Joppatowne : Mariner's Park 7/5

[Runnin]

Fished Mariner's park on Friday . It was a family kayak (paddling) trip. It really wasn't a fishing trip but I've never been here before so I brought some gear. Glad I did. We paddled out to the main river but never went under the rail bridge. Once out of the creek from the ramp we headed up stream. The main river was very off color, and almost muddy in most places. In a few areas where the was a lot of SAV there was better clarity. I tried trolling a little in the main river with no hits. We ventured up into some of the smaller creeks. These areas had good growths of seagrass along bank, and spatterdock. The water was also clearer. In one area my brother in law yelled I just saw a bass . So I started casting a sexy shad color spinnerbait. Within about 20 minutes I had caught 3 nice 3 lb. largemouths. I also swung and missed on 2. They were essentially carbon copies of each other. The were tight to the spatterdock or seagrass.

On the paddle back to the put in, I cast to a laydown and got a decent sized channel cat on the spinnerbait.

It was a fun outing. Nice paddling and fishing.

Here's an update with some pics of two of the Largemouths.

jtowne LM1.jpgJtowne LM2.jpg

[gliebig]

Have you fished/had much luck fishing the "quarry" behind Mariner? I don't know what place is really called, but that's what we always referred to it as.

[Runnin]

I have no idea. I had never been there before, and the crew I went with weren't fisherman. We addled out of the creek where the ramp was and into the main river, and then went into some of the little neighboring creeks where there was lots of spatterdock.

[gliebig]

If you paddle out of the Mariner canal, hang a right, make a 180 and paddle back down a parallel canal, it'll eventually open back up. that's what we call the quarry. My friend and I tried to fish there last year, but the water was very stained from recent rains.

[Runnin]

OK , That makes sense. At the front of what you would call the canal leading back to the Quarry is where I found spatterdock, sea grass and fish. I didn't paddle very far back into it. The water back in that canal was clearer than the main river. Still quite murky though from recent rains. I imagine it's pretty good now!

[HJS]

Attached is a Google earth link to the Mariner Park area. I wish I knew how to attach labels to a google map… I’m just a slow learner when it comes to computerese. It’s been 8 years since I last explored this area… so some things may have changed.

https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&l...90895&t=m&z=14

The map shows the area you fished as a convolution of new and old stream channels plus a series of gravel quarry pits. This is the area where the Little Gunpowder River meets up with the Big Gunpowder River to form the area shown on the map. The top-most pit is known as the Joppatown Quarry and is easily accessed by foot by using a well worn footpath starting at Townewood/Shore Drives.

The lowest pit is labeled as Days Cove. As I recall, the Days Cove pit is not easily accessed by foot or boat.

To get to the Joppatown Quarry by boat from the Mariner launch you must successfully navigate through a series of channels. At high tide I have seen smallish bass boats motor up and into the Joppatowne pit. I’ve also seen a small Jon boat motor up the Big Gunpowder to the Route 40 bridge. Whether or not this can still be done most certainly changes with each flood and each new downed tree. I'm certain that high tide helps a lot at navigating these channels.

Sounds like you did pretty good considering this was not "exactly a fishing only trip".

[Runnin]

I didn't get anywhere near the quarry area. Here's as far as I got.
mariners park.jpg

[gliebig]

I may give that area a shot some day. Doesn't seem like Conowingo is ever going to turn the water off for me
.

[echo5oscar]

Have either of you ever fished the docks to the right of the park for crappie? I'd be interested in meeting up sometime to check things out.

[Runnin]

Never targeted crappie. Got a few earlier this year on Lower Potomac by accident. There's some Crappie lunkers in that river. Would love to go out with someone that knows what they are doing.

[yakkinfish18]

Have either of you ever fished the docks to the right of the park for crappie? I'd be interested in meeting up sometime to check things out.

Hey nate, if you go straight across from the boat ramp to the piers go all the way to the back and fish the them with small minnows with a Bobber. Flip it under the piers n I have some good success for crappie. Let me no if you want to meet up n fish it sometime it's close to home. The quarry is nice to fish as well with lots of structure.

[hooked again]

I didn't even know about this place - sounds great and pretty close. I'll be giving it a try tomorrow and hope I have the same results. If anyone is looking to fish tomorrow I'll probably hit it around 6:30-7 and always enjoy company. Thanks for the report and tips everyone!

[hooked again]

Should have listened to my gut - boy did I get soaked! Didn't get a bite throughout the morning - rained on and off throughout. But I'll try again some other time when the weather is better. Beautiful skinny water to explore - I think I made it up to the quarry - Is that the one with a small island, a couple of houses set back from it - the water is only about 12 feet at deepest?
Best part of the day happened when I saw a young fawn swimming across the channel right in front of my yak!

I didn't even know about this place - sounds great and pretty close. I'll be giving it a try tomorrow and hope I have the same results. If anyone is looking to fish tomorrow I'll probably hit it around 6:30-7 and always enjoy company. Thanks for the report and tips everyone!

[msjcl]

so the quarry is on the upper left hand portion of the map? correct?

[rjte85]

If anyone ever want's to head out for Crappie/Bass/ or Cats, please let me know, My son lives right down the street, we could head out Saturday morning and i could pick him up after we're done! Sounds like a decent place to go, i was wondering about it everytime i passes it to pick him up! Leave me a message and i'm there!