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Over the past 15 years, I rarely caught chain pickerel during the warm weather months in the tidal waters of the Severn River. In most previous years, I caught fewer than five in a summer. The pickerel were more abundant during the cold weather months.
Something changed this summer. I fished from my kayak in the Severn 23 times from July 1 through Aug 25. On all but one of those trips I caught pickerel, and often caught more than one. This morning I fished in a Severn tidal creek and caught 4 pickerel in 2.5 hours using a 3" Fat Sam mullet paddletail (transparent chartreuse) and a 3/16-oz jighead. Pickerel caught on previous summer trips hit 3" paddletails, 3" twister tails, Gulp swimming mullet, or Bignose spinners. The water level was lower than average during the trip. The tide was incoming in opposition to a light breeze.
The fish this morning all hit in shaded areas of 3' or less water depth. Last winter I caught many pickerel, but most were small "hammer handles" of 10" to 14". Today's fish were 16", 18", 18", and my largest of the summer at 23". I do not have an explanation for the unexpected pickerel abundance, but I am happy about it. As I have noted on some other recent posts, perch catches are down from what I had experienced just a few weeks ago.
2020-08-25-001.jpg 2020-08-25-002.jpg
Something changed this summer. I fished from my kayak in the Severn 23 times from July 1 through Aug 25. On all but one of those trips I caught pickerel, and often caught more than one. This morning I fished in a Severn tidal creek and caught 4 pickerel in 2.5 hours using a 3" Fat Sam mullet paddletail (transparent chartreuse) and a 3/16-oz jighead. Pickerel caught on previous summer trips hit 3" paddletails, 3" twister tails, Gulp swimming mullet, or Bignose spinners. The water level was lower than average during the trip. The tide was incoming in opposition to a light breeze.
The fish this morning all hit in shaded areas of 3' or less water depth. Last winter I caught many pickerel, but most were small "hammer handles" of 10" to 14". Today's fish were 16", 18", 18", and my largest of the summer at 23". I do not have an explanation for the unexpected pickerel abundance, but I am happy about it. As I have noted on some other recent posts, perch catches are down from what I had experienced just a few weeks ago.
2020-08-25-001.jpg 2020-08-25-002.jpg
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