weems creek

[Shady]

anyone been there recently?

[J. Rentch]

Not much action all year as with Manresa across the River. Very low salinity.

[Shady]

considering a pickerel search...

[J. Rentch]

Have not caught a Pickerel in two seasons.
Sorry to spoil your plans.

[Mark]

Have not caught a Pickerel in two seasons.
Sorry to spoil your plans.

Same here...In fact it was precisely 2 years ago today, November 1, 2016, since I've caught or even seen a Weems Creek pickerel, or a pickerel in any of the Severn tributaries. Here it is:

P1020273.jpg

A fond memory of better fishing. I hope they return.

[mike o]

I've been fishing Loch raven a little from shore have gotten 6 pickerel in 3 trips, no pike yet. They have been small also. Hoping things pick up.

[Yakmac]

I caught a pickerel in Weems this summer and was shocked. I was hoping it was a good sign for the winter. I guess not


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[J.A. Veil]

I plan to visit many Severn tributaries over the next two weeks to try to find pickerel. It has been reported many times here how the historically strong winter pickerel bite in the Severn dried up almost overnight in November 2016.

November is the best month to catch them, and I will use live minnows (pickerel's favorite bait). I will throw minnows to shorelines that have historically provided good pickerel bites. This afternoon I fished with high water levels in two of my favorite Severn tributaries. Each of them has yielded more than 100 pickerel to me over the past decade. Today I had no pickerel bites at all. I caught a 10" striper and a 9" perch in one tributary, and a 14" striper in the other.

I will report back as I collect more data.

[J.A. Veil]

I spent two hours in Weems Creek this afternoon casting minnows to shorelines that have held pickerel in the past. Today, I had zero pickerel bites. I avoided my skunk by finding two 12" stripers and an 8" striper (better than no fish, but not what I had hoped for).

I plan to visit a few more spots later in the week, but I am losing my optimism about finding pickerel.

[J. Rentch]

Really a mystery why they have disappeared in the Severn tributaries!

[Shady]

We tried in the magothy and found a few early perch. I caught a few pickerel in this area last winter.

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[J. Rentch]

Great catch, and a happy partner

[mike o]

great pic Shady

[Slobber Bob]

Thumbs up for that trip!

[tech11165]

I did a search for pickerel in Magothy and Severn and came across an article with Joe Bruce. He had mentioned (from decades of fishing the Magothy) that during the years of severe drought the Saltinity went up and the Pickerel died off. It took years of excess rain to bring them back. It seemd both waters stopped producing in 2016. Hopefully they will come back in the next few years.