always joke with Matt Reilly, like that's my sweet spot. From an angler comfort perspective, I don't believe anybody when they say it's cool on their side of the mountain this time of year.

Brian Shumaker00:05:45

No, it's not, it's not cool. Even a breeze out there on the river isn't cool.

Marvin Cash00:05:50

Yeah, dude, it's, it's, it's too hot. I'm, I'm too old and too smart for that.I mean there'd have to be probably 36 inch smallmouth to get me, get me out to go after them this time of year.

Brian Shumaker00:05:59

Yeah, I mean the, the thing you can do to beat the heat is, is fish. You know, in the dark that, that's a good way to try to beat the heat. It's tough for me. It's hard to navigate.But you know, if you want to get out and fish, you can try the night bite.

Marvin Cash00:06:19

Yeah, it's interesting cause it's, you know, it's funny because we talked about that last time that you, if you had to pick early morning or, or later in the day. You like later in the day.And it's kind of funny because I usually, I like that I'm a night person by nature, but I also would say, you know, it's kind of funny because the trout wisdom would almost be reversed. Right.Because it's gotten so hot that you can't really, you know, expect that at 7 or 8 o' clock at night you're not going to still have 70 or 72 degree trout water.

Brian Shumaker00:06:42

Well, you're definitely going to have, you know, you're going to have warm water. But you know, my, and I think we talked about it last time.My theory is when it gets our water temperatures get up into the high 80s, especially the big fish become nocturnal feeders, you know, whether it's to beat the heat or whatever. And they just seem, seem to go and feed, you know, more, more on the dark side than they do during the daytime.

Marvin Cash00:07:12

Yeah, probably more little mouse and critters like that falling in the river too.

Brian Shumaker00:07:18

Oh, absolutely. You have, you know, the little critters trying to swim across the river and so forth like that. And that's an easy pickings for them big bass.

Marvin Cash00:07:27

Yeah, it's kind of funny. We've got a pond here in the neighborhood and you know, the ducks always start out with a lot of ducklings.And every day when you go walk around the lake, there are a few more that the largemouth bass got.

Brian Shumaker00:07:36

Oh, absolutely, absolutely.

Marvin Cash00:07:38

Yeah. Well, you know, folks, we, we love questions.If you have a question for Brian DM or email me and well, if we use it on the fishing report, I will send you some articulate fly swag and weiner and a drawing for some cool stuff.And we are firmly in the March through the summer and we don't never really know how much water we're going to have when we get into August and early September. So you owe it yourself to get out there and catch a few. Tight lines, everybody.

Brian Shumaker00:08:02

Tight lines, Brian, tight lines, Marvin.