One of my favorite places to fish for smallies in the fall is right below the Statue of Liberty.
What? You may say!
Yes, there is a replica of the Statue of Liberty that sits right on an old railroad column from a bridge gone a hundred years ago just north of Harrisburg in Fort Hunter. It sits right in the middle of Dauphin Narrows and can be one of the best opportunities to have a 100+ smallmouth bass day on the Susquehanna River in the fall.
Lady Liberty on the River
If you want to find out the details of how the statue came to be, watch this video! It takes a little bit to get into the story but it’s worth it.
Fishing Fort Hunter
On my trip there on November 10th, there were 20+ boats in this area throwing jerkbaits, tubes, swimbaits, live bait and jigging spoons.
I was lucky enough to go with my buddy, Ken Varilek from Reel River Adventures. We hit the water at 8:30am, launching from the ramp at Fort Hunter.
Water temp was 42F, air temp was about the same and there was a light breeze to start which became a little stronger as the day went on.
We started fishing jerkbaits and tubes, fished slowly and mixed in an occasional swimbait.
Ken started the action with this nice one on a tube:
The fishing was on the slower side compared to recent outings in this area and we caught most of our 23 bass on tubes with a few on tubes and swimbaits on this chilly day. The water temp never made it above 42.6F due to the over cast conditions. We were hoping for a bit of a warm up as the forecast called for sun with a high in the mid fifties.
But…
I was able to land this 20.5 inch whopper on a Keitech Swing Fat Impact and a 1/4 ounce weighted swimbait hook. This also happened to be my personal best Susky smallie so I was fired up.
At this point, I’d much rather catch larger bass than get large numbers. In a fishery like the Susquehanna, you can catch dozens of smallies a day but a fish like this is what I go for.
Be sure to watch the video above to find out the mystery of the Susky Statue and I hope you get a chance to fish there sometime. It’s truly a treasure.
Tight lines,
Dr. Chris
