Planning a trip to jonas green park

[manlystanley]

I have the next two weekend covered with fishing trips; but I was thinking about launching from the Jonas Green Park to go fish the creeks for perch.

I am still a novice kayaker and am trying to play it save. Can you guys give me any pointers? What lures / bait to use? Is there many catfish back in the creaks. Do I use bunker and bloodworms??

Thanks,
Stan

[J.A. Veil]

If you plan to launch from Jonas Green and target perch, you should paddle/pedal to one of the nearby tidal creeks. The perch begin showing up in the shallow shoreline sections of the creeks during the second week of May. I fish all artificials for perch. My most successful lures are small spinnerbaits (1/8-oz). You can also use small paddletails or twistertails on 1/8-oz jigheads, inline spinners like Mepps, small metal spoons, or very small swimming plugs. Gulp also works. Cast to the shoreline and work the lure back to your kayak. Once the perch show up they will be around until late October.

Catfish are not commonly found in the Severn.

[bunnielab]

I am so excited for perch season, they are the one fish I have a lot of confidence in catching. Perch fishing is so peaceful as well, find a nice looking spot, anchor up, and catch a bunch of the little buggers. Well, peaceful until you hook up with a small striper or blue by surprise.

I followed the advice of JA Veil and others on here last year and had great success. This year I am going to add some chartreuse Ned rigs into the mix and see if they can help me pull some big ones in.

If anyone is into bank fishing I found a spot not too far from Annapolis that I had great luck from last year. PM me if anyone wants the info, it is a small place so I don't want to blow it up too much, and I was catching small stripers and blues there last fall as well.

[manlystanley]

John: I'll do it. I've got some spinnerbaits that I've been meaning to try. What colors work best??

Bunnie: Let me take a rain check on that bank fishing spot, I'm kind-of into kayaking now. What colors worked best for you??

Thanks,
Stan

[J.A. Veil]

John: I'll do it. I've got some spinnerbaits that I've been meaning to try. What colors work best??

Bunnie: Let me take a rain check on that bank fishing spot, I'm kind-of into kayaking now. What colors worked best for you??

Thanks,
Stan

I use spinnerbaits with yellow, chartreuse, green, and white, but the color is less important than the size. Make sure you use small ones (1/8-oz or 1/16\-oz) -- perch do not have large mouths and are unlikely to hit large spinners.

[Mark]

Stan,

Here's an old photo of perch lures and flies I have used successfully in the Severn:

A.jpg

Each is 1/8 oz. or less.

One change I have made since the photo was taken is to remove the trebles from my crank baits. As John mentioned perch have small mouths but somehow they manage to swallow all three hooks. I replaced the trebles with inline single hooks because they are much easier to unhook.

Mepps in-line spinners are great for perch but I don't use them because they have treble hooks.

This is simple lure is also effective:

P1000910.jpg

Again, 1/8 oz. jig head and 3 inch trailer.

My favorite perch lures, though incorporate spinners:

A.jpg B.jpg A.jpg

When perch are prevalent and active, color doesn't matter. But if I had to limit my choices I would opt for yellow or chartreuse.

Perch love rip rap. Areas like this in the Severn are ideal to target:

IMG_1011.jpg

I position my kayak parallel to the rip rap and cast ahead, running my lures or flies as close to the rocks as possible. It's easy to pick off perch on numerous successive casts in this manner.

The miserable weather and my schedule have kept me sidelined recently so I haven't caught any perch so far this year. But they should be showing up in the Severn and its tributaries shortly. I hope to find out soon.

Good luck,

[bunnielab]

Mark, what brand and size of hooks are you replacing the small trebles with? I have some smaller crankbaits that I would like to switch the hooks out on but have never found a satisfactory hook to replace smaller #8-10 trebles.

Also, both Mepps and Roostertail both sell small single hook spinners. I don't know how well they work, but in my travels I found a store selling them for $1.50 per, so I bought some to try this spring.

[Mark]

Drew,

I've always had a hard time finding inline hooks in local retail stores, especially small hooks so I turned to eBay.

Search for inline replacement hooks and you'll find listings of Cox & Rawle hooks. I put size 4 hooks on the small Rat-L-Traps.

I didn't know Mepps and Rooster Tail offer single hooks. That's good. I wish more lure makers would do it.

[J.A. Veil]

I use spinnerbaits with yellow, chartreuse, green, and white, but the color is less important than the size. Make sure you use small ones (1/8-oz or 1/16\-oz) -- perch do not have large mouths and are unlikely to hit large spinners.

Here are some photos of the spinnerbaits I have used. Woody's Tackle (sometimes sold under Maryland Tackle) has offered top-notch feather spinners for many years. As Woody's production rate has gone down, the cost for those spinners has climbed. Snaggedline member bignose makes a similar spinnerbait that works as well as the Woody's model. He sells some of his lures at winter shows. A few other Snaggedline members have been kind enough to give me samples of their similar hand-made lures to test. I also have had good success with Strike King Microking lures. Nearly all of them work well.

001_7.jpg002_3.jpg002_7.jpg003_6.jpg005_5.jpg007_5.jpgB.jpg

[Yak Fish]

I am so excited for perch season, they are the one fish I have a lot of confidence in catching. Perch fishing is so peaceful as well, find a nice looking spot, anchor up, and catch a bunch of the little buggers. Well, peaceful until you hook up with a small striper or blue by surprise.

I followed the advice of JA Veil and others on here last year and had great success. This year I am going to add some chartreuse Ned rigs into the mix and see if they can help me pull some big ones in.

If anyone is into bank fishing I found a spot not too far from Annapolis that I had great luck from last year. PM me if anyone wants the info, it is a small place so I don't want to blow it up too much, and I was catching small stripers and blues there last fall as well.

It's so true about being a peaceful fish to catch. Light line and fast action. Catching big stripers is incredibly exciting, but it definitely takes a toll. It's a grind, and you come back all tired and hands ripped up. I'm actually looking forward hitting up some protected coves.

[mike o]

13 tony's work very well for perch though I usually opt for a 14. The 14's still do pretty well but I think you have a better chance at stripers. Like John said, Gulp on a jig head works well but I don't use them much around rip rap because they hang up a lot.

[Mark]

...but I think you have a better chance at stripers.

That's a good point. Stripers often feed/school with white perch in surprisingly shallow water. I have caught stripers while fishing for white perch with the lures I showed earlier in this thread. Occasionally legal-sized stripers have bent my hooks but most of the schoolies that hang around white perch cannot.

[manlystanley]

John and Mark thanks so much for the pictures. I have a trip planned this Saturday with a friend on Triadelphia Lake. But, maybe next week I've give this a short. I'll make sure to send a report.

Best Regards,
Stan

[manlystanley]

I'm watching the fishing report. I think that I will wait till perch are reported, then take off sometime from work and head down Jonas Green. With this rain and cool weather, no idea how long that will take....

[Mark]

I'm watching the fishing report. I think that I will wait till perch are reported, then take off sometime from work and head down Jonas Green. With this rain and cool weather, no idea how long that will take....

Keep us posted. If you're open for company I will join you if my schedule allows. You can probably also entice a few of the other OGWLF members to leave their sofas for some Severn perch fishing.