S8, Ep 63: Seasonal Shifts: Brian Shumaker's Smallmouth Strategies for Late Summer

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 kind of digging out. I was traveling to a conference over the weekend, so just trying to kind of get back on track.And I heard you had to take a break from building Noah's Ark up where you are.

Well, it wasn't quite Noah's Ark, but, yeah, we did get some more.More heavy rain, and of course, that kind of bollixed up the river systems there for a little about a week or so, but things are starting to finally get back to normal and go from there.

Yeah, you were kind of telling me kind of how it works, depending on, like, I guess, how screwed you are on base, where the thunderstorms track and if they track across the entire state, you're kind of out of business on both watersheds. You want to kind of share that with folks because I thought that was pretty interesting.

Yeah. So. Because I fished two rivers, mainly the Susquehanna and the Juniata River.So on the Susquehanna, if we get weather that hits from the west and doesn't go north, that makes. That'll screw up the West Branch, which flows into the main stem of the Susquehanna, and then you'll lose, like, half the river.So the west side could be really dirty or muddy. Why the east side? Because that's fed from the North Branch will be, you know, set or relatively clear, good conditions.And the same goes for the Juniata, even though that's still western part, you get. It just comes down to Juniata Valley. And if you get heavy storms there, that'll really screw up the Juniata River.And then once you get comes into Susquehanna at Duncannon, so then the west side from Duncannon south can be muddied up, too, but you can still salvage half of the Susquehanna as long as the North Branch is still pumping in clean water.

Got it. So, you know, it's kind of interesting, you know. You know, you guys have had a.Maybe a slightly cooler than normal summer, but you had a lot more water. We were talking about, you know, if you don't get a hard frost early, this hopefully will push your bug bite deeper into the season, right?

Yeah, hopefully it will. I mean, hopefully we'll get. Usually we're still good into about mid September, but this could very well push it into the later half of September.So we could still have some Good bug fishing. You know, we'll still have damsels around, not as prolific as they are in the summertime, July, August, that time frame, but we also get a.Some pretty good hatches. You get a flying ant hatch and that can, that can really turn them on and some other different stuff like that.

Yeah, it's interesting too. Right.So I guess if you're doing the high water game, I think we've talked about this before where, you know, got probably good visibility up close to the bank, so you can probably get away with still fishing the bug. But, you know, probably, you know, you tell me.But it sounds like if you get more than about five feet off the bank, you better be fishing streamers, right?

Pretty much. So, yeah, the banks are going to clear up first, so we'll have visibility anywhere from maybe, you know, one to five feet out.And then the rest of the river can be, you know, really muddy. So. Yeah, so we can still throw the bugs up against the banks and in the shade.But like you say, you come out and start getting into that dirty water, then you better be going to streamers because the fish don't really have the visibility to come up and see that bug, even though, you know, they can hear the splat, you know, but they're not going to see the vibration or anything like that.So once you get out into that dirty water, then it's probably intermediate lines and you know, streamer fishing with either like black and purple or chartreuse and orange or colors like that with your streamers.

Yeah, and it's interesting. I mean, I know like the Susquehanna is a really big piece of water.So, you know, do you, you know, like on the smaller stuff, like kind of where I am, you know, you get the water comes up a lot and it pushes fish to the banks and it pushes them on structure, you know, is it a little bit of a different game kind of given the size?I know the juniata is smaller, but like with the Susquehanna that you never really, you know, get enough water to really push them on structure tight like you might somewhere else.

Well, you'll get it. You'll get them pushed on structure tight. It depends on how much it comes up.Now when it comes up too, if you're out able to fish the middle part of the river, because a lot of times we'll fish the mud line. We can get in the middle and you'll have a mud line either west side or east side and the middle could still be clear. So we'll run that.I'll call it, the mud line where you still have clear water and you still have dirty water, you can fish right on the edge.But when the water comes up mid river, because we have a lot of grass islands out in the mid river and big islands, too, it'll push those fish in tighter on that structure out mid river because that's. That's where they're going to be and that's. That's their home base, sort of. So they will push in tighter on the.In the grass balls or tighter on the rock ledges and so forth like that.

So.

Yeah, and you get a.As long as it's still fishable when it goes up, not like flooding, but still fishable, those fish will be more concentrated on the cover than spread out, like when the water's a little bit lower, if that makes sense.

Yeah, it does.And it sounds like, you know, it's kind of funny, like out in Montana, you know, fish on the fish like a San Juan worm or something on that muddy edge. It sounds like maybe those bass kind of sit in that haze and pop out in ambush, right?

Oh, absolutely. Because they'll use that discolored water for an ambush point. The same as, like they do shade or, you know, grass or anything like that.Anything that gives them cover, makes them feel comfortable, they'll be in that area, you know, just waiting for something to come by and they can dart out and grab it and give themselves something to eat.

Yeah. Game over, right?

Yep. Game over.

And so, you know, you're. We're kind of cruising here into Labor Day, you know, I would imagine you probably have almost no days left on your dance card for this season.

Right now I'm pretty much filled up. Marvin.

Got it.

Because I go till the end of October, so. Yeah, almost all my days are gone.

Yeah. And you were telling me your, your, your redfishing trips are full this year, so people need to call and get on the wait list for 2027, I guess. Yep.

If you want to come fish. Redfish in Texas, all sight fishing, real shallow flats. It's. It's a pretty unique fishery down there.

Yeah. And I know people are kind of, you know, it's almost at this point, almost a little bit late.I think you've already got all of your 2027 show plans in line. Where can folks find you kind of on the road during the wintertime to talk fishing?

Well, I'm going to be at the Virginia Fly Fishing and Wine Festival, and I think that's the first weekend and January, and then I have a week off and then I'll be in Edison and then I'll also be in Lancaster in March and also the Maryland fly fishing show in March. So I think that's all the shows I got right now.

Oh well there you go.Well listen, you know Brian, before I let you hop, why don't you even though you're kind of booked up, why don't you give folks your contact info so maybe if they want to slide you deposit for next year they can get in touch and get on your calendar.

Yeah, if you want to get in touch with me, phone number 717-574-5338. Feel free to reach out with a text phone call or you can go on. The website is www.susqriverguides.com.

Well there you go folks. Well as I always say, yo, it's yourself to get out there and catch a few tight lines everybody.

Tight lines, Brian, tight lines. Marvin.