Weems

[dsaavedra]

Fished Weems Creek for a couple hours tonight and caught 18 perch on a small crankbait. Pretty fun but they were all little guys, the largest one tipped the scales at a whopping 9 inches. I guess the big ones haven't come in yet but it was fun to have sustained action for a couple hours after work on a weekday so I can't complain. I also saw a snakehead for the first time in that creek, so that was cool.

[J.A. Veil]

Fished Weems Creek for a couple hours tonight and caught 18 perch on a small crankbait. Pretty fun but they were all little guys, the largest one tipped the scales at a whopping 9 inches. I guess the big ones haven't come in yet but it was fun to have sustained action for a couple hours after work on a weekday so I can't complain. I also saw a snakehead for the first time in that creek, so that was cool.

Dave - I fished for two hours in Weems during the morning. I found some perch, but had to work hard for them. The ones I found were concentrated in just a few locations. I also caught a good-sized pickerel for my second Weems trip in a week.

[UnkleRob2020]

Yay!!! This is so nice to hear :--). I cannot wait to get out and fish Weems and Severn. Thank you for the report.

[dsaavedra]

Dave - I fished for two hours in Weems during the morning. I found some perch, but had to work hard for them. The ones I found were concentrated in just a few locations. I also caught a good-sized pickerel for my second Weems trip in a week.

I managed at least a fish or two in most of the spots within the creek that I fished but it was definitely a slower bite, not the hard-hitting run-and-gun perch fishing we're used to later in the summer. They seemed to like when I fished the crankbait slowly, and most of my strikes came after a pause in my retrieve when the bait was slowly rising to the surface.

[Mark]

They seemed to like when I fished the crankbait slowly, and most of my strikes came after a pause in my retrieve when the bait was slowly rising to the surface.

Dave,

You did very well to catch so many this early in the season.

Also your pause technique is a good one. It works well for flies, spinners and as you saw, crankbaits. I rarely see perch strike my offerings in our turbid warm waters, but I can only imagine that they track a moving bait and when it stops they rush in for the kill.

[J.A. Veil]

I had my most productive perch outing of the year this morning. In 2.5 hours of exploring in Weems and one other tidal creek, I caught 33 perch -- all on a chartreuse Bignose spinner. Most were quite small, but I got a few of 8" or 9". My advice to those looking for perch in tidal creeks is to focus on the shaded areas with 1' to 4 foot water depth. Structure (docks, riprap, grassy edges, fallen wood) are good places to try. Keep moving. Make a few casts to an area. If you get bites, try again. If not, move along the shoreline. Most of the fish I got today were in specific patches representing less than 10% of the shorelines I cast to.

Some of the tidal creeks have heavy growth of what I believe is horned pondweed -- a filamentous SAV that grows to near the surface. Casting into the SAV results in a fouled lure. Look for spots without the SAV or where the depth of water over top of the SAV still allows a lure to be retrieved. Cicadas were flopping on the water surface all over the place. However, I did not see any fish or other animals feeding on what would be an easy meal. I have heard reports that carp are enjoying the cicada feast elsewhere. I did not observe any carp feeding in the sections of Weems where I fished

[Mark]

I was in Weems this morning too. I arrived a little after John. Also, I stayed in Weems, heading to the back portion of the creek. I went as far back as the gray boathouse. I did not do well in that end of the creek. Bites were few and the SAV was thick in places. I got 2 or 3 near the Rowe Blvd. Bridge but it took me a lot of casts to catch them. So, I headed toward the mouth of the creek where the water was cleaner and had less SAV.

I used one of my perch spinners to search for fish. I was hoping to find a school but I never did. Then I was going to switch to a fly. My spinner is getting beat up after a few pickerel catches on recent previous outings and a fair number of perch catches last year. This was my largest perch today:

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My experience was different than John's. Most significantly, I caught only a dozen or so. Secondly, my catches were out from shore 10 to 20 feet. I caught nothing tight on visible structure.

Another difference is that I did see a few fish feeding on the cicadas. I could not tell what kind of fish they were but definitely fish were nipping at the cicadas. My guess is that they were white perch because I saw nothing engulf a cicada. Also, what leads me to think they were perch is that in addition to casting a spinner, I tossed a dropper rig on a fly rod seeking perch.

Here's a photo of the rig:

IMG_4476 (2).jpg

I made the indicator from the foam I use to make poppers. It happens to be orange although the photo doesn't show the color well. That was happenstance. I made the indicator last winter, not even thinking of cicadas. Plus I bent the hook to make it unusable as a popper. I just wanted it to support a dropper fly as a strike indicator. I never intended to fish it as a popper.

You can see the fly in the photo. It's actually the same fly I've used to catch redfish in TX in 2019. I don't know its name. The guide I fished with called it a shrimp pattern but it doesn't look like a shrimp to me. When I got home from that trip I made a few of my own. Here it is in the vise:

IMG_3495.jpg

It's very simple to make -- bead head and EP fiber on a #6 hook. Yes, a fly that small caught redfish.

Back to the indicator. I cast the rig out and just twitched the indicator which of course, moved the dropper fly subtly under it. Immediately, the indicator was getting hit with perch nipping at it. I realized then I should have used a real popper as an indicator although I sill don't know if the perch would have hooked up on top. I think perhaps they bite pieces of the cicada but do not eat the entire insect at once. It's too large for them. However, I did hook a few perch on the dropper. Here's one:

P1050364.jpg

Nothing big, but fun on the fly. The indicator disappears and you know a fish is on. It's an easy way to fish for perch. And somewhat surprising that they hit a relatively stationary fly given we know how much they like to chase spinners and Mr. Twisters and minnow imitation crankbaits.

The cicadas were thick on the water this morning. I couldn't help myself. I spent a good amount of my time not fishing but scooping up drowning cicadas with my net:

P1050366 (2).jpg

Sometimes I would take them out of the net and toss them onshore. Other times, they would dry out and take flight on their own:

P1050362 (2).jpg

Sometimes they rested on me before taking off:

P1050370.jpg

I know it's crazy. There are millions of them buzzing in Annapolis at the moment and I'm wasting my time rescuing a few dozen. But I couldn't help it. It bothered me to see them struggling in the water. They are very numerous on the surface in some coves. And not so many in others.

Anyway, the perch are still not in prime summertime numbers but there are enough present to keep you busy...if you're not chasing after drowning cicadas too.

[Big Mike]

Much like the fence we strung to keep specks and reds from heading north, it also keeps cicadas away. St Mary’s is not part of Brood X, so no competition from them as food. Our perch bite sounds about the same as yours.