What a difference a day makes

[J.A. Veil]

I fish often in the Severn creeks and ponds -- usually several days each week. This week I fished on Tues and Thurs in one tributary and on Wed in a different one. My target was pickerel. The Tues trip was frustrating. I had at least 25 casts on which I felt a thump or felt weight on the line. When I went to set the hook on those casts, the fish had been holding onto the plastic tail without getting the hook in its mouth. They opened their mouth and released the lure. I caught 7 pickerel, but had a whole lot of others that got away.

Wed was a totally different story. It was raining the whole time, but the fish were very eager to bite. I caught 33 pickerel in 2.5 hours (an average of one every 4.5 mins) -- the most I have ever caught on a single trip. I left them biting as I had told my wife I would be home for lunch.

This afternoon I launched about 2:00. The rain had ended (or so I thought), the temperature had dropped quite a bit, and the wind was blowing pretty hard. The water was much more turbid than on the previous two days due to the prolonged rainfall. I visited most of my usual spots and struggled to catch just two fish. I had hardly any other bumps today. After an hour, the rain began again, so I called it quits.

Over three days of fishing in the same river system, I had a day of lots of pickerel interest but few catches, a day of remarkable catches, and a day with hardly any catches. You never know what will happen unless you are out there giving things a try. Right now, many of the spots where I want to cast have at least some leaf cover. I have to leave some of them alone, and on the others I look for an open spot to land the lure then try to steer the line through the maze of leaves.

2020-11-11-005.jpg

[bignose]

One can draw a couple of conclusions.

One, the pickerel bite is very weather and temperature dependent.

Two, the tributary you hit Wednesday was full of hungry fish.

I'd say that you caught them all Wednesday, but you fished at a different location on Tuesday and Thursday. The real comparison would have obviously been to fish the same trib as Wednesday to see if they were affected by the change in the weather.

The final conclusion is that you must enjoy fishing in the rain. The fish don't mind being wet, and cold, but I do! Lol

(I was out on the Bay all day Tuesday on a large boat sitting in shirt sleeves in early November. Not bad at all. I didn't get a hit in 5 hours of trolling, didn't care!)

[Mark]

Hits without hookups are common when I fish for pickerel whether in tidal water or in ponds. I'd say even on slow days, my hits double my hookups. On active days, hits far surpass hookups. Where it used to frustrate me, I realize now it's part of the game. I do what I can to swing the ratio in my favor. I sharpen and re-sharpen my hooks. I offset them slightly. I wait for the pickerel to return on a lure or fly after the hit, which they sometimes do. Still misses are common.

Getting hookups into my kayak is another ratio where the pickerel often hold the advantage. They have an uncanny ability to spit the hook on a long distance release or at the gunwale. I recently purchased a net to improve the odds in my favor. I haven't used it yet to see if it works.

Pickerel aggression also changes unpredictably in a given body of water. You'll know when it's high. And just as suddenly as the pickerel bite starts it can stop. I don't know what conditions ring their dinner bell or silence it. Tide doesn't matter. I prefer high tides because it gives me more water to target. But they show no preference. Sometimes they like sun. Sometimes shade. Sometimes they're under vegetation or they may prefer wooden structure or riprap. Sometimes they're in open water. The above happens in ponds too where presumably there is no current other than a slow one from a feeder creek.

All of this makes pickerel a most interesting fish to target. With stripers and white perch, I presume the bite stops because they've moved on to another location. I then move on. With pickerel, I know they're there, lurking and watching my casts. But also I know it's pointless to keep flailing away at them. They'll follow my retrieves closely, getting my hopes up and then dash them with a sudden turnoff. I actually respect for them for that independent spirit. They have self control and composure that stripers, white perch, bass, and bluegills lack when it comes to a well placed cast.

Plus, they bite lures and flies in the dead of winter when the other fish we target have either vacated the area completely or descended to deeper waters to wait for spring.

I always enjoy the fish I am catching at the moment regardless of species. But I think I enjoy fishing for pickerel more than any other kind.

[Turtle]

Any rockfish left in the Severn waters you think? Or are we on to just pickerel this time of year? I was out by Jonas last weekend and landed a few pickerel and had a few more on that came off near the kayak, but nothing else.

[rugbyfish]

I had a good day at the mouth of the Severn this past Saturday. No keeper-sized fish, but lots of fat fish between 12 and 18”. A friend of mine caught some in little round bay the same day, so I’m sure there are still some around.

[J.A. Veil]

I fished for pickerel in three different Severn tributaries this morning. After the messy conditions I saw yesterday afternoon, I was quite surprised at the lack of leaves or other debris in most of the areas I was. The water was clean and calm. I trolled when moving between spots and picked up two 16" stripers. I made a lot of casts and caught 6 pickerel. I had many bumps and grab-and-drops. I suspect that the significant temperature drop and the reduced salinity after 2"-3" of rain in the watershed may have made them a bit hesitant to feed.

I laughed out loud a few times when I was winding the lure in fast at the end of a retrieve and had pickerel follow it to the kayak and jump through the air to try to get a meal.

Regarding Turtle's question, I am seeing few stripers recently in the Severn. I have not been trolling in deeper water and cannot comment on that. Typically stripers will hang out near debris piles at this time of year. The old Rt 450 bridge deck was dropped in place when the new bridge was built, leaving a linear debris pile (more or less right off the end of the Jonas Green pier). You can drift over that pile and jig to the bottom. The 3-dimensional debris pile has lots of things that can snag a lure. I try to keep my jigs moving all the time so they have less opportunity to get snagged. Here are some pictures: 1) my fishfinder screen showing the bouncing jig; 2) the jig I used; and 3) the large striper I caught in December 2012 on that debris pile.

002.jpg 003.jpg 007.jpg