Severn continues to be a tough bite

[J.A. Veil]

I had not used my Native Slayer Propel 10 pedal kayak in a while. This morning I launched from Jonas Green at 7:30 to very calm seas, overcast skies, and high water level. The tide was outgoing and the modest wind in the opposite direction.


I headed downstream and trolled 4 lines while pedaling all the way to Greenbury Pt and back without any bites that I felt or saw. I did have three plastic tails bitten off, suggesting that I went through a school of small blues. As I approached Jonas Green again, I was frustrated and not quite ready to stop.

I decided to visit two large linear debris piles in the river that are known to hold stripers on occasion. I have found fish there previously on days when they are hard to find in the regular spots. As a side note, these debris piles often hold stripers during the early winter. I have caught stripers to 27" there by jigging over the pile.

At the first debris pile, a rod went down yielding an 18” striper and chasing off the skunk. Within seconds after I tossed that same lure (chartreuse/green Gambini grub twistertail) back out, that rod went down again with a 19” striper. The white stripe with the gold edges shows the location of the debris pile and the back-and-forth approach I used to fish it. I try to keep my lures on top off or just adjacent to the debris pile.


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I decided to try my luck on the other debris pile (gold stripe). I did the same zig-zag pattern but had no bites there.

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After a bit more trolling between the bridges, I headed back to Jonas Green. On the way, a rod began shaking in 25 ft depth. The fish got off before I could wind it in, but judging from the strength of the tug, I suspect it was another of similar size to the earlier ones.

Trip after trip this year, I have struggled to catch more than a few fish in the river. I sure hope that next year brings a better bite.

[rugbyfish]

This seems to be a familiar theme with all of my favorite fall striper fishing locations, including the Severn. I have had to work a lot harder to find anything willing to bite. Did you notice many schools of baitfish? In my last few trips, bait has been abundant, but stripers (or anything else for that matter) have been few and far between. I wonder if the unusual weather this year has something to do with it.

[nhunter344]

In my last few trips, bait has been abundant.......

I wonder if this has anything to do with it. Every time Ive been out in the past two or three weeks, bait has been thick everywhere. There are usually several times per outing where I'm left wondering if my fish finder is on the fritz because there are solid bait returns top to bottom in 20-30ft of water. I would guess that a fish would be less prone to bite when theyre already stuffed (random assumption on my part). The few catches Ive had recently seem to confirm this as they were all pretty healthy in the mid-section.

[rugbyfish]

That's something I haven't thought of, but could certainly be possible. At least where I've been lately, it seems stripers are largely absent. I haven't marked many schools on my depth finder, and the fish I do catch seem to either be by themselves or in very small groups. I also haven't seen much surface activity or working birds, but I'm hopeful that will change.

[J.A. Veil]

This seems to be a familiar theme with all of my favorite fall striper fishing locations, including the Severn. I have had to work a lot harder to find anything willing to bite. Did you notice many schools of baitfish? In my last few trips, bait has been abundant, but stripers (or anything else for that matter) have been few and far between. I wonder if the unusual weather this year has something to do with it.

Most of the time while I moved from Jonas Green to Greenbury Pt and back, the sonar screen showed lots of bait. At times, I could see clear fish arches, but they were in the bottom half of the water column, and I was using light lures. I saw only one school of bait stirring the water at the surface.

[Mark]

Sightings of bait schools breaking the surface rarely yields stripers for me. I've seen it often this year in many locations, Severn included. After casting into them and all around them many times to no avail, I no longer am enticed to cast in their direction. Add birds to the mix, and actively feeding stripers and that's a different story:

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[azmdted]

I finally decided to hit Sandy Point last weekend after all the poor reports and my own experiences. I had to give it a try at least once this year. I got a few fish to live line and hit the rockpile with the tide moving pretty briskly. Not a thing. Not even arches on the fish finder.

All I can say about this year is thank goodness for the influx of catfish. A few of them have made up for lack of rockfish action, and my wife prefers them and perch anyway.

Good luck to all.