Catfish in the Severn?

[Zeke]

Hey folks, just curious because I am new to fishing the bay and it's tributaries, I see folks posting they are trolling and using spinners for perch, what kind of spinners are you using? I caught a perch near Poplar Island on a swim bait casting for stripers. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Size, style, color....

[Crotalus]

The easiest way to target perch in the summer months is to cast smaller lures to docks, riprap, submerged trees, etc. They are pretty indiscriminate predators, but my go-to is a single bladed spinnerbait like the ones attached that I pick up at Angler's. These are the three colors I get, though I don't think it matters too much. I typically tie one on and leave it until I lose it, the hook gets bent, or the blade starts to get rusty and doesn't spin as well. Sizes I get are 1/8 oz, 3/16 oz, and 1/4 oz depending on how deep they may be, but yesterday instead of going through the tremendous trouble of tying on a heavier lure I just let my 3/16 oz. sink before retrieving when I figured out the fish were holding deeper.

In-line spinners work, but I find they twist up my line. Small crank baits, lipless crank baits, and jigheads with small paddle tails or curly tails work well, too. But I find if they aren't hitting a spinnerbait, they probably aren't there, so I just stick with those.

[J.A. Veil]

Hey folks, just curious because I am new to fishing the bay and it's tributaries, I see folks posting they are trolling and using spinners for perch, what kind of spinners are you using? I caught a perch near Poplar Island on a swim bait casting for stripers. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Size, style, color....

I offer similar advice to whatg Crotalus wrote. Perch can be found in the near-shore shallows throughout the summer. They can be caught on a variety of lures. Many Snaggedline members use "safety pin" style spinners (small spinnerbaits) in 1/8-oz and 1/16-oz size. Crotalus showed one brand that he uses. Almost any tackle shop in the region will carry at least one brand, plus several of our members like to make their own lures. I primarily use the spinners made by Snaggedline member Bignose (Stu Sklar). I tie on a Bignose spinner and leave it there until it gets lost or broken (often several weeks at a time). The photo shows several versions of this lure made by different persons or companies. The Bignose models are seen in the middle and right of the top row. Any of those lures will catch perch, once you figure out where to look for the perch.

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Some other members use in-line spinners for perch. The best known brand is Mepps. They work too, but usually come with a treble hook. A recent post showed how one Snaggedline member substituted a J hook for the treble hook on his inline spinners.

Since the water in the local tidal creeks is often turbid during the summer, having a lure that makes vibration or noise helps get the perch's attention. Lures with spinnerblades and tiny crankbaits with rattles (e.g., RatLTrap) are examples of lures that work on perch -- I caught perch on both of those lures this week and even caught one while trolling a 3" paddletail looking for stripers.

[HJS]

Crotalus - I'm not completely sure but I think the catfish in your post is a yellow bullhead as opposed to a channel cat that others have posted in their threads about Severn catfish. Bullheads have a slightly rounded tail fin verse deeply forked tail fins for the channels. I've eaten yellow bullheads on a dare once caught from the Magothy. They were cooked outside over charcoal with lots of beer available... anything would taste good under those circumstances.

[Mark]

Zeke,

You've gotten great advice above. I suspect more perch are caught on "Perch Pounder" style lures and their homemade variants than even bloodworms.

That's the style I use predominantly. They're fun to make and I like to mix up the colors to find a combination that perch WILL NOT hit. That hasn't happened. From pinks and purples to green, brown, olive, black and the old standbys of white and yellow, they all work.

Also, as mentioned above, a simple curly-tailed grub on a 1/8 oz. jig is a great lure. Sometimes I add a spinner to it but usually it does well on its own. As Kevin said, if you toss spinners long enough in a given area and get no hits, perch are probably not present. The spinner is a great locator lure. I've used a spinner to find them and then cast flies when I know they are present.

White perch are cousins of stripers in the fish family and they have many of the same behaviors. They often swim together. It's not uncommon to catch stripers when fishing for perch and vice versa. Perch also will hit lures larger than they can possibly swallow, especially in open water. Many of us here have caught them on large Rat-L-Traps and X-Raps. Who knows what perch are thinking that hit lures as long as their bodies? But when fishing close to structure in creeks I think it's best to stick with the smaller offerings mentioned in the posts above.

One difference in white perch behavior from stripers is that I believe they prefer less current than stripers generally seem to enjoy. Where I will look for water ripping past a point to find a striper, it's rare that I find perch in such spots. They appear to prefer less current and quieter waters. Hence, popular perch targets are docks on slack tides because they do like to be near structure. That includes shorelines with downed wood and riprap. Another thing they like which has been discussed often here is shade. It's almost predictable when fishing for them that when you see a large shaded area on a sunny day, you will find perch starting at the edge of the shade line.

The other thing to improve your catch rate is to find out what kind of retrieve white perch prefer on a given day. It can change for no predictable reason. Sometimes they want a fast moving lure and other times they prefer it slower. A great thing about braided line and a sensitive rod is that you can feel the vibration of the spinner blade during the retrieve. Be attentive to that and how the vibration changes with the speed of your retrieve. You'll soon figure out the speed the perch prefer at the moment. In fact, some times I'll stop the retrieve entirely, let the lure sink a bit and resume the retrieve. That drop often encourages strikes because many come as soon as I resume the retrieve.

All things considered, there are few mysteries when it comes to catching white perch. They are usually aggressive and plentiful at this time of year in tributaries of the Bay. They are great fun and give us action on the dog days of summer when other species of fish are harder to catch.

Good luck as you chase them.

[Crotalus]

Crotalus - I'm not completely sure but I think the catfish in your post is a yellow bullhead as opposed to a channel cat that others have posted in their threads about Severn catfish. Bullheads have a slightly rounded tail fin verse deeply forked tail fins for the channels. I've eaten yellow bullheads on a dare once caught from the Magothy. They were cooked outside over charcoal with lots of beer available... anything would taste good under those circumstances.

I can see why you'd say that based on the photo, but I believe this cat was far too large to be a bullhead. It was well over 20" and ~5 lbs. The angle makes it difficult to see the fork in the tail, which is present, but does appear to not be as deep as is typical in channel cats.

[Mark]

One more thought on the "Perch Pounder" style of spinners. And this is a negative attribute of them -- the only non-positive comment I would make about the lighter 1/8 oz. versions of them. The spinner blade that pulsates in the water attracting fish also catches air as you cast them. That reduces the distance they fly on the cast. Fortunately, perch fishing is an "up close" encounter. You usually don't have to cast far.

But if you're working parallel to an unobstructed shoreline a good tactic is to make a long cast along it giving your lure a greater distance to travel in the strike zone. A better choice than a light spinner in that scenario is to cast is a simple jig and grub:

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The above is a 1/8 oz. jig with a 3 inch Mister Twister. It's a great white perch lure. It's more streamlined than a spinner and has less air resistance. Given the same rod, reel, line and leader it will cast much farther than a 1/8 oz. perch pounder style of spinner.

I usually have two identical rods rigged when I fish for white perch. One has a spinner, the other a grub. If I want to cover all possibilities, I'll bring a third rod with a small crankbait.

But a spinner is my go-to lure and I catch the majority of my perch with it.

[Zeke]

Thank you sirs for the information!

[bignose]

Hey folks, just curious because I am new to fishing the bay and it's tributaries, I see folks posting they are trolling and using spinners for perch, what kind of spinners are you using? I caught a perch near Poplar Island on a swim bait casting for stripers. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Size, style, color....

Here are some different types of spinner jigs used by members. Most are about 1/16-1/8 oz.
I originally started out using the clip on type spinner attached to a 1/8 oz. round head jig with a 2-3" curly tail:

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these are the clip on spinners

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This is the classic Beetle Spin

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These were made by Snaggedline member Mark Bange

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This is the color I refer to as "the Usual."

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Strike King Mini Spin

[BarefootPetr]

Zeke, everyone has their favorite style for targeting white perch. One of the most versatile lures in my opinion is the lipless crankbait. You can cast them long distance and slow retrieve them back, burn them fast in shallow water, which can trigger stripers to hit as well, and in deeper water like under docks and bridge pylons you can let it sink and jig them. 1/8oz, 3/16oz, and 1/4oz are your best bets. I use chrome, gold, and firetiger colors depending on how stained the water is. The fish absolutely smash em