By Joshua Jones
In this article I would like to share some experiences and tactics targeting Smallmouth Buffalo in the Northeast United States (Pennsylvania) early season following the winter freeze.
As the holidays pass and the once frozen lakes, rivers and tributaries start thawing, we start getting excited for that first big adventure of the season. Targeting the Smallmouth Buffalo’s early spring bite! Nothing is more exciting than water temp rising and large schools of Buffalo making their way into the tributaries to for the soon-to-come spawn.
When and where
As the water begins to warm up, reaching around 50 degrees, we start getting the planning underway for what day we are going to hit the bank. We focus on targeting areas in a nearby tributary that connects to the main river. We often find them in areas of deeper water, in the15ft range, that are channels next to some large flats ranging 6ft to10ft. For this time of the year that seems to be that magic number.
Baits and rigs
Once we have figured out the location and made a plan for when we will get lines in the water it is time to think about baits. Munch Baits have been a part of my bait arsenal for many seasons now and have never failed me. I tend to use a lot of tiger nuts and smaller boilies when targeting these Northern Buffalo. I have, however, caught them on larger boilies in the 20mm range at times, but we tend to keep the hook baits smaller this time of the year. Munch Baits Cream Tigers are one of our favorites, often with either fake corn or a barrel wafter.
A basic hair rig is my rig of choice with a razor sharp Korda wide gap size #4 to #6 rigged up to a short hook link around the 4 inch range and a 2.5oz to a 4oz inline lead seems to do the trick and 90% of the time and most are absolutely nailed in the bottom lip.
We have come to realize these buffs love pack bait. A simple mix of oats and panko with the addition of some tigers and seeds keeps them coming. I rarely ever flavor my pack bait. If anything I may add an attractor such as Munch Baits Juice to spice it up a notch if the water is really cloudy.
Zinga Juice has become a favorite of ours and the buffs really seem to take to that citrus flavor. I discovered this this past spring when the bites seemed to slow down and we were digging through the bait bag and I decided to pull out the Zinga and it was a game changer. Never once has this line let us down and we have full confidence in the brand.
Rods and things
Now that we went over what we prefer to use bait wise, let’s get on to rods and reels. We use European style rods, reels and alarms. Shown here is hunter sending his 9ft Nash dwarfs into the tributary. In these smaller creeks we very rarely need to fish at any distance so 9 footers with a good test curve to handle pack bait with a heavy lead are perfect.
We tend to keep our lines tight when targeting buffalo due to their lighter bites and sudden drop backs. Many times we had a single beep on the alarm and the line just held tight as if the buffalo was holding tight in place knowing he had just been hooked. Alarm sensitivity is always on full sensitivity. We want to know every small movement of that hook bait at all times. Many times we hooked into really good fish off of a single beep with a pause when you would think nothing was there. The elusiveness of this species is why we love targeting them so much!
Fish care
Next and most important for us is fish care. Either a good landing mat or a cradle to place the Buffalo in for unhooking is essential and something we try to influence others into doing as much as possible. We plan where and how we want to land the fish before we start fishing to be sure we can keep them safe.
As long as winter seems, the buffalo run ends just as fast. The larger females finish spawning and move back out to the deeper water of the main river, disappearing like the gray ghosts to regain energy during the coming summer months. That puts us right inline for the post spawn feeding that’s about to take place. A slight change in location to deeper water gets us a little extended bite for the season.
Knowing the tributaries have warmed over the limits of the Buffalo spawn and the Common Carp have now moved into the area to start their spawning for the season, we focus our attention in deeper water. Water up to 30ft allows us to get few more females before their bite tends to slow down during the summer months. This past season we did 8 days on the river where we targeted 15ft to 30ft of water giving us bites throughout the day.
The feeling of accomplishment after the session has made a huge impact on our angling tactics and how we target the northern river Buffalo. Knowing these Buffalo are often tad smaller than their southern sisters and when we successfully land specimens within that 30lb range is a huge accomplishment for this part of the United States, we believe. Transportation pressure from barges in shallow waters, high currents, long winters and scorching hot summers seem to put a lot of stress on these buffalo and any older fish is definitely a catch to be proud of.
In summary
At the end of that 8 days we have to say our love and respect for this native species has only grown. The amount of time they completely eluded us as if they never existed, yet showed themselves when you least expected them to. Our passion thrives more every time we get to see one of these elusive creatures of the deep river channels and continues to fuel us to learn more about the species and pass that on to others that are unaware that this beautiful native fish exists in our northern waters.
Too many times misidentified, or not known at all, just makes the adventures to catch and photograph this species for educating others that much more important for us. We very often get other kids and parents involved just out of curiosity when they see us set up on the shoreline.
To bring this article to an end, I would like to say thank you for taking the time to read about how we target this species up here in Pennsylvania rivers. There’s something special about this fish that I know a lot of other anglers have come to acknowledge. We have met a lot of great anglers over the years just by starting conversations involving Carp and Buffalo fishing not only in Pennsylvania but all over the USA and even across the pond in the UK.
This type of angling is not only about catching that fish of a lifetime. It’s not about the fancy expensive gear you see guys using. It’s about being a part of a family of anglers that range world wide. We are all out here waking up at 3am to that late night run when we just finally got back to sleep. We are all here praying that fish makes it over the rope of the net after one of the longest battles we ever had with a fish of a lifetime. Most importantly we are all here to support each other as sportsmen and keep this beautiful sport thriving.
Tight Lines everyone and thank you all for the time taken to see what passion we have for this sport!