COLUMBIA — Veteran fishing guide Rod Bates has seen a variety of fish species become the hot species over the years.
Bates is the founder of the Carlisle-based Koinonia Guide Service, which has a staff of professional guides who serve the needs of clients on the Susquehanna River from the Maryland border to the upper reaches of the Susquehanna Valley. And clearly, the No. 1 species that initially attracts anglers to the Susquehanna and keeps bringing them back is smallmouth bass.
Even with the smallmouth the undisputed king of the river, a new species has emerged over the last two years that anglers continue to find the most intriguing. That species is the often-underappreciated channel catfish.
The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission certainly recognizes the popularity of channel catfish by anglers as a sportfish and for its popularity as table fare. As such, the agency has developed a management program with a stated goal that is to “maintain or create robust sport fisheries through preservation and enhancement of essential habitats, judicious stocking and through harvest management of wild populations and populations maintained by stocking.”
Forget about the stereotypical image of a lazy summer afternoon in the Deep South, with barefooted young Huck Finns fishing for catfish from a river bank under the shade of a tree. Today, there are both rods and specialty baits that have been produced to serve the needs of an ever-growing fraternity of catfish anglers.
Bates equips his spacious jet-drive boat with Bass Pro Shops Johnny Morris Signature Rods and Reels combinations loaded with 17-pound test XPS Fluorocarbon Line. River flow determines the weight of the egg sinker used with Team Catfish Sinker bumpers and a swivel with a leader of 12-20 inches.
As for bait, forget what was and embrace what is now. Gone are the days of loading up a No. 4 treble hook with chunks of liver or chicken that had been left to “cure” in the sun. Instead, reach for a container of Team Catfish Sudden Impact. Sudden Impact is packaged in dark-colored plastic buckets to keep the dough-and-fiber bait warm in the sun and is available at Bass Pro Shops or ordered directly from the Team Catfish website at www.teamcatfish.com.
“We keep detailed records on the trips our clients book with us on the Susquehanna River, and those records show that smallmouth bass fishing remains the most popular trips,” Bates said. “At the end of last year, however, we were all surprised at how popular fishing for both channel and flathead catfish had become.
“This year, the gap between smallmouth bass trips and catfish trips has continued to get closer. As we begin our fall season, 58 percent of the trips that have been booked with our staff have been for smallmouth bass, but 40 percent have been booked for catfish and the remaining trips being booked for musky and walleye.
“People are learning that the fishing action for catfish can be incredible because we have a tremendous channel catfish population in the Susquehanna River. Our guides continuously fish the same points trip after trip and keep catching fish with a minimum number of repeat fish that had been caught previously.”
Bates and his guides weigh, measure and clip the dorsal fin of every catfish that is released, and on a recent four-hour trip from the boat ramp at Columbia, none of the 21 channel catfish that were caught and released had the telltale clip indicating that it had been previously caught by his clients. Through mid-October, Bates had guided trips that resulted in just 12-of-733 channel catfish that were previously caught and just 4-of-128 flathead catfish that were previously caught.
“There is a healthy population of both channel and flathead catfish in the Susquehanna River. We’ve had out-of-state clients from Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Ohio, and even one group from Florida who were visiting relatives,” Bates said. “We’re not only getting fish in good numbers, but we’re also catching Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission citation fish on a weekly basis.
“We have no problem with our clients keeping a few channel catfish to take home and cook, but we do encourage catch-and-release after taking photos. It will be interesting to see what the numbers are at the end of the year because we’ve blown past last year when we caught 595 channel cats and 293 flatheads.
For information about Koinonia Guide Service access the website at www.koinoniafishingguides.com or call (717) 805-7082.