Two surprises in Weems Creek

[J.A. Veil]

After reading all the reports of lousy water and debris in the main bay, I decided to leave my power boat in the garage and fish from my kayak this afternoon. I launched in Weems Creek about noon. The water was a light brown color, but was calm and there was no floating debris. I could see down at least a foot -- not much different from several other times this summer after regular rainstorms.

I had paddled less than 1/4 mile from the ramp when I started working a stretch of shoreline that has been productive for me on perch this summer. I used three ultralight rods each armed with a different lures. I first threw the safety pin style spinner bait that has been very effective on perch recently (hand made by TF member Jack Hart), but did not get even a nibble.

I switched over to throwing a bass fishing-style spinner bait in a small size (Strike King Micro-King in 1/16 oz size). After only a few casts, I hooked a strong fish that swam around for 20 seconds before getting it to the surface. It was a 16" pickerel, which thankfully did a boatside self-release (note to non-kayakers -- handling a writhing toothy creature near your private parts is not a fun thing to do ). Although I have caught pickerel in other Severn creeks this summer, this was my first Weems Creek pickerel in several years. Not bad for my first fish of the day.

Earlier this summer I fished mostly beetle spin type spinner arms with 3" plastic shad minnows.

Since July, however, these have not been as effective as the spinnerbait style lures, and I have not thrown them much. I decided to give that lure a try today. The shad was bright chartreuse in color -- it really stood out in the mocha-colored water. On the third cast, I hooked another strong swimmer. After bringing it alongside, I found it to be a 16" rockfish. As I tried to lift it into the boat for a photo, it gave a lunge and broke the line off at the lure. This fish was by far the largest striper I have ever caught in Weems.

So here I was, 15 minutes into my outing. I had expected to catch at least a few perch or maybe one of the 5" stripers that have been around this summer. Instead, I had no perch, but had notched two 16" fish of unexpected species. This was already a good day!

As I continued upstream into Weems, the water became less clear, and the fish were not biting particularly well. I threw all three types of lures at many different shorelines that often have hungry fish. I did pick up about 10 perch but none bigger than 10". No one lure out-caught the others. This was a surprise for me since the homemade safety pin style lure had been head and shoulders better than any other lures on the last few trips. The one place where it did work better than the others was when I tried ULTT (ultralight tackle trolling) along a stretch of shoreline. I set all three rods in rod holders and paddled very slowly. I caught three perch on the homemade lure but none on the other two types.

I was quite pleased to catch three species of fish this soon after the heavy rains. There are fish out there, guys. You just have to look in places where you can get safely.

[Shady]

Good work and thanks for the report. This year I've found the roadrunner jigheads with a gulp alive minnow to be extremely effective for Perch. I also just recently picked up a Maryland Tackle spinner and have had some success on that for small to medium striper and white perch.

[Grady-Black]

Thanks to you both for the recent Weem's reports. Fishing should be good up in there until water temps drop below 65 degrees or so around late Oct.

GB

[J.A. Veil]

Good work and thanks for the report. This year I've found the roadrunner jigheads with a gulp alive minnow to be extremely effective for Perch. I also just recently picked up a Maryland Tackle spinner and have had some success on that for small to medium striper and white perch.

The Maryland Tackle spinners are very good lures that drive perch wild. Woody, the guy who makes those lures, is an excellent perch fisherman who uses his own lures to make impressive catches.

The only downside I have found is their cost and how easily I seem to break off or otherwise lose Woody's lures. With that in mind, I have tried several other types of lures that have similar shapes or designs to see if they come close to Woody's lures. So far Woody's lures and the "Jack Hart" safety pin spinner lures perform about equally well and are above all the rest (at least until yesterday). I wish I had the patience and artistic talent to make my own lures in this style.

My partial conclusion, after a summer of experimenting, is that some lures are good nearly all of the time, while others can be hot one day and cool the next day. I also noted that earlier in the season, when I saw more small menhaden baitfish (thicker bodies), the plastic shads on spinner arms did a great job. By July, the menhaden were no longer obvious in Weems -- instead they were replaced by tiny silversides minnow. The profile of Woody's lures mimics those smaller baitfish, so his lures proved much more effective.

[J.A. Veil]

Thanks to you both for the recent Weem's reports. Fishing should be good up in there until water temps drop below 65 degrees or so around late Oct.

GB

GB -

Don't stop fishing in Weems after the water temp drops below 65 deg. I was really pleased to catch a pickerel in Weems yesterday, not only for the fun of catching it, but more importantly to show that pickerel are actually living here now. I fish throughout the winter in the local Severn creeks, either by kayak or by wading. Although I used to catch pickerel in Weems when I started winter fishing about 5 years ago, I had not found a single pickerel there for at least the past 3 years. Plus the winter perch bite was not brag-worthy either. I eventually stopped going to Weems between Dec and Feb.

It may be worth a trip or two to Weems this winter. As a side note, I discovered in the late fall that I could not find any white perch in Weems in my usual spots. Just for kicks, I kept moving upstream to areas where I had never caught perch during the warm weather. The perch were there -- at least for a while.

[WST120]

John,

It was good to meet you yesterday as you were launching and congratulations on your catch. Roy and I were first time launchers from Weems Creek and were impressed with the creek. We launched at 7 AM and fished for about 2 hours toward the mouth of the creek with no luck, but once we headed back up the creek and I stopped at the bridge to stretch my legs, we started catching perch within 5 feet from shore. From that point on, we fished the shoreline and most of our catches were from less than 10 feet from the shoreline.

For the most part, we caught our 15 perch and small (6 - 8 inch) rockfish using 2 inch curly tail grubs. I trolled a 4 inch grub with a spinner with no luck. I have attached some pictures showing our launch at 7 AM, Roy catching a perch, and me finding a place to stretch my legs and start catching perch.

Dave

[J.A. Veil]

Dave -

I'm glad we had a chance to talk briefly at the ramp. Congratulations on catching some fish on your first Weems Creek outing. I did not realize that you had so much fog early in the morning -- unlike the morning, I had quite a bit of sun during my entire trip from noon to 3:30.

As you discovered too, nearly all of the fish I catch in Weems are near the shoreline. I look for places where the depth drops off. I either position myself one cast-length from shore and throw at the shore, or I position near the shore and cast parallel to the shore, with a retrieve only a few feet out from the bank. I mentioned ULTT in my post. This accomplishes the same as retrieving parallel to the shoreline.

If you can find an overhanging tree with sufficient space beneath the branches to sneak in a cast, give it a shot. The fish seem to congregate there in the hottest part of the summer. The same goes for casting underneath docks.