Chris Petrillo

Chris Petrillo of Vestal thought so.He quit his job to launch a career as a fishing guide on the Susquehanna River.His business is called Susquehanna River Anglers, a catch-and-release guide service.

Out & AboutContact Chris Petrillo at 800-886-4502 or visit his Web site at http://www.susquehannariveranglers.com/

It is not every day someone raised in northern New Jersey falls in love with the Susquehanna River between Binghamton and Owego.
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Chris Petrillo did.One morning two years ago, the Vestal resident stood by the Susquehanna near Moore Park in Vestal and realized that very thing had happened.

He was fishing.

Bass, pike and muskellunge are to blame for his falling in love.

Things like this start innocently.Petrillo began fishing a bit, which got him out on the Susquehanna.Once out there, he discovered not only an excellent fishery but a place of addictive charm.Before he knew it, the 31-year-old designer of shopping mall and super market signs had become a river rat.

His symptoms were classic: fishing the river during every free moment; throwing open the paper each morning to devour daily flow statistics for the Susquehanna; dreaming of the river when he couldn't be on it; wondering how it was flowing when a business trip took him far from its currents and eddies.

He'd been sucked under good, realized Petrillo, a University of Michigan design graduate, who had moved to Vestal in 1996 and begun working for Northeast United Corporation and Newman Development Group.His fishing obsession left him only one choice: to leave his lucrative but workaholic job and pursue life on the trail of big bass.

That day two years ago, Petrillo decided to become a professional fishing guide and tournament angler.Since then he has divided his time between fishing in bass tournaments from the Great Lakes to the Hudson River and learning the subtleties of his "home water" -- the Susquehanna.

He's also established Susquehanna River Anglers, a catch-and-release guide service on the river.

"To be a successful guide," he says, "you need to know you can perform on the water."

To do that, he adds, you must know where the river holds fish, when they are hungry, what they are eating and how you can get them to strike.You must outfit yourself with a boat that will let you get to them.You also must learn about stone cats, trolling motors, hellgrammites, crank baits, currents and lures called tubes.And don't neglect top-water fishing.You must know when the fish you seek lunge after lures on the surface.

To learn these things -- and, in the process, turn yourself from an average angler into what you consider a pro -- you must pick brains and then use your own.
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Toward that end, Petrillo sought out experienced Susquehanna anglers, hung out in local bait shops and talked at length with fisheries biologists from the New York State Department of Conservation.He also did his homework.

Learning what it took to become a licensed guide in New York (water safety, CPR and first aid certification, plus passing the state's written exam), he fulfilled those requirements.Learning how much insurance he needed to sleep well at night, he procured it.

Then Petrillo spent hundreds of hours alone on the Susquehanna.He fished all through the year: October, November, even Christmas Eve on the river.As autumnal days passed, the scene hardly varied: There was the Susquehanna, brooding, sullen, increasingly abandoned by anglers.There was Petrillo, fishing through the day as weather and water grew colder.Keeping him company were nine fishing rods, talk radio chatter and an unquenchable need to know all he could learn of a river through each of four seasons.

One thing he has learned is that fish feed voraciously when leaves begin falling.They feed through Columbus Day.They feed through Thanksgiving.They feed until water temperatures on the Susquehanna drop below 40 degrees, which may not happen until January.This explains how a man can be out on the river on Christmas Eve catching bass that weigh more than three pounds.

What it doesn't explain is the intense inner fire Petrillo has brought to his passion.
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To fish with Petrillo, clients pay $150 for a half-day or $300 for a full day.Two anglers can split that cost.Petrillo provides the boat, rods, reels, lures and expertise -- everything but food.A number of clients drive from New Jersey, Connecticut and the New York City area to fish with him.

He uses light line and light spinning tackle and suggests whatever fishing method he knows will produce good results.

Watching water levels closely, Petrillo begins trips from one of five launches: Sandy Beach in Binghamton; Moore Park in Vestal; Grippen Park in Endicott; the recently opened bridge at Campville; and Marshland Road in Apalachin.
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In May and June, Petrillo says, he locates large spawning fish and "annoys" them into striking.In October and November, these same fish have begun bulking up for winter.No longer consumed by grasshoppers, dobson fly larvae and other summer forage, they begin chasing schools of minnows.

"They're a pack of wolves," Petrillo says of the voracious predators."They herd these schools toward the bank and attack.The water boils when this happens.If I throw a spinner bait in there -- boom!"

During such fall feeding frenzies, Petrillo isn't sure what he'll catch with that spinner.Joining small-mouth bass in the same feeding spot can be northern pike and muskellunge -- "toothy creatures," as Petrillo calls them.

Having found such a sweet spot, he says, an angler can catch a 3-4 pound bass and a 35-inch pike within half an hour of each other.

Can is the operative word, adds the guide.Doing so requires knowledge and gear.

Petrillo's most important piece of equipment is his boat.Discussing it, he sounds almost religious.

"I looked nine or 10 months for the right one," he says."It had to have just what I needed."

To succeed on the Susquehanna, Petrillo's boat needed a rock-proof hull.He chose aluminum.It also needed to run in extremely shallow water.To make sure it did, he outfitted it with a propeller-free jet engine that draws water in and expels it back out for propulsion.
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"That lets me get out of the way," Petrillo says, "and gives my clients the best fishing positions."

He's thought everything out: from the wrap-around decking allowing anglers to walk completely around his boat when battling a large fish, to storage compartments that keep gear out of the way while that happens.

"This year, through November, we should do very well," Petrillo says.

Or maybe right through through Christmas Eve.