Question for you Delaware smallie guys

[Drossi]

I found myself working our of Morrisville, PA yesterday so I hit the D on my way home last night. Disclaimer...I'm not the smallie expert, I was going at them with big buggers and streamers on a fly rod, I've had success with similar set up between Barryville down to Columbia but this is the 1st time I tried this far down. Anyways I fished the couple hundred yards from the lot on Rt29 to the 295 bridge without much more than a couple nudges. I guess my question centers around generally how is the smallie population in this area? is it good and I just sucked or was I wasting my time fishing there?

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

[thmyorke1]

isn't the Trenton area sort of the start of the brackish/tidal part? Ive seen videos of smallies down there at least so no idea why they wouldnt hit if they were there.

[bulletbob]

Try something that might be an imitation of a crayfish,sculpin, or some type of rock dwelling nymph, maybe a Muddler or similar.. Smallmouth, like many fish, are opportunists. they eat whats available.. However, over the decades, I have found 20 Crayfish for every free swimming minnow in Smallmouth bass I have cleaned.. same with river Walleyes... They typically eat stuff that grubs around and lives under rocks as oppossed to things that swim in open water.. Always consider that most life in any rocky stream or rocky river is around or under the rocks... Often you just need to match the hatch, and a lot of the times in rocky streams the "hatch" is crayfish, sculpins,mad toms, or those weird darters that live under rocks..bob

[Drossi]

Originally Posted by bulletbob

Try something that might be an imitation of a crayfish,sculpin, or some type of rock dwelling nymph, maybe a Muddler or similar.. Smallmouth, like many fish, are opportunists. they eat whats available.. However, over the decades, I have found 20 Crayfish for every free swimming minnow in Smallmouth bass I have cleaned.. same with river Walleyes... They typically eat stuff that grubs around and lives under rocks as oppossed to things that swim in open water.. Always consider that most life in any rocky stream or rocky river is around or under the rocks... Often you just need to match the hatch, and a lot of the times in rocky streams the "hatch" is crayfish, sculpins,mad toms, or those weird darters that live under rocks..bob

Yeah I probably should have tried a crayfish pattern. I was just stunned that I couldn't even move anything. Usually I can entice the 1 stupid fish in the river to take. lol.

[thmyorke1]

I mainly cast Weightless Zoom Super Flukes, then sometimes ned rigs. I would advocate a streamer that does something similar to the fluke with a slow sink, can be flicked and sideways movement. They will sometimes hit on the fall after a subtle flick.

[Livebaiter46]

Always catch smallmouth on hellgramites.Never caught a walleye on one.Not sure if they eat them

[bulletbob]

Originally Posted by Livebaiter46

Always catch smallmouth on hellgramites.Never caught a walleye on one.Not sure if they eat them

No SMB can resist a live hellgramite ever.. Up here they just call them Dobson.. Small crayfish a close second... I have never caught a walleye on one, but that doesn't mean they won't eat them.. Walleyes will hit crayfish now and then, but as far as I am concerned they eat more small fish than they do nymphs, crayfish etc... Up here in the river we find madtoms, various minnows, sculpins, and some sort of small Herring looking fish in their stomachs... I think the OP was fly fishing, and if he wants SMB, I would think a Muddler, [sculpin imitation] or imitations of nymphs or Crayfish might be a good choice when they won't hit traditional minnow pattern streamers...
I have seen days where they would only hit brown/ brownish green or maybe motor oil color plastics to the exclusion of any other color.. Other days in doesn't matter... I typically have luck with plastic grubs in chartreuse, brown, motor oil, even herring type colors.. However there are days I don't get a touch , with guys using crayfish looking stuff hitting them one after another... They can at times be picky..Usually not, but they have their days... bob

[Drossi]

FWIW I got some intel from a person tied into the PFBC who participated in years of surveys in that area. Per him the smallie population decreases as you go downriver from the I78 bridge bottoming out in the Trenton area. He said they hold in very specific places but not everywhere you would find them in the upper river so unless you knew the hot spots (and had a boat), wade fishing to likely looking areas is futile. I guess that would explain the boats I saw running up and downriver but not stopping in what looked like prime areas.

[NJ219bands]

Originally Posted by Drossi

FWIW I got some intel from a person tied into the PFBC who participated in years of surveys in that area. Per him the smallie population decreases as you go downriver from the I78 bridge bottoming out in the Trenton area. He said they hold in very specific places but not everywhere you would find them in the upper river so unless you knew the hot spots (and had a boat), wade fishing to likely looking areas is futile. I guess that would explain the boats I saw running up and downriver but not stopping in what looked like prime areas.

I caught and released one behind Arm and Hammer ballpark in Trenton last year. Big ones lived in the Duck Island power plant before it was closed.