Land of Oz - North Branch of the Susquehanna River

Well, folks were back from our trip to the North Country. The flatlanders invaded the North Branch of the Susquehanna River from Nov. 8 to Nov. 11, 2009. Not only were Josh and I there, but Al Winco (Winco's Custom Lures) was camping just down the road from us with his good buddy, Mike. We spoke to one another each day to keep the other informed of going-ons. We also ate breakfast together on Thursday morning. Those two guys are a hoot! :D

I met Josh on Sunday morning around 7:30 a.m. and we picked up his boat at the storage shed. Instead of our usual greasy spoon in Mt. Joy, we headed up the road towards Fort Indiantown Gap to eat at a nice restaurant called, The Farmer's Wife. Great breakfast and it was packed!

We made it up to our motel room around 12:30 p.m., unpacked our clothing and food, and headed to the ramp for a half day of fishing.

The water was perfect and the level was just right. It was nice and warm for this time of year... 64 degrees air temp. The water was a nice 46 degrees, clear, with a nice green tint to it.

We ran down river from our launch site and didn't catch a fish at our first stop, but our second and all others afterward gave us nice NB bass. We finished the afternoon with 38 bass which all came from jigs.

We had a nice supper and planned our strategy while eating at the Bonanza in Wysox, Pa.

We were up at the crack of dawn, watch some SportsCenter, and showered and shaved. We made our lunches and packed the boat, then off to breakfast.

After a good hearty breakfast, we headed to the ramp. This was Josh's day. He caught 44 bass and I had 26... total in the boat, 70! We tried many different lures on our first full day on the water... tubes, jerkbaits, spinnerbaits, short-armed Winco Bronze Whackers, and cranks. But the fish cried out for jigging soft plastics and that's what we caught all our fish on.

The second full day brought us the biggest bass of our trip. We were able to land several 18+ bass with a lot of 17+ smallies thrown in. It was my day to shine from the back of the boat with 38 bass and Josh pulled in 25... Total, 63!

Our final day was a half day. It was 33 degrees air temp when we launched. You will see in the slideshow that we were dressed rather warmly. Josh and I looked like Nanook of the North. All bundled up in our winter fishing garb. Check out the pic of Josh running his G3 up river. He's all decked out and trying to keep warm... face mask, layered clothing, and ski goggles for the long runs.

This day brought us our highest half day total. I had 28 and Josh had 25 for a total of 53! All bass came on jigging tubes once again.

As you can see, "The Land of Oz" came through again. It gave us a wonderful four day adventure that I will not forget. What better time than with a good friend, great food, and a lot of smallmouth fishing!