S8, Ep 56: Topwater Tactics: Captain Brian Shumaker's Pennsylvania Smallmouth Report

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

Just trying to stay out of trouble. And we're working fast here, folks, to get Brian wrapped up so that he can. He can watch the Yankees play the White Sox tonight.

There you go. Get my. Got my fingers crossed on that.

Yeah, it's.I guess maybe if they're losing, it's lucky for you that they're starting an hour so you'll go to bed and just read about the train wreck tomorrow on your telephone.

Yeah, that's exactly what I do.

Yeah.So, you know, we were talking before we started recording and, you know, pretty much everybody that's on the smallmouth world at this point is pretty firmly entrenched in the top water game. And, you know, I know we were talking about damsels before we started, but, you know, why don't you let folks kind of know what you're seeing.But also, too, you've probably got in the next, I don't know, week to 10 days, it looks like kind of unseasonably cool weather with a fair amount of rain in the forecast, right?

Yeah. Hopefully we're going to get this rain because we're starting to get low, starting to get a little skinny, and we can definitely use a slug of rain.But it has been, I want to say about the last five days, it's been nice. We've been waking up to cold mornings and low humidity.We've had a couple mornings there in the upper 50s, and it's nice to start out the day that way. And you're not soaking wet sweated. So, yeah, we could use a bump of rain. It's getting a little skinny.But also we are in the, I guess, the highlights of top water season where it's pretty much right now it's a blue damsel bite. But last week the white flies started coming off on the Susquehanna. So we have that going on.And that is of course, a dusk into dark patch that comes off on Susquehanna and Juniata river, which is the whiteflies. And so we have that going on during the daytime. We've got predominantly blue damsels and you have the resident cicadas as well coming off.And you can hear them talking in the trees, too. So blue poppers, black poppers have been working very well for us.

Yeah. And you want to share your philosophy on moving or not moving the bug?

Yeah. Basically, you don't want to play Roland Martin when you're casting these bugs.It means what I mean by that is don't cast it out there and just start ripping on that fly. Basically what you want to do was it poppers is you're going to cast it out there. Once it hits the water, it hits that splat.You're going to wait till those rings disappear and slowly give it a plop and then let the rings disappear and let that fly drift.The key to that too is the person in front of the boat needs to be casting downstream out of the front of the boat at like a 45 degree angle so they don't end up with that fly. Ends up up behind the back end of the boat. So they want to keep. Maintain contact as we're floating down that river.Because the boat is constantly moving and a 45 and just hit your targets and you know, give it a. You're going to dead drift it and give it a little plop and then dead drift it. Give it a little pop and dead drift and it's wash, rinse and repeat.

Yeah. And you can ride it for a long way down the river too, if you don't. Don't screw it up.

Yeah, absolutely. And that's, that's what they try to explain to the folks is, you know, you want to try to keep that at a 45 degree angle.And it's the same for the person in the back. They're going to cast downstream at a 45 degree angle.So they're both, you know, and I can, we can put in a long drift down a decent cast and, and work. Work those sections of water.

Yeah.The other thing too, and I think a lot of people kind of don't realize this, but when you're in the front, you know that 45 degree angle, I mean it's kind of silly to basically cast perpendicular to the bow of the boat if you're in the front. Cause you're wasting all the advantage of being up there and being stealthy.

Right, exactly, exactly. And the other thing you don't want to do and a lot of people make this mistake is they want to go straight down in front of the boat.I said now because now we're coming down in on top of your fly. That's why you want to be off on a 45 angle. So you know that flies riding along basically the same speed as what the boat is coming down river.And you definitely. I said definitely. Don't throw back past my or. Because now all you do is Create drag and you know you're not going to get a fish to eat like that.

Yeah, the oar is the line of demarcation is the big. No, no. Right.

Yeah, that is because I basically got to tell them, I said, okay, so the person in the front you get from the oar when it's straight out the side of the boat downstream and the person in the back, you get to the oar back to you. So don't be going down and cutting each other off. So it, it's funny, sometimes they just don't pay attention.

Yeah, we were talking before we started recording that, you know, if folks don't listen at home and at work, they're probably not going to listen in the boat either.

That's. Yeah, sometimes it, it takes a lot of talking to get the point across.

Yeah. And we were saying too that you kind of have to alter your plan a little bit.Like the top water is on, but on these cooler mornings the bug activity is not quite the same. How do you like to change your approach?

What we'll do is we'll either throw crayfish pattern or smaller streamers, lightweighted streamers. Like if I, if I want to have them throw a Clouser minnow, I tie them up with real light eyes, like 1/50 eyes. Or I have some with even bead chain.Because we're basically with the water flow that we have, we're not using intermediate lines, we're basically just using floating lines, nine foot leaders. So that way they're not going to be hanging up on the bottom, but it brings it right in the sweet spot.And they can work as their smaller streamers and stuff. And then also the crayfish have been working good, you know, just working those crayfish where you, where you want to keep it up off the bottom.So it looks like a fleeing crayfish, you know, little short strips and a pause. Little short strips and a pause. And that's one point that I like to bring up too.Whether you're fishing poppers or the streamers or the crayfish, nine times out of ten the smallmouth bass is going to eat on the pause for the most part. So you always got to have a pause.Whether you're doing a streamer, a popper or a crayfish or a hellgrammite, it's that pause is when they're going to eat it.

Yeah. And don't let go to the line with your line hand either because you won't be able to set the hook.

Well that's another true story. Yeah. And don't come straight up with the rod and trout set on these fish because it doesn't work.You end up pulling that fly away from that, away from the fish and you don't get a good hook set on it.

Yeah. And we were talking, I think last time you were saying you actually prefer not to fish a dry fly for the white fly hatch.You actually like to use a minnow, right?

Yeah, there's. Well, there's two, two flies that I liked. For the dry or for the white fly.

You.

A lot of folks have never experienced a white fly hatch on the Susquehanna. And it can be epic.Where I'm talking, you're going to have a spinner fall in your boat where you can actually be scooping it out in your hands to throw them out. It's that heavy. So my theory is, always has been, yes, you can throw a dry fly, they will eat the dry fly.But when you have a million of those insects on that water, why do you want to throw something that looks exactly the same? So I will either throw a small floating minnow or a small white popper.And it's very effective because now you're given, you're giving it, you're giving the fish something different and they're going to just come up and smack it.

Yeah. And that's good.And you know, not trying to, you know, find a needle in a haystack helps a ton, particularly as we get older and our eyes aren't as good. And you don't have any light.

Right, right.Because like I said, it'll start, it starts at dusk because you first, the first insects that'll come off are going to be the brown drakes and you can fish those. And then right after that, starting to get dusk. You know, I'm going to say now, this time of year you're looking like 8, 20, 8, 30.And that hatch goes in to dark 9, 9, 30. So, yeah, you're going to go from getting dust to dark. Yeah. And you. And basically, if you got a moon that's good, it lights it up.But if you got clouds, you're not going to see a whole lot. So you're going to pretty much have to go by feel.

Yeah, got it. Well, folks, we've given you a ton of little tidbits this time around.And you know, Brian, as we kind of, you know, head into the home stretch of summer, I, you know, I imagine you're probably pretty well booked up until things probably start to cool off in like late September. October, right?

Yeah, I got some. I got some dates late September and the first half October. A few dates available yet.

Yeah. And it really just kind of depends on what the weather does. Right. If it stays warm, the bug bite is good.If it cools off, that just means the streamer bite turns on, right?

Yep.Then we go to streamers once it starts cooling off and there'll be, you know, once that happens, it'll be streamers right up until the end of October.

Yep. Take a little bit of break and go back to the. To the day job. Day job, right.

Yeah. And back. Back to doing electrical work over the wintertime.

Yeah. For your farewell tour because it's almost over, right?

Yeah, it'll be my farewell tour for sure.

Well, listen, folks, you owe it to yourself to get out there and catch a few tight lines, everybody. Tight lines, Brian.

Tight lines, Marvin.