 Waterways
deserving "great river" status earn that
designation for a variety of reasons. By any reasonable
standards---size, accessibility, structure, productivity,
consistency, numbers, variety and size of fish and
forage,---as a fisherman's river, Pennsylvania's
Susquehanna must be considered great. Rising
in southern New York State, near Cooperstown, it drops
into the northeast corner of Pennsylvania then, like a
fickle snake, swings back into New York before
re-entering Pennsylvania in a generally southwest
movement. After its confluence with the West Branch near
Sunbury, the river, now doubled in size, bisects the
state north to south, before entering Maryland and
debouching into the Chesapeake Bay. The bass introduced
from the Ohio River in the 1800's have adapted well to
the watershed and today millions provide diverse sport
for bass anglers. The North Branch, as the river is known
prior to the junction, and the West Branch, account for
more than 600 miles of river, carrying more water than
the Hudson or Ohio Rivers and spilling as much fresh
water into the Chesapeake as all other sources combined.
The Susquehanna is a geologic wonder. Ninety
million years, and perhaps much longer, before receiving
its mysterious Algonquin Indian name, its sedimentary and
volcanic base was laid. While a road map indicates that
all the rivers and highways of central Pennsylvania
follow the southwest to northeast orientation of the
mountains, the Susquehanna curiously bisects the ridges,
since it predates the old Appalachians and maintained its
course as they formed over the course of history. The
ledges and ridges thus formed are the cause of the
river's remarkable bottom structure, so perfect for
smallmouth bass and the reason this is probably the most
productive smallmouth fishery from the mid-Atlantic to
Canada.
 
Photo above by Lefty
Kreh
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