North East Marina, a Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission access, is a good starting point for Lake Erie angling. It is off state Route 5 near the town of North East. You can get there from Interstate Route 90 by exiting at North East and following state Route 89 north to Route 5 and then turn right.

PRESQUE ISLE BAY
Lake Erie is slow to warm because it is so large. You can get an earlier start at Presque Isle Bay, Pennsylvania's only natural bay on the big lake. The special regulations that allow anglers to keep one bass 20 inches or longer per day from April 16 to June 17 are also in effect here.

We will give it the No. 2 ranking because of convenience, regulations and the size of its bass.

Because Presque Isle Bay is much shallower than Lake Erie, it warms much sooner, sometimes by a few weeks. Occasionally, anglers catch smallmouths here as early as late March, but the better fishing usually comes later.

Jigs can be very effective. However, since the water is shallower and smallmouths might be in water that is less than 5 feet deep, crankbaits and single-blade spinnerbaits should also be in your tackle box.

There are several boat launches along Bayfront Parkway in the city of Erie, but for visiting anglers, the launch at Presque Isle State Park might be easier to find.

SUSQUEHANNA RIVER
Equally as famous for its smallmouth fishing is the Susquehanna River. Smallmouths are abundant, though not as large on average. Still, there are 5-pound smallmouths to be had. How this could possibly be ranked so low as No. 3 might seem absurd, yet it proves how great smallmouth bass fishing is in Pennsylvania.

The Susquehanna is a broad, shallow river, perfect habitat for smallmouths. Much of it can be waded, though this might not be possible during typical spring flows. Big spinnerbaits can be more effective here than they normally are for smallmouths. This is one of the best opportunities in the country to catch really big smallmouths on fly-fishing gear.

There has been a recent problem in the Susquehanna River. Anglers were finding dead and dying young smallmouths in a variety of locations throughout the river last year. Later, biologists making their annual collections of young-of-the-year smallmouths observed an unusually high number of fish with skin lesions. The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission identified the cause as a common bacterial agent, Flavobacterium columnare. This disease is not harmful to humans but can affect other fish.

The problem appears to be greatest downstream from Sunbury to below Harrisburg.

Reproduction has been good. Fish and Boat Commission researchers sampled sites on the Susquehanna and Juniata rivers and found good numbers of young smallmouths. The average catch rate for 2005 is the third highest recorded over the previous decade. Low flows and warm water resulted in excellent growth rates.

"Young-of-the-year abundance is a key predictor of adult fish populations in future years," said Dr. Doug Austen, the Fish and Boat Commission's executive director, after surveys were completed last year.

"We were particularly interested in the results of this year's analysis as we continue to look at the unusual river conditions in 2005. The sampling this year took place before, during and after the most pronounced outbreaks of bacterial infection in young smallmouths. So, even with some young bass mortality as a result of the infection, the 2005 year-class appears to be among the strongest we've documented in the last decade."