Friday Fishing

[J.A. Veil]

Well guys, my kayak is well-used, has dings and scratches on it, and is dark blue. A little mud won't hurt the boat. Unless some unexpected business pops up overnight, I will head over there in the morning and take a look. If the water looks safely navigable and fishable, I will give it a shot.

If anyone changes their mind, please post by 8:00 am. I will check back here in the morning.

[Capt C-Hawk]

Well guys, my kayak is well-used, has dings and scratches on it, and is dark blue. A little mud won't hurt the boat. Unless some unexpected business pops up overnight, I will head over there in the morning and take a look. If the water looks safely navigable and fishable, I will give it a shot.

If anyone changes their mind, please post by 8:00 am. I will check back here in the morning.

Current shouldn't be a problem, other that the normal ripping tide. GL, looking forward to your report.

[J.A. Veil]

Those of you who decided to cancel probably made the right decision. I had a nice paddle this morning, but did not get a single bite in nearly two hours of fishing. Here is the report.

I arrived at Jacksons Landing launch site at Jug Bay around 9:30. The water was the same brown color shown in C-Hawk's photos from yesterday. The river was flat calm with no breeze or current. I left the dock and paddled upstream about a mile to the place where I had fished last week with Moc. On the way there I saw my first osprey of the year, a good sign that spring is nearly upon us.

I began a series of slow drifts that covered many depths from shore to shore. I saw plenty of marks on the sonar (see below), but they did not have the same appearance that I saw the previous week. I cannot tell if they were actually fish or just some type of debris or interference.

I used live minnows on a two-hook bottom rig. Neither minnow got touched in 1 hr and 45 minutes. The breeze was starting to kick up, and it was coming directly in my face as I paddled back to the launch, where I arrived around noon. While I was at the fishing site, I saw two power boats heading upriver. They flew past me and kept going. I don't know where they ended up or how they did.

[ictalurus]

Thanks for taking one for the team, John. Lately, people have been doing well when I decide to bail out. I was starting to think I was carrying some sort of fish repellant.

If I had to guess, I would say those marks are gizzard shad. They can be thick in that area. I'm surprised that your minnows didn't coax in any cats. Little bullheads can be plentiful there, too.

[HJS]

Yeah, those marks in the last pic certainly look like fish. But as you are well aware, FFs just don't show the target species, they show all fish. When I'm out fishing the Patapsco at the Harbor Hospital I never know for sure what those big marks are that keep appearing on my FF. I'm talking about the big marks that refuse to bite. I know for a fact that the inner Patapsco has huge carp roaming they area, I've seen them in the shallows and probably some big cats too... never know what's going on down in the deep.

[Capt C-Hawk]

Those of you who decided to cancel probably made the right decision. I had a nice paddle this morning

At least you were fishing, that's a plus. Thanks for posting your report.

A boat went by the pier in Waysons while I was there yesterday. Don't know how far upriver he went, but when he returned about 1/2 hour later one of the gents on the dock yelld out and asked if he caught anything . He yelled back they weren't catching anything up there either.

Almost seems like the yellows are finished, but the whites should be starting soon. Some of the recent pics showing those sagging bellies showed they were ready to go.

[Knot Working]

Howdy folks. I was discouraged by the mud and the murky water on the Patuxent as well, but since I was off work I thought WTH and launched at the end of Lower Marlboro road. This is about a two-mile drive from my parents' place, so if the fishing was bad I figured I was only taking a small risk. There's a small landing that I had seen just north of the public pier on Chaneyville Road, but it's now enthusiastically marked "private property" and has a sign for the Lower Marlboro citizens association or something to that effect. Since I live on Lower Marlboro rd, I'd like to think I could get access but there is no contact info on the giant sign. I guess they want to keep a low profile. If anyone has any info on this spot I'd appreciate it since it's so close to home for me.

I decided to try launching at the public pier, which is not the most ideal put-in. There's a rocky little chute that I carried my yak down and plopped in, and the high water from the rains certainly helped. I talked to a couple guys on the pier who said they'd seen no yellow perch, but pulled up a few whites. I didn't think they'd be in yet, but I guess they might be starting to run. I paddled North and found what seemed to be a little honey-hole where the river narrows just south of Hall's Creek. Tons of marks on the FF that looked like they could've been perch, but couldn't entice any to bite on jigs or spinners. I did however manage to bounce a jig along the bottom and pull up a channel cat to fend off the skunk. I've been meaning to tape a ruler to my little platform in the photo, but the black spinner box is 7" long for scale. I'm still curious as to what all those not-hungry marks were, and perhaps a better fisherman than me might be able to hook one and let me know. The clouds rolled in shortly thereafter and I headed to port in a headwind. Overall not a bad day on the water despite the lack of perch.

[CB kayak 02]

I was looking at that launch on google maps before too thinking it would be perfect, but the private property thing stinks. Nice work on the channel, Pat. I might be interested in trying there sunday. I know there is some kind of launch at the end of ferr landing rd too? you ever launch there?

[J.A. Veil]

Nice catfish. You avoided the skunk -- better than I did.