One last morning

6/28/2017

We're leaving for Wyoming on Friday.
That means I won't see the river for a few weeks.
By the time we get back, it'll be in its Summer space.
Low, warm water. High grasses. Maybe some hibiscus.
I wanted to get out in it one last morning before we left.

The water's still high and muddy.
The bass seem to be settled below rapids or along the shallow water along the banks.
This one inhaled my slider and immediately took flight.
He was in only a foot of water, right along the bank.

He fought hard down stream.
Jumped a few more times and after a long fight, I finally landed him.
My personal best smallmouth bass - 21",

I was lucky enough to have a good friend along to snap some photos.
This river has some beautiful water and some beautiful fish.
Get out and enjoy it.

2 Comments

Matt Hanist link

12/11/2017 06:34:29 pm

Lovely big smallmouth. 21" is really a trophy and they just are not that common. Is that the Marietta RR trestle way down river over your right shoulder? I put in at the Marietta launch sometimes but have never had the courage to run up river like I see some guys do. I'd rather just put in at the crappy launch near Race Road and either motor down river or fish around Haldeman Island.

Michael

12/11/2017 07:32:38 pm

Matt,
Let me know next time you are down in Marietta or up at Race Street. I head out there with my kayak quite a bit. Thanks for reading!
-Michael

About

I stumbled upon the name "Raftman's Path" walking the river trail that traverses through the little town I live in. It was named during the days when lumber was a huge commodity in this area. The Susquehanna River was an industrial thoroughfare - bearing down loads of lumber from the northern reaches of Pennsylvania towards the Chesapeake. Marietta was a stopping point, a place for the lumber either to go to the mills lining its banks or shoot further downstream through pig iron smoke. Raftmen would guide the lumber down to the mouth of the Susquehanna into the Chesapeake - an estuary of salt, water, lumber, ore, eel and shad. When their job was done, they would walk the raftman's path back through the Susquehanna Riverlands of Lancaster County towards their homes. The path is now wooded and meanders through some of the only "wild" places left in the county.

Sketches & scatterings. Rooted in Pennsylvania along the Susquehanna River. All words & photos by Michael Garrigan unless otherwise noted.

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One last morning

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