Sometimes cownose rays turn out to be new PB rockfish....

[yakscientist]

As I was making my way back towards Jonas Green, my starboard rod (1/4oz w/ zman, daiwa bg 2500) bent back really hard, and the drag started screaming. This happened right as I was hailing bruce (emser) on the vhf, who had just departed, hoping to ask him one last question about Manresa, where I would hopefully get into some perch. I was asking if Manresa had an American flag in front of it, and I would like to believe the reel started screaming when I said American....anyway, so I was thinking it was a cownose ray just by how hard it was pulling, and the only other time I've caught one is when I launched from Jonas green, and hooked into one late into my fishing time (like yesterday). It really started taking line, so I tightened the drag down a bit, which was already tight to begin with, and kept trying to get eyes on whatever it was (hopefully not a ray). I saw it was sticking close to the surface and making a lot of splashes, but I didn't see wings, so I kept fighting it. Then once I started gaining back some line, I finally saw it's shape as it got closer to my kayak, it was a large (huge in my mind) rockfish. So I tried to contain my excitement, kept it fairly close to the boat, it still had a lot of fight left in it, and finally was able to net it. I've loved my foreverlast g2 net, and this was yet another time I'm glad I had it with me. I tried to take some on the water pics of the fish, but the sun kept overexposing the pictures and wouldn't show any of the measuring lines on the hawg trough. It measured out to 29," about 5" longer than my previous PB. I decided to keep it, since it was the only keeper size fish of the day, and the first one for me since the June 1 season start anyway. Bruce and I probably caught between 20-30 undersize rockfish total, and a few were within inches of being keepers, though there were certainly plenty of 8-14" fish as well. He said he also caught a 21" keeper full of sores, which was released. Here's a pic of my fish once I was back on shore. Moral of the story, don't cut the line until you know that it's a cownose ray, it might just be a large rockfish.SevernPB_7_23_17.jpg

[Big Mike]

Good job and nice fish.

[supfisher01]

Nice fish, Pat! Your persistence and patience payed off, congrats!

[manlystanley]

You're the man!!! Very, very nice. Many congrats.

Best Regards,
Stan

[J.A. Veil]

Nice work. A 29" striper is a good Severn catch any time. To get it in the heat of the summer is even more impressive.

[Jman]

Wow, that's an impressive catch from the Severn. Congrats on the fish!


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[yakscientist]

Thanks everyone. Yes it was quite the shock, Bruce and I were marking big schools of fish all day, but fish above 20" were very rare. It was caught around 9:30am, and like I said, hit my smaller bait (though that setup catches 5x any of my other baits), so there were a lot of factors that usually wouldn't align to produce a big fish. But hey, it happened, and I will certainly take it! Another item checked off my bucket list, but now I just gotta add a new one, a rockfish above 30" from the kayak. Between my all-time PB fish on the 1st of this year (40" blue cat) and this one, it's shaping up to be a good year for fishing. Hopefully I will cross a few fish off the bucket list during my upcoming HI trip in a month.

[Mark]

Outstanding catch!

It's good to know bigger fish are present.

[Steve6902]

Very Nice. Congrats

[EMSer]

The Severn has been producing keepers on each of my last several outings, but nothing close to your PB! Congrats!! It was great fishing with you - finally!

Who knows what all the recent rain will do to the river....

[Mark]

Who knows what all the recent rain will do to the river....

I hope it:

1. Cools the water and encourages more stripers to visit.
2. Lowers salinity and wakes up the dormant pickerels.
3. Keeps the weekend crowds down at Jonas so the port-a-potties can finally be cleaned.

[harlanbud]

It's nice to see you're measuring device is barely big enough!

[EMSer]

Has anyone been on the Severn over the last couple of days?

[J.A. Veil]

Has anyone been on the Severn over the last couple of days?

Bruce - I fished the Severn on Mon and Tues. Trolling for stripers was slow. The creeks and tidal ponds held perch as long as you could find areas without badly stained water from the evening storms.

According to an amateur weather predictor on another fishing board, we are expected to receive large amounts of rain over the weekend (NOAA suggests 3-4"). He wrote: "A summer Noreaster type storm will swing through Thursday night through Saturday. Chance of storms Thursday night but the widespread rain/stoms comes in Friday midday until Saturday. Winds may be light Friday so you can catch some fish Fri Am if the radar looks good but don't plan to be out all day. Saturday as the storm passes by the strong north wind will come and temps will be in the low 70's Saturday feeling more like spring."

This may curtail fishing during those days and will generate a great deal of runoff from the Susquehanna River. If you are planning to fish, look for areas that receive relatively little runoff in order to find clearer water.

[supfisher01]

Has anyone been on the Severn over the last couple of days?

Yes. The water was very stained and full of debris on Monday so I actually kept it strictly paddle boarding for that outing. Tuesday, Wednesday, and this morning I went out and caught fish every morning with one keeper each morning. My 10 year old son went out with me on Wednesday and out-fished me for the first time on the SUP. It was awesome! All fish were caught trolling on all chartreuse and all white 1 oz bucktails, with matching 5" paddletails. They all hit shallow trolled lures maybe only 20-25ft behind my board which I'm guessing is running 2-4 feet below the surface. Here are pictures in order from Tuesday to this morning.