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Today's weather forecast was intimidating. But I decided to take a ride to Neavitt to see if the specs were still in residence. I am pleased to report that they are still around.
Most of my kayak fishing trips are local around Annapolis, so I have not had to worry much about loading a boat on roof racks. I just open the back of my Honda minivan and slide the kayak inside. But for road trips, I do use roof racks. Today was my first shot at loading the kayak onto the racks in the dark. I managed okay and left Annapolis at 7:00. I arrived at the Neavitt ramp about 8:20 and found a dark sky and lots of wind from the south. The minute I parked, the rain began. It rained hard for 5 minutes. I was beginning to question my judgement about driving all the way over there. Fortunately, the rain stopped and I unloaded the boat and gear and was underway at 8:45.
I tried casting to the shoreline in the cove next to the ramp. When I was there two weeks ago, I got bites almost immediately. Today was different -- I got no bites from casting to the shallow areas. I decided to paddle south toward the creek mouth and troll along the shoreline, staying out of the wind. Not only did the fish not bite, but I lost several jigs and nearly spooled one of my reels from snags. This was not what I had hoped for!
I returned to the cove by the ramp and began trolling in slightly deeper water (7' to 8' today instead of 3' to 4' that had been productive two weeks earlier). On the first pass, I caught a spunky speckled trout. After releasing the fish, I continued trolling around the cove in about a 75-yd diameter circle. The next 5 times I passed by that same spot, I hooked up again -- 4 specs and 1 bluefish. The next few passes after that did not produce fish, nor did casting to the area where I got bites.
I braved the strong winds and paddled across to the opposite shoreline of the creek (~ 1/2 mile). Once there, I trolled along the shore being pushed by wind and waves. Soon I had my hardest pull of the day. It turned out to be a beefy 16" rockfish.
After more drifting along the far shore, I realized that I now had a long paddle back against the waves and wind. I returned to the launch cove and made a few more circuits. Several more specs and blues were attracted to my Gulp 4" swimming mullet. I started the day using chartreuse, and when I ran out of those, I switched to smoke color. These worked equally as well.
As I pulled back to the ramp, I ran into Surfdog, who had already fished in the Severn this morning, then drove to Neavitt to check things out there. I ended the day with about a dozen specs, at least 5 fat bluefish, and 1 rockfish. I don't know how much longer the specs will be around, but they definitely were there today.
At the exact moment I started the engine to drive away, the skies opened up and it rained hard again. My entire time on the water was free from rain, but immediately before and after the trip, it rained hard -- amazing.
Most of my kayak fishing trips are local around Annapolis, so I have not had to worry much about loading a boat on roof racks. I just open the back of my Honda minivan and slide the kayak inside. But for road trips, I do use roof racks. Today was my first shot at loading the kayak onto the racks in the dark. I managed okay and left Annapolis at 7:00. I arrived at the Neavitt ramp about 8:20 and found a dark sky and lots of wind from the south. The minute I parked, the rain began. It rained hard for 5 minutes. I was beginning to question my judgement about driving all the way over there. Fortunately, the rain stopped and I unloaded the boat and gear and was underway at 8:45.
I tried casting to the shoreline in the cove next to the ramp. When I was there two weeks ago, I got bites almost immediately. Today was different -- I got no bites from casting to the shallow areas. I decided to paddle south toward the creek mouth and troll along the shoreline, staying out of the wind. Not only did the fish not bite, but I lost several jigs and nearly spooled one of my reels from snags. This was not what I had hoped for!
I returned to the cove by the ramp and began trolling in slightly deeper water (7' to 8' today instead of 3' to 4' that had been productive two weeks earlier). On the first pass, I caught a spunky speckled trout. After releasing the fish, I continued trolling around the cove in about a 75-yd diameter circle. The next 5 times I passed by that same spot, I hooked up again -- 4 specs and 1 bluefish. The next few passes after that did not produce fish, nor did casting to the area where I got bites.
I braved the strong winds and paddled across to the opposite shoreline of the creek (~ 1/2 mile). Once there, I trolled along the shore being pushed by wind and waves. Soon I had my hardest pull of the day. It turned out to be a beefy 16" rockfish.
After more drifting along the far shore, I realized that I now had a long paddle back against the waves and wind. I returned to the launch cove and made a few more circuits. Several more specs and blues were attracted to my Gulp 4" swimming mullet. I started the day using chartreuse, and when I ran out of those, I switched to smoke color. These worked equally as well.
As I pulled back to the ramp, I ran into Surfdog, who had already fished in the Severn this morning, then drove to Neavitt to check things out there. I ended the day with about a dozen specs, at least 5 fat bluefish, and 1 rockfish. I don't know how much longer the specs will be around, but they definitely were there today.
At the exact moment I started the engine to drive away, the skies opened up and it rained hard again. My entire time on the water was free from rain, but immediately before and after the trip, it rained hard -- amazing.
after we got chased of the severn by t-storms GB went home but i needed to soak some bait so i headed down to neavitt, cool place, saw JA on the water. weather looking sketchy so i fished from the landing with a t/b rig with bws and threw some top waters and crank baits around no luck with them and some sneaky little bait stealer wouldnt commit to the hooks on the t/b rig. had to duck into the truck a couple times to get out of the down pours. need to launch and check the area out from the water!
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