Cold-Water Kayak Fishing Snags a Mystery

It was a black and icy morning when we launched our kayaks onto the Susquehanna River.

I was with Juan Veruete and Jeff Little, veteran fishing guides.  We were an hour north of Baltimore, near Harrisburg, on the nearly mile wide-river that is the biggest source of fresh water in the Chesapeake Bay. 

The temperature of the air and water was in the 30’s –- cold enough to kill a kayaker who fell in 10 days earlier.

Out on the rocky river, the stars faded as the sky brightened to red in the east.  Winds whipped up small waves, which reflected the light as the sun rose over leafless trees.

For nearly 10 hours, we paddled, exposed, in the biting wind, atop flat plastic floats the size of surfboards.  To protect ourselves from hypothermia, we wore waterproof dry suits and layers of fleece.

We cast our rods with our right hands, as we maneuvered with our left in a tricky game of fighting to stay pointed into the wind. At one point, my feet turning numb, I asked Juan why he fishes in such conditions.  He said he’s been fishing since he was five years old –- and can’t keep himself off the river, even in winter.

“It’s almost like a drug, it’s like an adrenaline junky kind of thing, you know?  Except that this is good for you,” Juan said, laughing. “You come out, you get on the river, throw some baits, and you catch some huge smallmouth bass.  It’s a lot of fun.”

Recently, however, fishing for smallmouth bass has become much harder on the Susquehanna –- for everyone, year round.  Catch rates of smallmouth bass have fallen by 80 percent over the last 20 years as a mysterious disease has killed off many young fish, according to scientists with the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission.  A commission briefing to the state legislature suggests a possible link to phosphorus fertilizers or other pollutants, which could be creating low-oxygen conditions that stress young fish and impair their immune systems, making them more susceptible to bacteria that occur naturally in the water and soil.  In truth, however, the cause of the infections remains far from certain.

“About every guy that’s been on the river for an extended period of time will say that they feel like they are catching fewer fish,” Juan said.  “You know, we’ve got a great population of adult, smallmouth here.  But we have very few (juvenile fish) coming up behind those smallmouth to fill in the gap.”

From across the water, Jeff suddenly screamed. “Yeah!  Whoo hoo! Fish on!  Fish on!”

“Already?” Juan replied, paddling frantically over toward his friend. “Is it a good one? Let’s go up and take a look at it.”

After a fight, Jeff pulled out of the water a bronze and green smallmouth bass, about 20 inches long.

“These are just beautiful fish, beautiful fish.  This is one of the reasons I love to fish for them,” Juan said, admiring the smallmouth before releasing it back into the river. “They are like little tanks that have the engine of a sports car in them. That’s what I love about them.”

Juan and other fishing addicts are headed for a crash come May First.  That’s when Pennsylvania will make it illegal to possess, or even try to catch, smallmouth bass in much of the Susquehanna River.

The state is imposing a six week fishing ban during the spawning season to help fish populations recover. This action follows a “catch and release” requirements for smallmouth imposed in January 2011.  It’s still not clear what is causing problems in the fish, which include male fish growing eggs in their testes, according to Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission Biologist Geoffrey Smith.

“The Susquehanna River populations are among the most severe,” Smith said. “Nearly every one of the males that we’ve submitted have been positive for intersex.”

Jeff Little, the fishing guide, said that the strange problems with the fish suggest a need to reduce pollution in the river. 

“Biologically, there is something wrong with these fish, and that speaks to water quality,” he said. “There are some water quality issues that really need to be addressed, and hopefully they will be.”

As scientists close off the Susquehanna River to fishermen, and scrutinize a wide range of chemical contaminants, left out in the cold during the environmental crisis are people like Juan and Jeff, whose lives and livelihoods are forever caught in the river’s flow.

By Tom Pelton

Chesapeake Bay Foundation

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(Photos by author.  To see more pictures, visit CBF's Facebook site by clicking here.)

To learn about Juan Veruete's fishing guide business, Kayak Fish PA, LLC, click here.

To learn about Jeff Little's Blue Ridge Kayak Fishing LLC, click here.

Comments

[Dwayne Sudduth]

Mr. Pelton;

Dr. Vicki Blazer of the USGS has been doing a lot of work on this issue--the issue is actually nationwide (intersex fish). In the Chesapeake region they're on the James, New, Potomac, Shenendoah and up here in PA on the Susquehanna and Juniata. Much of this region is agricultural, but there is also damage from CSO, pharmaceuticals that humans use and aren't extracted in the Waste Water Treatment process, and industrial runoff as well.

We've been sowing for decades; now we're reaping what we have sown. There are other issues as well, from VHS, Columnaris to whirling disease. These watershed areas are all sick; I just hope it's not too late to save them.

[Tom Pelton]

Thanks very much for the additional information, Dwayne.

Yes, indeed, intersex smallmouth bass are showing up in Dr. Vicki Blazer's research all across the region -- and the cause remains unknown (as I've written about in the past on Bay Daily, and the Washington Post and other newspapers have also documented.)

It seems to me that, although we don't know for certain what the causes of the fish problems are, reducing pollution in the river is a logical and prudent step to take, for lots of reasons -- through upgrading sewage treatment plants, reducing farm runoff, and reducing sewage overflows from antiquated municipal combined sewage and stormwater systems.

No need to wait to keep our waste out of the river.

[Broome Fishing]

Thanks for sharing your fishing experience and this information on the fishes in the Susquehanna River.