Good perching day in the Severn

[J.A. Veil]

Mark organized a perch outing for several of his fly fishing friends this morning. I do not fly fish, but tagged along with them. I launched in Weems Creek about 6:45 this morning. The wind was higher than planned, which kept me from extensive trolling time on the main river. Instead, I stayed in two creeks and cast to the shoreline shallows.

I caught 22 perch in one of the creeks in about an hour. I caught 19 in the second creek. The bite shut down about 10:30 with the arrival of low tide and higher angled sun. Summertime perch fishing in the shallows is great fun using ultralight tackle. I caught most of the perch on a 1/8-oz Bignose spinnerbait. In a few spots, I had more success throwing a 4" Gulp mullet on a 1/8-oz jighead.

Most of the perch were small but I had several over 10". I do not keep perch, so the size was not critical for me. When fishing in the shallows on a hot summer day, the bite is noticeably better when casting to shaded areas. These can be areas on the shady side of a creek or can be underneath manmade structure like docks and boathouses.

We all finished up about 11:00 and enjoyed lunch at the nearby Canton Chinese buffet. We stuffed ourselves for $7, and I got a hug from the friendly waitress who always remembers Mark and me.

[Mark]

Actually, we wanted to launch from Jonas into the Severn but as John said the wind ended that plan. So we trekked over to Weems and the perch there were most unfortunate that we arrived. We had a good day at their expense.

I caught them on 4 different flies.

This fly has no name. It was tied by one of my Free State Fly Fisher (FSFF) friends.

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He does great work. I've also caught crappie on it.

There were schools of baitfish everywhere. This may be hard to see, but here's a common sight from today:

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These schools of fish were somewhat similar in appearance to the fly my friend tied.

Of course, a yellow Clouser Minnow is always hard for perch to resist:

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Notice that it's all yellow -- no white belly like a traditional Clouser. I later lost it to a fish unseen. I couldn't raise it with my 5 wt. rod. It wasn't a striper, I'm certain. And it didn't take off running like a ray. It burrowed down and snapped my tippet.

Wooly buggers catch white perch, and every other fish I pursue for that matter:

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A pink crystal bugger also worked:

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Although the perch were hitting flies, I caught no large ones with them. However, I got a couple over 10 inches. This was my largest:

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It hit one of my homemade jig spinners -- not a fly, but it does have hair that I tied on it!

So we had a very nice FSFF outing. More important, it was good to see a Severn tributary alive again with white perch. They kept us waiting this year, but the wait was worth it.

[J. Rentch]

Congrats on the Perch find this morning, glad you were able to keep everyone happy. Also, know they had a great meal at The Canton!

[nhunter344]

I later lost it to a fish unseen. I couldn't raise it with my 5 wt. rod. It wasn't a striper, I'm certain. And it didn't take off running like a ray. It burrowed down and snapped my tippet.

I don't know if theyre in the Severn, but Ive had that happen to me with blue cats. Ive had them only run as far as the bottom of the river and sit and hold their ground. The larger ones are frustrating in that you lose a lot of fishing time trying to get them up.

[Mark]

I don't know if theyre in the Severn, but Ive had that happen to me with blue cats. Ive had them only run as far as the bottom of the river and sit and hold their ground. The larger ones are frustrating in that you lose a lot of fishing time trying to get them up.

I don't know about blue cats but I've caught channel cats in Weems and they burrowed down when I hooked them.

[bignose]

I'm glad to hear that Weems has finally turned on.
I got there today about 9:30, by then the wind was blowing at 15 with higher gusts, from the Severn towards the ramp.
I decided not to even bother taking the little canoe off of the car. It's twitchy enough on calm days, didn't want to risk it, figuring I'd be fighting the wind more than the fish.

I went over to Martin's Cove near Cantlers, but the wind was blowing there, too.
Sounds like a good day. A couple of those perch looked pretty chunky, and, of course, I will always start out with a spinner jig.
I hope you guys saved a few fish for me

[EMSer]

Well done! Glad the perch have moved in.

[manlystanley]

Good deal! I launch at dawn for RF. I'll make sure to tell you all what happens.

Best Regards,
Stan

[yakscientist]

Thank you for the good report! I'm very happy to see that perch are stacking up in the Severn. Time to get a bag of razor clams, anchor up, have a couple beers, and fill my cooler bag with perch.

[tmc3p]

Thank you for the good report! I'm very happy to see that perch are stacking up in the Severn. Time to get a bag of razor clams, anchor up, have a couple beers, and fill my cooler bag with perch.

Sounds like a plan.

[J.A. Veil]

Thank you for the good report! I'm very happy to see that perch are stacking up in the Severn. Time to get a bag of razor clams, anchor up, have a couple beers, and fill my cooler bag with perch.

It sounds like you plan to fish bait in deeper areas of the river. That may very well work, but the fishing we did yesterday was all light artificials in the shallow areas next to shorelines. There is no direct correlation between perch in the shallows and perch in the deeper section.

Anchoring would not have been helpful for finding perch yesterday. I had to move around and cast to a large amount of shoreline. With just a few exceptions, I caught only 1 or 2 perch in any given location.

Good luck with whatever method you choose to fish.