Meet Penrod’s Guides:
One of the most knowledgeable smallmouth bass anglers in the region, Mike Breeding spends more time on the Susquehanna River than any guide today.
By Ken Penrod

Mike Breeding leads his clients to trophy smallmouth bass on the mighty Susquehanna River in a jet boat designed by Mare Inc. in Thurmont, MD.

Like many of my guides, Mike came to me as a client. His enthusiasm and need-to-know was intense and annoying at times but there was no denying this man’s desire to become a first class fisherman. Mike had grown up in Baltimore, in a bad part of town, where his options for survival didn’t include casting tubes for smallmouth bass yet he was absolutely enthralled in the angling arts. His friend Charlie bought a jet boat and neither one of them had a clue as to navigating a rock-strewn, springtime-savage, free flowing, cold water river let alone the “mastering” of the 36-volt, Minn Kota trolling motor. My guide service has always had a strong presence in the early spring on the Susquehanna River in Duncannon, Pennsylvania, where the Juniata River joins the main stem. Mike hired me to show him around in late March six years ago and for the rest of the year he was a pain in the ass to my guides and me.

Mike and Charlie overcame their boat position skills by following one of us through this raging water and to overcome their issues with a trolling motor—they employed a large anchor. Like a noisy shadow they haunted our “holes” and with the aid of expensive binoculars, they could tell you what lures we were casting and exactly where we were casting them. At first they would stay well off of our “work holes” while expanding their knowledge but in a short time they would be sitting in a “best-hole” when we got there. Now—that’s not good.  We talked that evening.

Today Mike Breeding is one of the most knowledgeable smallmouth bass anglers in the region and he spends more time on the Susquehanna River than any guide or angler ever since Butch Ward. Lest we forget, it was Butch Ward that popularized and publicized cold water river fishing and that is fact. He mastered the Potomac River and at the urging of Lefty Kreh—he mastered the Susquehanna. No one did it better.

Mike Breeding spends more time on the Susquehanna
River than any guide I know of—and it’s all about finding
fish for his clients.

Breeding would ask so many questions that I had to walk away at times but I recognized his thirst and wished that Butch was still around to take him under his wing. As avid as I am about fishing, there are times when I just don’t want to talk about it. Mike doesn’t hunt—and Butch didn’t hunt. They spent/spend their hunting season hunting bass. Mike had other mentors such as Dave Kerrigan, Mike Accord and Gene Renner that helped him along the way.

Mike saved his money and bought one of my Xpress/Mercury jet-sleds and I feel quite safe in stating that there is no better smallmouth guide in the business. His clientele grows every year and while other river-rats shy away from the Susquehanna during the heat of the summer or during low flow—Mike’s out there somewhere. He works his trade to help his customers and nothing means more to Mike than his clients—except Billie, his fiancée.

Mike is also very knowledgeable on the Upper Potomac River in the Lander area also. He can be reached at bigsmallmouth@earthlink.com or by cell at 443-614-9842. Unlike some river guides, Mike is licensed and commercially insured. Contact Mike quickly to get in on our spring trophy season. We begin our schedule on the mighty Susquehanna in mid-March and it’s over on the last day of April. Pennsylvania has created a no-bass-fishing period that begins on May 1 and ends on June 14. Sadly, the fishermen are paying this price for an obvious pollution issue—but that’s another story.