Upper Shenango Report(and 2 ?'s)
So I fished the river up in the Jamestown area on Monday. Caught a bunch of tiny gills and crappie and stuff as usual, 2 little largemouths, and my first white bass from that section of river. The fly rod outfished the spinning rod.
I catch tons of white bass all the time in the river below Shenango dam, and I know the upper river gets a run of fish from the lake in the spring, but white bass way up below Pymatuning? I don't fish that part of the river nearly as much as the lower river, but I have never caught or seen a white bass caught there. My only guess is the fish came from the lake, but I didn't think Pyma had a good white bass population? Does it?
So now my other question(well it could be a rant too), which may or may not open up a can of worms. Now I have caught largemouths near Jamestown, and also some smallmouths, but there never seemed to be a decent population of either species. There just isn't any good smallmouth habitat in the Jamestown vicinity except for only a few spots. One of those spots is the only spot I have ever caught smallmouths from that section, and I was watching a guy catch and KEEP some! Saw at least 3 or 4 kept. Do the smallies up there wash down from the lake at all? Or were they born and raised in the river, I'm sure both probably. Yeah I'm mainly a C&R guy, but even if I was a catch and keep guy I just couldn't get myself to keep multiple fish that are not common on a section of river, especially if I have only ever caught them in only one riffle before and nowhere else. Maybe I'm just overreacting..
On the bright side I caught my first couple logperch darters of the year LOL...
