When Things Come Together... 09/28/10

This past Sunday, my buddy, Mike Burton, fished in his club tournament on Lake Aldred on the Susquehanna River. We had been out twice together the week before for pre-fishing this lake with some good smallies coming to hand. In those two trips, we caught about 28 bass between the two of us with many being over the legal size limit of 15 inches.

The weather this past Sunday was pretty nice. There was a bit of overcast with a slight breeze, but nothing too bad that would be affect boat control. The air temp was in the upper 70's and the water temperature was about 71 degrees.

The Safe Harbor Dam was not generating Sunday morning and there was only a small flow exiting one gate for oxygenation purposes. Some of the club members were on fish with crankbaits during this time. But when PPL started to generate electricity, three gates were opened and the fish scattered.

The fellow who took third and lunker had a fiberglass Stratos just below the dam. He was swept into a rock ledge and broke his trolling motor. Luckily, he made it out okay and Lakeside Marine in Harrisburg, Pa. had the part(s) he needed and replaced them already... Good for him since the club has another tourney down there this coming Sunday!

Mike placed fourth place out of eleven anglers. That's not too bad, but I think he can do better this coming weekend.

A new challenge has arrived over the past two days in the form of RAIN! We haven't had a substantial rainfall here in South Central Pennsylvania in weeks. The Conestoga River (Safe Harbor) will probably be dumping dirty to muddy water into the river over the next few days and tributaries north of the dam, likewise.

That may change our strategy for Mike. We will be back out tomorrow to fish once again and we'll see what he needs to do to adjust.

I've been on Lake Aldred three times in the past week and caught two 19 inchers. These fish were not caught anywhere near the dam which is very important to know. Not all the bigger sized bass are holding in that area. In fact, I caught the one 19"er in 11 feet of water and the other in 7+ feet of water.

There is not suppose to any wind tomorrow, but the weekend (after Thursday's forecast rain) may have a pretty good wind coming from the NW. That will play into the strategy we develop tomorrow.

I'll be back my blog after the trip to let you all know how we did.

Take care,
Dad