Hi All,
I'm a new participant in the forum - but have been a reader of it for a while now. I bought a used OK Prowler 13 back in February or so, and have since been doing a lot of reading up (some might call it "lurking") on the ins and outs of fishing from a kayak from this forum and from P&S.
I had been a little nervous about taking my first trip out with the kayak, so I have only been fantasizing about it and got my excitement out of reading others' reports. I finally pulled the trigger this week and did 2 trips. One was to Centennial lake earlier this week as a trial, and today I went to Jonas Green State Park to get warmed up to kayak fishing in the bay. I've been to Jonas Green numerous times before to fish from shore, so I kind of had an idea of what to expect there, but the river sure is wider than it seems (more on that later).
On one of my previous trips I had caught some white perch that I fileted and cooked for my wife, and she enjoyed it a lot. With all the reports lately about white perch in the Severn, I thought that fishing for white perch out of Jonas Green would be perfect. So I launched from the beach today around 9:30AM, and paddled around a little to get acclimated to the new environment. I first paddled without my rudder down, and later put it in action, and boy did it make a difference. I'm so grateful the previous owner had that rudder installed...it made paddling and maneuvering much easier.
Now that I got the hang of paddling, it was time to look for some fish. I paddled westward toward the rte 50 bridge, and stopped here and there to toss a plastic grub near the piers that lined the shore. This didn't produce any fish....so I went on to check out the small cove or pond next to the huge white mansion (i think i read that it's some kind of assisted living place).
The cove was nice - very quiet, calm water, and minnows were jumping out of the water all over the place. I thought this would be a great place, but got nothing again...I threw my grub toward areas of structure that looked like they would hold fish, and also threw my grub so that it would swim by the areas where I saw jumping bait fish. Nada.
I remembered hearing about all the good reports about perching in Weems Creek, across the channel, so I thought I'd give it a try. On the way over, I tried casting out next to the wall in front of the white mansion, and I finally caught a perch! For about a half hour or so, I was catching perch every 4 or 5 casts. Finally! I can see what the fun is all about. I only kept 3 of the larger ones, since I didn't think it'd be worth cleaning and eating the smaller ones. One thing to note is that there were baitfish jumping out of the water here too. I don't know what was different between this location and the cove....except the moving water?
When the action slowed down, I proceeded to make my way across the channel. This was a scary experience, this being my second time on the kayak - first time in open water. Boats kept passing by, and sending out big waves...and it took forever to paddle across. Once I finally crossed the channel, I was too tired to even try to venture into the creek...so I tried checking out the piers on this side of the river, while making my way back toward the rte 450 bridge. Nothing again...I didn't even see any jumping baitfish, so that probably should have clued me into the fact that there would be no action there.
I decided to give up on trying to catch any more perch, and decided to check out an area that I saw on a nautical map where there is supposed to be an oyster bed. It's on the other side of the 450 bridge, kind of across from the broken down bridge (the public pier). I baited up some frozen shrimp and dropped my tob/bottom rig down where i thought the oyster bed should be. I have a fish finder, and read that oyster beds would show as an area with a thicker grayline...but I couldn't tell. It was 1:30 by this time, so I had some lunch while waiting for a tug on my rod. The waves were hitting pretty hard, so I had to paddle periodically to stay in one place. I did this for about an hour with no luck. I was pretty exhausted from all the paddling by now, so I decided to call it a day, and paddled back to the beach.
Overall, it was a good day - I caught fish, I didn't fall in the water, and my kayak didn't fall off my foam blocks on the way to or from the river. Thanks to everyone on the board for the perching tips, and I hope I'll be able to fish with you guys some day.
I'm a new participant in the forum - but have been a reader of it for a while now. I bought a used OK Prowler 13 back in February or so, and have since been doing a lot of reading up (some might call it "lurking") on the ins and outs of fishing from a kayak from this forum and from P&S.
I had been a little nervous about taking my first trip out with the kayak, so I have only been fantasizing about it and got my excitement out of reading others' reports. I finally pulled the trigger this week and did 2 trips. One was to Centennial lake earlier this week as a trial, and today I went to Jonas Green State Park to get warmed up to kayak fishing in the bay. I've been to Jonas Green numerous times before to fish from shore, so I kind of had an idea of what to expect there, but the river sure is wider than it seems (more on that later).
On one of my previous trips I had caught some white perch that I fileted and cooked for my wife, and she enjoyed it a lot. With all the reports lately about white perch in the Severn, I thought that fishing for white perch out of Jonas Green would be perfect. So I launched from the beach today around 9:30AM, and paddled around a little to get acclimated to the new environment. I first paddled without my rudder down, and later put it in action, and boy did it make a difference. I'm so grateful the previous owner had that rudder installed...it made paddling and maneuvering much easier.
Now that I got the hang of paddling, it was time to look for some fish. I paddled westward toward the rte 50 bridge, and stopped here and there to toss a plastic grub near the piers that lined the shore. This didn't produce any fish....so I went on to check out the small cove or pond next to the huge white mansion (i think i read that it's some kind of assisted living place).
The cove was nice - very quiet, calm water, and minnows were jumping out of the water all over the place. I thought this would be a great place, but got nothing again...I threw my grub toward areas of structure that looked like they would hold fish, and also threw my grub so that it would swim by the areas where I saw jumping bait fish. Nada.
I remembered hearing about all the good reports about perching in Weems Creek, across the channel, so I thought I'd give it a try. On the way over, I tried casting out next to the wall in front of the white mansion, and I finally caught a perch! For about a half hour or so, I was catching perch every 4 or 5 casts. Finally! I can see what the fun is all about. I only kept 3 of the larger ones, since I didn't think it'd be worth cleaning and eating the smaller ones. One thing to note is that there were baitfish jumping out of the water here too. I don't know what was different between this location and the cove....except the moving water?
When the action slowed down, I proceeded to make my way across the channel. This was a scary experience, this being my second time on the kayak - first time in open water. Boats kept passing by, and sending out big waves...and it took forever to paddle across. Once I finally crossed the channel, I was too tired to even try to venture into the creek...so I tried checking out the piers on this side of the river, while making my way back toward the rte 450 bridge. Nothing again...I didn't even see any jumping baitfish, so that probably should have clued me into the fact that there would be no action there.
I decided to give up on trying to catch any more perch, and decided to check out an area that I saw on a nautical map where there is supposed to be an oyster bed. It's on the other side of the 450 bridge, kind of across from the broken down bridge (the public pier). I baited up some frozen shrimp and dropped my tob/bottom rig down where i thought the oyster bed should be. I have a fish finder, and read that oyster beds would show as an area with a thicker grayline...but I couldn't tell. It was 1:30 by this time, so I had some lunch while waiting for a tug on my rod. The waves were hitting pretty hard, so I had to paddle periodically to stay in one place. I did this for about an hour with no luck. I was pretty exhausted from all the paddling by now, so I decided to call it a day, and paddled back to the beach.
Overall, it was a good day - I caught fish, I didn't fall in the water, and my kayak didn't fall off my foam blocks on the way to or from the river. Thanks to everyone on the board for the perching tips, and I hope I'll be able to fish with you guys some day.
Comment