Perch at Weems

[Excalibur]

I have a buddy from work who took me along on a wade fishing trip on the Potomac. I wanted to reciprocate with a kayak fishing trip. Has anyone on here fished Weems for perch recently? If so, could you let me know how it's doing. I have not made it down there this year but was thinking about heading there to show my buddy some kayak perchin'

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[azmdted]

I fished from the Tucker ramp to the Severn Saturday morning for six hours, specifically for perch. I fished along the Severn for a quarter mile or so up stream, as well as the docks at the mouth of Weems. It was extremely slow, like 3 fish an hour. I ended up getting four keepers but the bite was slow and the sea grass floating down the river a bit much. Two weeks ago same area was great. Almost empty on Saturday. I have not fished the head end of Weems recently so I can't speak to that. One thing I noticed Saturday morning is that the water was clearer than I've ever seen before, 2 feet or more visibility. Maybe with good visibility they're not fooled by my lures.

As I was coming in at 1 pm I noticed another kayaker fishing higher up Weems. Maybe he's on here and will post about that area. Good luck.

[rugbyfish]

I was there last night and perch fishing was excellent. Small spinners did the trick. Seems like it has been hit or miss there recently.

[J.A. Veil]

If you are fishing when the sun is up high, look for shady spots in shallow areas near the shoreline or under piers. I use a small Bignose spinnerbait but you can catch them on inline spinners, twister tails on light jigheads, or other small lures. The shallow shoreline bite should remain decent for about another month before the perch move to deeper spots.

Perch are not distributed evenly along the shorelines. Make a few experimental casts in many spots to see where they are hanging out on that day. Then try to find similar habitats elsewhere in the creek.

[Mark]

Excalibur,

I'd say that right now a white perch outing to Weems Creek is about as much of a sure thing in fishing as there can possibly be. It's a great place to reciprocate for your friend's Potomac trip.

I've fished it often in recent weeks and the bite is strong in all areas of the creek, even the very back where it can shallow out depending on the tide. As others have said here, in-line and jig spinners are irresistible to perch. I make my own lures and flies and I have yet to find a color that they will not hit. But yellow and/or white are proven color choices. Also I don't believe clear water deters them from chasing any lure. Their feeding trigger is instinctive. Once they're after something it doesn't seem to matter that a spinner looks like nothing that swims. They continue after it. They also love Clouser Minnows and wooly buggers if you or your friend is a fly angler. In fact, they will hit the same streamers that smallmouth bass chase on the Potomac.

Vary your retrieve speed. I find that perch like a slow retrieve most of the time. When I fish a spinner I run it just fast enough to keep the spinner blade moving. When I fish a fly, I pause it. Often they will hit a fly when it is not moving. Rarely does a fast retrieve work for me, even in the middle of summer. Also, keep your lure or fly in the water all the way to the boat. They will follow a lure or fly a long way before striking. I catch many right near the hull of my kayak after casting some distance to the shoreline.

Keep moving from spot to spot. If you do not get a strike in a particular area in 3 or 4 casts, move on. The great news about Weems is that the next spot looks better than the previous one. You simply will not run out of good places to target. The creek is nearly a mile and half long. When you catch one perch, another is usually nearby so cast again in the same spot. Shade is good, as John said. When you have a choice, opt for a shady area where the water looks still and dark.

Lastly, I will say that the size of the perch I have caught in Weems has diminished in recent weeks. In July and August, 10 to 12 inch perch were common. On my September trips 8 to 9 inch perch are the norm and a 10 incher is big. Nevertheless, they are all fun on light tackle.

Good luck and enjoy.

[john from md]

Keep moving from spot to spot. If you do not get a strike in a particular area in 3 or 4 casts, move on. The great news about Weems is that the next spot looks better than the previous one. You simply will not run out of good places to target. The creek is nearly a mile and half long. When you catch one perch, another is usually nearby so cast again in the same spot. Shade is good, as John said. When you have a choice, opt for a shady area where the water looks still and dark.

Great information. I have also found that when changing your retrieve speed, just as you start to crank up again the perch will hit.

The South River has been doing pretty good in the last few weeks down around Quiet Waters park also. However, I, like Mark, have seen the size drop from big to the 8 to 9 inch range.

[azmdted]

I just finished an afternoon fishing Weems. I fished from Tucker to the end of Weems hitting almost every shady spot along the way. There are plenty of perch up there, but as someone else mentioned they are almost all on the smaller side. I caught about 40 perch, and a feisty 20" chain pickerel, but only 1 hit 10", and a couple at 9.5". Plenty in the 8" range though.

[Mark]

I just finished an afternoon fishing Weems. I fished from Tucker to the end of Weems hitting almost every shady spot along the way. There are plenty of perch up there, but as someone else mentioned they are almost all on the smaller side. I caught about 40 perch, and a feisty 20" chain pickerel, but only 1 hit 10", and a couple at 9.5". Plenty in the 8" range though.

That's fantastic. You had a lot of perch pullage but I'm more excited about your pickerel. I have not seen one, much less caught one, on any Severn tribs in almost a year. They have been scarce to the point that I feared a major die-off.

I'm glad you had a good day.

[john from md]

I was going to go to Weems today but went to the BB instead. Caught many small croaker on Fishbites. Tried jigging the pilings and trolling for rock but no joy.

[tech11165]

How much longer do you think the perch will be there? At what temp do they move out?

[Mark]

How much longer do you think the perch will be there? At what temp do they move out?

I don't know the water temperature that drives them to deeper water, but I know from experience that they will be present in the Severn's creeks and vulnerable to lures cast to shorelines into early November. Clearly, their fall migration to deeper water has begun. In recent weeks they are not as prevalent in their typical hangouts as they were in July and August, nor are they as large.

[J.A. Veil]

My experience of catching perch in the Severn creek shallow areas is that they begin leaving in late Sept and will be mostly gone by late Oct. A few stragglers will remain until later. As an example, I caught a 14" white perch in a Severn tributary in 3' of water on Jan 1, 2012. That citation perch ended up winning me a Tracker boat, motor, and trailer in the 2012 Maryland Fishing Challenge -- but that is another story.

If you want to fish for perch in the shallows, don't put it off too long or you will miss most of them.


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[azmdted]

Incredible catch. I'm still waiting to catch a seemingly mythical 12" perch myself I'm curious, it seems as though the larger ones have left the shallows already, and if that's true are they already holing up in deeper water or are they just moving around more but still in the creeks? Like others, in August catching 10-11" perch along the Severn wasn't unusual. But the last two weeks it's been very slim pickings for the bigger ones. They have to be somewhere as I doubt if we are good enough to have caught them all

[J.A. Veil]

Incredible catch. I'm still waiting to catch a seemingly mythical 12" perch myself I'm curious, it seems as though the larger ones have left the shallows already, and if that's true are they already holing up in deeper water or are they just moving around more but still in the creeks? Like others, in August catching 10-11" perch along the Severn wasn't unusual. But the last two weeks it's been very slim pickings for the bigger ones. They have to be somewhere as I doubt if we are good enough to have caught them all

I cannot speak for current perch status in Weems as I have not tried for them recently. However, last week John Rentch and I found several large perch (10" to 12") in a shallow stump field in Eastern Bay. I had never caught them there before, but they were fun that day.

[Mark]

Here's a Weems Creek perch from yesterday:

P1030057.jpg

It would have been a normal sized catch a few weeks ago. Yesterday, it was my only perch near 10 inches.

As to how long they will be around to chase spinners and small lures, peak opportunities to quickly catch good quantities of perch greater than 10 inches have passed for 2017. There are enough left to justify a trip, but they will not provide continuous action like they do in earlier in the summer.

I looked through my photo file and this is was my last white perch of 2016. I caught it on 7 November:

P1020283.jpg

It was the only perch I caught that day -- a nice sized one but swimming alone evidently. Small stripers had taken the place of the perch:

P1020275.jpg

I caught a number of stripers like the one above and larger and that is the typical pattern. White perch leave, stripers take their place along with pickerel.

However, my photo file also shows that I caught my last Severn pickerel on 1 November 2016:

P1020273.jpg

I have not seen or caught one since in any Severn tributary and that is troubling.