March meet & greet - March 9 - Severn River

[J.A. Veil]

This is the first notice for the March meet & greet. I am coordinating the event and wanted to get a post out to explain the basics. I will follow up with more details during the next two weeks. The meet and greet will be held in the Severn River and its tributaries on March 9. There are several launching spots that are suitable for kayaks:

1) Jonas Green park - access into the main Severn next to the Rt 450 bridge
2) Tucker St. ramp in west Annapolis - access into Weems Creek
3) Truxton Park - access into Spa Creek
4) Small boat launch on Edgewood Rd near Hillsmere (just past Bert Jabin yacht yard)- access into Back Creek.

Trailers are not permitted at either of the first two spots. Truxton Park can easily accommodate a trailer. Location 4 has a small parking lot -- I do not know if trailers are allowed there or not. Jonas Green can be a tough place to launch on a strong wind day. The other three locations are well up into tributaries and offer some sheltered locations to fish.

During March, the primary target species is pickerel. They can be found in many of the tributaries up and down the Severn. There could be some rockfish or white perch over debris piles (I have not heard any reports of these since early Jan, however). Yellow perch have been very rare in the mid- and lower-Severn. If any of you paddle far upstream or have the ability to launch at a private upstream location, you may find some.

I will consider Jonas Green to be the meet & greet headquarters, but you are welcome to launch from any spot. The official start time is 8:00 am, but if you are eager, you can start as early as you like. We will finish up by 1:00 and head to lunch at 2:00 pm at the Red, Hot, and Blue barbecue restaurant at 200 Old Mill Bottom Rd, Annapolis, MD 21409. This is 1-2 miles east of the Severn River off of the Bay Dale Drive exit of Rt 50 (Exit 28).

Just as a heads up, the DNR closes the pickerel season on March 15. If we need to cancel for March 9, we could consider holding it on March 10, but cannot hold a pickerel-targeting event on the following weekend.

Please indicate your interest in participating in the meet & greet.

Mohawk135
chexone
moc
kevinfry
J.A. Veil
sparky 1423
Abu Masgouf
Goody
Wavy Davy
archeryrob
GFY1979
Aesiegel (?)
dhawk
ictalurus
BassMoore (?)
kornphed
stupidjet
Grilled
russ498 (?)
coop1486
mi327
LenFewster
donkeyfish
wfauby
yakken121212

[MOHAWK135]

I'm in, already got my leave slip approved!

[chex]

I'm in, thanks John!

[Rockchaser]

I'm in, I will launch from Jonas Green Park weather permitting.

[moc]

Same here John. I am in and thanks for doing this meet and greet. I will probably launch at Jonas Green also, unless the winds are real bad. Then I may consider launch from Tucker Street into Weems.

[kevinfry]

I am in....thinking Jonas for launch.

[J.A. Veil]

For those who choose to launch at Jonas Green, I want to give you a heads up about another group that uses the park for parking vehicles on Sat morning. The Annapolis Striders, a local running club, meets there each Sat throughout the winter for training runs. Typically they fill all the spaces in the lower lot. With that in mind, I wrote to the president of the Striders today:

"I have observed your group gathering often on Sat mornings at Jonas Green park during the winter. I wanted to let you know that the Maryland Kayak Fishing Group will hold a meet and greet at Jonas Green park on Sat March 9. I am serving as the coordinator for the event, which is likely to have from 10-20 kayakers meeting there and launching from the beach. Some of the guys may arrive very early (before 7:00 am) but many other will come between 7:30 and 9:00. I don’t know if the Striders have a scheduled meeting or event that day at Jonas Green. If you are planning to use the park that morning, I hope that you can leave some of the parking spaces in the lower lot available for the kayakers who need to unload their boats and gear."

I had a quick reply from Bob Cawood, who said:

"John, thank you for the heads up. We will not start until 7:30 and we will advise our folks to leave spots. We will be gone by about 8:45 to 9:15 am.Thanks again for letting us know, I'm sure some of our runners would love to talk to y'all about kayaking."


I'm sure that we can work cooperatively with another organization. I hope this email exchange will minimize any disruptions to either group.

[sparky1423]

I have just been released to go fishing, count me in. I will launch where the majority launch.

[AbuMasgouf]

Thanks so much for organizing this John! I should be able to make it pending a couple of family scheduling logistics. I'll plan on launching from Jonas Green, but if the winds are bad I'll launch from Tucker Street into Weems as well.

I won't be able to join you guys for lunch though because there isn't anything on the menu I can eat! LOL!! No worries though, I'm used to it

[Goody]

I'm in. I'll launch from Jonas weather permitting otherwise I'll head to Tucker Street. Thanks for arranging things. Looking forward to this M&G.

Change of Plan. I will be launching from Truxton Park.

[Wavy Davy]

I'm in.

[Rockchaser]

I'm out, family stuff to do that I forgot about.

Good luck out there.

[Reelaxin10]

John thanks for organizing. I'm not gonna be able to get out there with you guys due to a charity 5k I was already signed up for. Hope everyone catches a bunch of fish!

[BassMoore]

if i dont have to help my grandmother move ill be there at tucker at 730! hope to finally meet some of you guys

what is the address.. i usually launch at the naval academy so idk where else there is to launch

[J.A. Veil]

The original post gives four launch spots. The Tucker St ramp is at the end of a small cul-de-sac on Tucker St in west Annapolis. If you have access to the Naval Academy facilities, you can certainly launch there too. Most of us will launch from Jonas Green.