Summer on the Susquehanna

Hello outdoors fans. Sorry I have not posted in awhile. Click on any picture to enlarge it as with this first one and you will notice the balloons rising in the background. This is the kick off for a local event here in the Binghamton region known as the Spiedie Festival. The spiedie is a local specialty of marinated meat on a skewer and then char grilled. Usually I am in the Adirondacks all summer trout fishing but even they have been suffering from the incredibly hot summer that the nation has been experiencing and the trout fishing has been slow at best. I have been fishing the river a lot for carp and cats training the punks for Salmon fishing in the fall. I fished in a small derby this weekend and it was a nice start to see the balloon launch while preparing for an evenings fishing. I have been testing a bunch of prototypes of inventions for river fishing and I have to admit they are working perfectly. Under a full moon and with a bucket of sucker minnows and creek chubs, confidence was high. I began a chum line from a bucket of fermenting shad that had attracted flies from 50 miles away as they festered in the sun and heat for several days. Sheriff Brody( Jaws 1 ) would  have been proud of the fervor with which I ladled that rotten mess into the water and I figured every cat sown to Harrisburg was getting a whiff. The 10,000 flies which had drowned trying to get to center of this fly heaven were like raisins in the mix. I bet my neighbors were wondering what the hell evil I had over at the house that was wafting over to them, its not easy being my neighbor. Now with the attractant flowing downstream and the poles in the water it was time for some well deserved ice clod beverages. The balloons continued to launch, the weather remained humid hot and hazy, consumption rates were high and right near dark the cats responded to my olfactory offer to party. I have to admit it was a great night of fishing with continuous action and being by myself there were times with two poles going at once that it resembled the proverbial Chinese fire drill. I fished hard until around 2 in the morning and napped till first light. Upon waking all 3 rods had cats on and was a good way to wake up and the bite continued until I had to leave and weigh in for the contest. All told I landed 17 cats and had many bites I did not get. It was a great night with all the fish being caught on live bait. The livers and cut bait caught nothing. Speaking of which I save all my deer livers for cat bait. They are tougher than chicken livers, staying on the hook better, and I marinate them in garlic before I freeze them in the fall. I also save the rib cages from the Walleye when I fillet them to use as cut bait with the ribs helping to keep them on the hook. I also save the carcasses from the walleyes to make chum blocks and for the chum buckets thus using all parts of the fish as the Indians did. Another trick I have been working on is the use of rechargeable solar lights in my outings. They work great because they give a nice low light and unlike a lantern they do not attract swarms of bugs. I carry backup batteries so that when the rechargeable ones give up I insert regular ones and they stay lit till dawn. I am really impressed with how these are working out and will be adding them into all my night time fishing outings. Notice in my pictures how I use a piece of 1/2 inch schedule 80 pipe in the ground and then a section of those swim noodles that the kids use in the pool slid down on the pipe, then I insert the base of  the light into the swim noodle. This way you can break the rig down when transporting. It was a great nights fishing and the only thing I didn’t get was a big cat thus my only prize was for smallest which was better than nothing. I can’t complain with the nice stringer I ended up with and all the action I had.