Weems Creek report. finally!

[bignose]

I was finally able to get down to fish Weems today. (darn spell correct keeps changing it to Seems....).

It was combination shake down cruise, on me and my repaired shoulder and my "hot rodded" Old Town Pack Canoe.
Both shoulder and Canoe performed without any major trauma. The little sponsons I added to aid stability, didn't seem to be needed, and I'll remove them. The smaller 30 pound thrust trolling motor was more than adequate. It actually seemed faster than my 16 foot Camper Canoe with the 55 pound thrust motor. Also the Water Blade 50 ah Lithium battery seemed to have plenty of grunt after 2 1/2 hours of use.

Now to the fishing.
The water was still very high and quite turbid, with a visibility of about 1 foot. There wasn't a lot of floating grass or surface weeds. My fish finder showed some clouds of baitfish, but I only saw one pod near the surface.
I caught about 12-15 perch, none over 7 inches on my usual green chartreuse spinner jig.
Usually this time of the year I expect to catch most of the fish in 6-8 feet of water on the edges of the grass. Not today.
I found most of my fish in 2 isolated areas, both around 2-4 feet deep and near wood. If I caught one fish, I'd catch 5 or 6, but only in these two areas.

It's good to be back! Next week, I'm going to try the bigger canoe. I feel a little cramped in the Pack, which is 4 feet shorter.

[J. Rentch]

Glad you finally got out. Mark and I were there earlier this week and didn’t have much success. Glad you found those spots. Was younshoulder sore after getting home?

[bignose]

Shoulder seems O.K.
Thanks for asking!
Maybe some ol therapy later, (Tylenol or alcohol ).

How is your knee?
Sounds like you are getting back to things, too.

[J. Rentch]

Yea, I do both!!

[mchottie]

Stu - Good to hear you are out and about. Keep the reports coming!!!

[Mark]

Stu,

That's encouraging.

As John mentioned, he and I worked the creek from the back to the front and both shorelines on Tuesday. The water was dirty. I caught only one white perch on one of my downsized jig spinners. It was in a shady area that typically produces numerous fish. But that was it. No multiple hits. In fact, on no perch trips for me this year in either Weems or the Bodkin have I had repeat hookups. I think John tangled with a few more than me on Tuesday, but boated only one himself.

I'm glad to hear you're back in action and that unlike me, you actually had some action! Keep it up.

[J.A. Veil]

Stu -

I'm glad your new fishing rig is working out for you. I spent 1.5 hours in upper Weems this morning. I suffered the dreaded "First-cast-itis". Near the launch I caught a 9" perch on my first cast of the day. I continued casting for the next 45 mins until I caught a second fish. I kept moving around. Unlike Stu's original report, I did not find multiple fish in the same spots. All 8 of the perch I caught today were solo catches in different shoreline sections.

The water was stained brown. The floating filamentous grass was worse near the ramp and got better as I moved upstream. Normally I focus on shaded areas. Today I caught more of my fish on the sunny side of the creek (although it was mostly overcast today).

Given the calm water, overcast skies, and date on the calendar, I anticipated catching at least 25 perch in the areas I fished. They either were not there or were not feeding.

[tmc3p]

Glad to hear that. Can't wait to go out when WP gets active.

[J.A. Veil]

I woke up earlier than expected this morning and headed out to the Severn for a short perch trip before going to church. The perch were in today. Today's fishing was what I expect for summer time conditions.

I caught 18 of them in the first 30 mins fishing on a sheltered shoreline of the main river. At times I would get a bump or a caught fish on every cast. The bite eventually slowed. This is an area that historically holds lots of perch each summer. I also fished inside of a nearby tidal pond, which is still mostly covered with the filamentous algae. Most of the pond was not fishable. I did catch 2 perch in some open spots in the pond and ended with 23 perch from the river shoreline near the pond (total of 25 perch in 1.5 hours). Most were small but I did get a few 8”-9” fish.

All fish were caught on a well-used Bignose spinnerbait Half of the artificial hair fibers are gone, but the perch still hit it hard. All fish were caught in water less than 4' deep near the shoreline. The water was turbid, but looked pretty clean. I saw loads of birds, three swimming snakes, and a large red fox.

[tmc3p]

25 perch in 1.5hrs? I should hit the severn too.

[J.A. Veil]

25 perch in 1.5hrs? I should hit the severn too.

When the perch are in their typical summer habitats, that is a reasonable catch rate. They have not shown up in those shallow shoreline spots yet in most of the creeks and ponds. Hopefully they will be there soon.