Carp In the Upper Severn?

[CarsonNash]

Early on Saturday morning, (6:30), I was trolling along Sherwood Forest on the outskirts of a large grass bed. Up ahead I saw what I believed to be rockfish breaking on the surface. When I got closer I realized that it was massive, carp?, they were grey with scales like a carp but a flatter head, like a catfish. They were all around me and breaching the surface like a whale and thrashing. One even swam right under my kayak. I never thought that carp would be this far up the river and was quite surprised. What else could it be, any ideas? I got some cool videos of them doing that as well.

[yakscientist]

I believe carp are spawning right now, or about this time. They're very acrobatic for being such fat fish, they'll jump really far out of the water. I saw a massive dead bloated one near Beverly triton, and I think they have a relatively high salinity tolerance so they're probably thick in all the slower portions of the bay tribs

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[mchottie]

I agree - its approx Carp spawn season...

[J.A. Veil]

Carp can be seen in the very upper reaches of the Severn above Indian Landing at various times of the year. It is very shallow and muddy there.

Last week I visited a tidal pond downstream from the Sherwood Forest area mentioned by the original poster. It was full of carp in active mating mode (splashing, slamming into each other, etc). In fact one large carp slammed into the bottom of my kayak catching me by surprise. With their minds on lovemaking, they were not interested in feeding.

[3feetpete]

I saw them in the Little Magothy river a couple of weeks ago. First time anyone had seen them.

[mchottie]

There was also a very large one at a launch I frequent on Stoney Creek. Not sure if someone placed it there, or actually caught and disposed. Fellow angler thought it may have been placed, but I see more and more reports of Carp recently.

[brianisoutside]

They are all over the magothy so the Severn wouldn’t surprise me.


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[rugbyfish]

There was also a very large one at a launch I frequent on Stoney Creek. Not sure if someone placed it there, or actually caught and disposed. Fellow angler thought it may have been placed, but I see more and more reports of Carp recently.

I've seen them there a few times as well.

[Mark]

They must swim in the Bay proper too, not just the rivers and creeks.

There was a huge dead one on the sandy beach at Downs Park last week.

It got a lot a interest from little kids walking with their parents on the beach. Of course, the parents weren't inclined to stop. They were yanking their little ones forward.

[WHBD]

I've been seeing them in the upper creeks of the Severn lately. They were also going crazy near Slavins on the Mattowoman yesterday(what a wet day!). Next time I go down there, I'm going to have a gig in one of my rod holders.

[BarefootPetr]

A couple of years ago I saw a big carp sitting in the surf at Sandy Point. It also looked more grey in color, so I had to get up close and make sure it wasn't a bull red that got lost and headed way north

[bluefishnc]

I caught a 15ish lb golden carp on blood worms last year. Got it about 10 miles below the 301 bridge on the Potomac in July while fishing for bait. Fought like crazy. One of the best fighting fish I've ever caught on light tackle. I'd have sworn it was red drum. MD state record (44 lbs 6 ounces in 1978) comes from right around the 301 bridge off bloodworm as well.