Severn stripers

[J.A. Veil]

Over the past decade, I looked forward to some spring trolling in the Severn. The striper run varied from year-to-year, but generally was in the range of late March to mid May. During the past two years, the DNR took April striper fishing off the table. Now that May has arrived, I wanted to see if any of the stripers were still in the river.

This afternoon I launched from Jonas Green and trolled my usual route to the mouth of the river. I was in a small paddle kayak with no electronics. Since this was my first time out there this year, I did not know what to expect. For the first hour, I had no action at all. At about the one-hour mark, I had my first fish. During the second hour I stayed in a area of roughly 50 yards radius and caught 8 more stripers. While not gigantic fish, they were decent fish with two at 21", one at 20", three at 19", and three smaller ones. At the end of two hours, I was tired and still had a long paddle back to the launch. I trolled the entire way back and caught no more fish. I used 4" paddletails on 3/16-oz and 3/8-oz jigheads. Pearl and white were the preferred colors -- the chartreuse tail got bumped several times but did not catch any fish.

My route covers a range of depths from 3' to over 25'. I will not say where the hot zone was today. I was pleased that I found some willing fish and got plenty of exercise today.

[jbrown]

Awesome report. Thanks for that. Keeper size fish is nice. I caught a few at Good Hands the other day, but not that productive.


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[Big Mike]

I’ll give you 6 11” Breton Bay fish for one 21”. Good quality outing.

[J.A. Veil]

According to the tide charts, I fished at a poor time. High tide in Annapolis was projected for 2:50 pm. I caught nothing from 1:00 to 2:00, 9 stripers from 2:00 to 3:00, and nothing from 3:00 to 4:00. The best bite was during predicted slack tide. It goes to show that fish may feed at any time. I chose my launch time today to find lower wind -- it dropped the entire time I was out there.

[J. Rentch]

Let’s hope it’s a better this year than last.

[DanMarino]

John, thanks for the encouraging report.

[J.A. Veil]

I checked the wind and weather predictions after breakfast and made a snap decision to return to the same places as the previous day. Today, the wind direction was 180 degrees different, and I had incoming tide rather than outgoing tide. The actual conditions were rougher than I had anticipated. I was able to fish at the same small hot zone as yesterday. On the first pass I caught a 21" striper. But the waves there were pretty rough. After a second and third pass through the area without a bite, I left that area and worked the rest of my route. That turned out to be the only bite I had all day.

[dsaavedra]

Nice report. I've been eager to hit the salt water after several successive bass and snakehead trips to start the season. I'm also really looking forward to trolling now that I have a pedal kayak - it seems to be an effective method but not one that I put to use often in my old paddle kayak. I did troll along the Rt. 50 bridge last year and picked up a nice21" rockfish. When you troll do you usually go parallel to the shore? Do you try to keep your boat on top of channel edges or anything like that?

[jsnyd86]

When you troll do you usually go parallel to the shore? Do you try to keep your boat on top of channel edges or anything like that?

I'll generally search for drop offs and submerged structure when I troll. Then make a few passes in different directions and move on. This time of year I generally start near the shallow flats and move deeper if I'm not getting hits. Peddling makes this so much more efficient.

I'm with you. Been chasing bass and snakes. Can't wait to get my thumb chewed up

[J.A. Veil]

Nice report. I've been eager to hit the salt water after several successive bass and snakehead trips to start the season. I'm also really looking forward to trolling now that I have a pedal kayak - it seems to be an effective method but not one that I put to use often in my old paddle kayak. I did troll along the Rt. 50 bridge last year and picked up a nice21" rockfish. When you troll do you usually go parallel to the shore? Do you try to keep your boat on top of channel edges or anything like that?

My usual strategy for light tackle trolling is to stay near the shorelines in depths from 3' to 6'. This generally means paddling/pedaling parallel to the shore at some distance out depending on bottom contour and water level. I talk quite a bit about my strategies for light tackle kayak trolling in two of my books (Fishing in the Comfort Zone; The Way I Like to Fish -- A Kayak Angler's Guide to Shallow Water, Light Tackle Fishing). Alan Battista has written an entire book on light tackle trolling from kayaks. He goes about his trolling somewhat differently than me, but is quite successful.

My usual routes may take me across stretches of deeper water. Because the lures I am trolling (usually jigheads with paddletails or Gulps) are light, they remain in the upper few feet of the water column, regardless of the actual water depth.

Pedal kayaks do make trolling easier because you can pick up a rod and wind in a lure or fish while still making headway. That is a big advantage. I used pedal-drive kayaks for 7 years, then had to give them up because of leg and back problems (unrelated to pedaling kayaks). I still troll three lines from my paddle kayaks.

Anyone who ventures out trolling over the next few weeks should check out the DNR striped bass maps to make sure you are not in an area that is off limits through June 1.

[dsaavedra]

My usual strategy for light tackle trolling is to stay near the shorelines in depths from 3' to 6'. This generally means paddling/pedaling parallel to the shore at some distance out depending on bottom contour and water level. I talk quite a bit about my strategies for light tackle kayak trolling in two of my books (Fishing in the Comfort Zone; The Way I Like to Fish -- A Kayak Angler's Guide to Shallow Water, Light Tackle Fishing). Alan Battista has written an entire book on light tackle trolling from kayaks. He goes about his trolling somewhat differently than me, but is quite successful.

My usual routes may take me across stretches of deeper water. Because the lures I am trolling (usually jigheads with paddletails or Gulps) are light, they remain in the upper few feet of the water column, regardless of the actual water depth.

Pedal kayaks do make trolling easier because you can pick up a rod and wind in a lure or fish while still making headway. That is a big advantage. I used pedal-drive kayaks for 7 years, then had to give them up because of leg and back problems (unrelated to pedaling kayaks). I still troll three lines from my paddle kayaks.

Anyone who ventures out trolling over the next few weeks should check out the DNR striped bass maps to make sure you are not in an area that is off limits through June 1.

As I was typing my question last night I remembered I had downloaded your books when you had them available a few months ago and that you had probably written about trolling in them. I started reading the Comfort Zone book from the beginning, did not get as far as any discussion on trolling yet. I'll take a look through those books, thanks!