Spring gobbler season ended last week, and we are about to plunge into another summer season.
On the last Saturday of spring gobbler season, I was looking for any shootable bird. I got in the middle of six jakes and ended it with a Boone and Crockett four and a 4 1/2 inch-bearded gobbler. That evening I took a cruise just before dark and the old gobbler that outwitted me all season was in the field with three hens, in full strut of course. He looked over at me, stuck his tongue out, then went back to the business of courting the hens. I’ll be looking for him come fall.
Now is the time when some serious trout fishing takes place. Most of the streams are in good shape and have lots of trout left. A lot of trout fishermen hang it up after the 30th. That is good for the diehards, because other than the hordes that encompass Penns for the drake hatch, most streams see little pressure from now on compared to the first month or two of the season. Blue-winged olives and sulphurs should be good for a while on many streams. For the spin crowd, try some small rebel and rapala minnowbaits. The small rebel crayfish is another often-overlooked but effective early-summer trout lure.
The summer season on the Susquehanna is in full swing. The Adam Bower Dam is fully inflated and Lake Augusta is back for the summer. Smallmouth are mostly finished spawning, but I did see a couple still on nests last week.
Post-spawn smallmouth can be finicky for a couple of weeks. Straining the water with crankbaits and spinnerbaits is a good way to find active fish. You will sometimes find them out in the middle of the river chasing minnows. With the water up as it is now, they will roam around and feed on the plentiful minnows. When the water levels come down and things clear up as they do most summers, bass will revert back to living on crayfish. Tubes and crankbaits that imitate crawfish become a staple for the summer smallmouth angler. Smallmouth love to feed on the surface, and topwater fishing usually gets better as the summer progresses.
There are plans underway to put two fish passageways at the Adam Bower Dam. The “when” is unknown, but a passageway is slated for the west side. It will be a stream-like passage that will rise one foot for every 100 feet in length. At this rate, it will have to be relatively long to get over the Bower Dam. The east side will get the full-blown ladder with a viewing window, canoe portage path, and improved parking and footpaths.
There are gizzard shad there right now trying to figure out how to get past the dam. The American shad are what the fish ladders are all about, but so far, few Americans get upriver this far. Shore-bound anglers will lose some fishing grounds.
No fishing is allowed within 100 feet of the entrance to a fish ladder. This means we will lose a portion of two of the most popular river fishing spots in our area, both sides of the falls below the Bower Dam. It will be interesting to see if the exclusion zone will be enforced during the times when the dam is not inflated. The passageways might not be operational when the dam is down, so maybe we’ll be OK for the fall walleye season.
We shall see, if and when the project actually gets off the ground.
-- Ken Maurer, Herndon, is a licensed fishing guide and a regular contributor to the Outdoors section.
Sports
See you in the fall, tom
- Sports
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College Lacrosse: Bucknell men prepare to improve upon great season
LEWISBURG -- It started a handful of years ago, when the Bucknell men's lacrosse team put a big 'X' on the national map in Central Pennsylvania with an upset of No. 1 Maryland. From that point on Bison coach Frank Fedorjaka has had a difficult time getting big-time opponents on the schedule, even with Bucknell opting to travel under the worst of circumstances.
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High school football: Pratt says Kutztown the right fit
SUNBURY -- When Shikellamy's Tyler Pratt joins the Kutztown University football team as a free safety next fall, he will already have a good feeling for what his position coach will expect from him. Pratt, who signed a national letter of intent this week to accept a scholarship offer to play for the Golden Bears, will be under the tutelage of his father's high school football coach.
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Todd Stanford On high school boys basketball: Increasing the refs' workload
If two heads are better than one, does that mean six eyes are better than four? Not necessarily, according to some Heartland Athletic Conference officials. There is a move afoot in the HAC to cut the number of basketball referees from three to two for part of the season beginning next year.
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High School Roundup: Greenwood boys complete perfect TVL season
Greenwood capped off an unbeaten 2011-12 Tri-Valley League season by crushing Halifax 61-38 on Thursday Night.
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Shikellamy Braves pull away from Shamokin
SUNBURY — Tyler Pratt kept Shikellamy in the game in the third quarter Wednesday, scoring all seven of the Braves’ points. He then got some help in the fourth.
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High School Roundup: Selinsgrove tops Jersey Shore
JERSEY SHORE — With the game tied at 32 at the half, the Selinsgrove boys basketball term went on a big run in the third quarter to open up the game and take a 65-56 Heartland Athletic Conference Division I win over Jersey Shore on Wednesday.
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Shikellamy Braves rally to stay alive
SELINSGROVE — With 11 losses, the Shikellamy girls basketball team is teetering on the brink of elimination from the District 4 Class AAA playoffs. And on Wednesday night, it looked like the Braves were going to go quietly into the offseason when Selinsgrove built a 14-point lead early in the third quarter.
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They learn to be tough young
It's difficult to recall exactly how the sequence unfolded because it happened so darn fast. Shikellamy made a couple baskets, and the crowd began to stir. It was still anybody's game, and the Braves had some momentum late in the third quarter of a recent run with Danville.
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Motorsports: Selinsgrove, Lincoln speedways to host 360 sprint series
MECHANICSBURG -- Mach 1 Chassis of Mechanicsburg will be the title sponsor of the Mid-Atlantic 360 Sprint Car Championship Series, a $120,000 six-race tour that will include five shows at Selinsgrove Speedway and one event at Lincoln Speedway in 2012.
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Girls basketball: Records fall, Red Tornadoes stay unbeaten
SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT -- An overflow crowd zealously cheered Tierney Pfirman's pursuit of the South Williamsport scoring record throughout Tuesday's game, until their breathless faces matched the Mounties' royal blue.
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