Still no Severn pickerel but...

[Mark]

John Rench and I visited the Severn at mid-morning today. The tide was high and falling.

John set out for stripers and I was determined to find that rare catch -- the Severn pickerel that has eluded me for 11 consecutive months now.

I used two proven pickerel catchers:

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1/8 oz. jig spinners, recently poured, painted and assembled.

Then I targeted textbook pickerel areas like these:

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Quiet, shaded water with no ripples on the surface and each had downed wood and/or structure nearby -- the perfect pickerel homestead.

But no pickerels were home. Instead 7 white perch intercepted my lures along with a 14 inch striper. Nothing remarkable.

Then I got a hard hit on the jig spinner with the paddletail. I thought I had found my elusive goal. It felt heavy like a sizeable pickerel but it failed to break the surface and go airborne like pickerels often do. This fish dug for deep water and it pulled my kayak through the water too. When I finally got a glimpse of it I saw why:

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It was a chunky channel catfish, my first Severn cat, in fact.

But there's more. About an hour later in a completely different albeit similar spot, since I was still searching for a pickerel, I caught another catfish. This one was bigger than the first one:

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The light jig went deep into the fish's bony jaw. It took me a while to extract it but the fish swam away no worse for the wear. However, there will be no more fish caught on this jig:

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It's headed back to the melting pot.

And I'll be headed back to the Severn as soon as I can still searching for a pickerel. Eventually, I will find one.

[J.A. Veil]

Nice job on the surprise catch. For some reason, we are seeing fish showing up in unexpected spots in this late summer/early fall period.

[Yakmac]

Very nice catches despite not finding any Pickerel something is definitely off. It will make for a long winter if no Pickerel emerge.

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[rob-kayak]

I love surprises... glad you got some today :-)

[azmdted]

This is a poor picture, but this was my pickerel from Weems last Friday. I'm not sure why he bled so much. Single hook on a little mepps spinner. He was sluggish but he did swim away, I hope he recovered. There is, or at least was, one there.

Nice catfish, ny wife would have kicked me out if I let them go. Good luck in your quest.

[Mark]

He was sluggish but he did swim away, I hope he recovered. There is, or at least was, one there.

Yes, I hope your pickerel survived. I haven't seen a pickerel in any Severn tributary since last November. That means I also caught none in the Severn last winter and spring despite numerous attempts. Their scarcity is not unusual in the summer but usually I catch a few during the warmer months when targeting white perch. They occupy the same areas of the river. That did not happen while hooking hundreds of white perch this year. Although it was hot today, I was hoping our recent cool spell might have energized the picks.

But the channel cats did indeed surprise me. How odd to catch two when I had never caught them in the Severn before.

The only thing predictable about fishing is its unpredictability.

[J. Rentch]

As Mark mentioned, I was after Stripers in Weems this morning. I was using a 3/8 white buck tail with a 3" white paddletail and a 3/8 red jig with a 3" chartreuse paddletail. I paddled both ends of Weems, the water level was high so I went all the way to the back. Ended up with 2 18", both on the Bucktail. Later I changed the jig for a 4" Rapalla. I got another 2 18" below the bridges. Also landed abt a dozen small white perch. Nice morning, but around noon it started getting hot, so we decided to head back to the launch.

[CaptCHawk]

Speaking of surprises, Kiko (Ernie) and I fished some Severn creeks on Monday seeking jumbo perch. Caught some nice ones including one @ 11.75. The surprises were seven 8" specs several little stripers, a small croaker two channel cats and a 10" flounder.
On the way back to the launch we tried a normally good pickerel spot for species number 7 but it was a no go. This was a boat trip, but still interesting

[manlystanley]

Catfish on a lure??!! I have heard that it can occur, but you are the first person that I've know that has actually done it. Very nice!


BTW: I launched my lazy bones today at around 5:30-ish. I was so excited about fishing, that I barely slept last night. I could feel in my in my bones that 'today'... was the day I was going to catch something big..........



Well, I fished till 10:00 and got skunked. Not keepers, no small-ies, no bites... Nothing....... But, had a good time I meet EMSER (Bruce) and his friend and learned some good techniques from him.


But, next time I go out........ I'll get into the record books!!!


Best Regards,
Stan

[Yakmac]

I caught this catfish on a fire tiger lure in the Potomac at Hains Point last year I was totally shocked that a catfish went after it.

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[Mark]

Stan,

Absolutely, catfish hit lures.

I've caught them on Rat-L-Traps, spinners and a simple jig and paddletail.

I've also caught them on the fly with Clouser Minnows while smallmouth fishing in the Susquehanna. And I have caught them on the fly in salt water. There are some weird looking catfish in Tampa Bay. I don't have photos of the ones I caught on Clousers there but Google the Gafftopsail catfish.

That was a nice catfish, Keith.

[J. Rentch]

Just to add to the conversation, I caught this fatty under the 450 (Naval Academy) bridge in July on a 1/8 jig with a white twister tail on light rig. A nice surprise!

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[Mark]

Just to add to the conversation, I caught this fatty under the 450 (Naval Academy) bridge in July on a 1/8 jig with a white twister tail on light rig. A nice surprise!

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Nice catch, John.

What's fun about catfish on lures is that I suppose bait anglers targeting them fully expect that heavy powerful feeling of a channel cat on the ends of their lines. But when we catch them with lures we are usually targeting other species. We therefore spend the first few moments of the hookup wondering what in the world we have caught. There's no striper headshake. There's no speedy run. And they do not come willingly to the surface and jump like a smallmouth or pickerel but instead burrow deeper.

[willf650]

I catch several catfish a year while bass fishing. I got these two last weekend in the Susqehana River while smallmouth fishing on a 3/8 oz swim jig with a 4/0 hook. I wasn't expecting it and they almost pulled the rod out of my hand. These we the first flatheads I've ever caught and they were around 30". One of these actually came from a pool in the some swifter water. Not an area I would expect catfish to be.




I read up this week and I'm catching some bluegill tonight for bait and we are going back this weekend specifically targeting flathead. The fish I caught are considered small by flathead standards.

[manlystanley]

I caught this catfish on a fire tiger lure in the Potomac at Hains Point last year I was totally shocked that a catfish went after it.

Very nice!! It is still amazing to me that cats hit lures!

Best Regards,
Stan