Rough Day at Jonas Green

[UnkleRob]

Good morning everyone,

I launched at Jonas Green yesterday at 5:30am. The water was calm, the wind not too bad and it was a beautiful day. I began replaying the great fishing days from last summer in my head that I had in these exact same locations of the river, tidal ponds and creeks.

My buddy and I fished until noon and we managed a few small perch and one very ambitious spot. It was a let down for sure.

Paddling back to Jonas Green from the Rt 50 bridge was humbling. I am not sure that i have ever had such a difficult time paddling in the Severn. It seemed like everything was working against us yesterday. There is something about being out in the water and struggling to make it back to the launch that helps me put my place on this earth into perspective.

The quality of my problems is quite high. I enjoyed a beautiful day on the water and got a lot of exercise :--) It was a really nice day...too bad the fish did not show up for it.

[Mark]

UnkleRob,

The fish are always the unknown variable in our outings. Sometimes they're agreeable to our offerings, other times they're not. That's what makes our hobby interesting. To be honest, I get bored when catching them is too easy.

As for your trip back to Jonas from the Route 50 Bridge -- been there and done that many times. It's about 9/10 of a mile. It can be a hard paddle depending on the wind direction and tide.

It's not easy with pedals either when the wind and tide are in your face. John Rentch and I made that trip back to Jonas two weeks ago, 14 June.

Here's John just after passing under the bridge:

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Here's me:

P1050526 (2).jpg

Hobie Revos are great boats in such conditions. They slice through the waves. But John and I were both blitzed after that run. We had gone far north of the bridge to some areas on the east shoreline.

Fishing that day was difficult too. White perch were hard to come by. No stripers either. I definitely wasn't bored by easy bites that day!

[Turtle]

Do any of your most experienced/plugged in fisherman know why the Severn around Jonas seems to be underwhelming fishing wise this year? I only made one trip, and it was great in that it was near perfect paddling weather, but I was skunked. A lot of reports on here involve zero fish or a few small perch. Last year in I regularly fished around there from July to I think November and had almost no days where I didn't catch anything, and most days I caught perch, rockfish, and chain pickerel... and I'm by no means a talented angler. Is it just too early in the season? Am I remembering the fishing as being better than it was since it was one of the few activities we could still do last year during Corona era? Are there environmental changes? Just curious.

[Mark]

I think the perch are there. I believe some of the difficulties we have experienced in catching them has been due to our erratic weather which lowers their aggressiveness. Buckets of rain, cool fronts and then the overnight arrival of high pressure systems -- it's unsettling to the fish. I expect catch numbers to increase when we settle into a summertime pattern of dry and hot weather.

The paucity of stripers at this time of year is not new. Larger stripers usually vacate the areas of the river easily covered by kayakers launching from Jonas during the summer. Your best bets to catch legal stripers from Jonas were during the early spring -- which were off limits to striper fishing this year anyway. You may catch some small schoolies now swimming with white perch. However, larger stripers will return in the fall to feast on menhaden departing the creeks. Many will venture far into the creeks gorging themselves on menhaden even into November.

[J.A. Veil]

I think the perch are there. I believe some of the difficulties we have experienced in catching them has been due to our erratic weather which lowers their aggressiveness. Buckets of rain, cool fronts and then the overnight arrival of high pressure systems -- it's unsettling to the fish. I expect catch numbers to increase when we settle into a summertime pattern of dry and hot weather.

The paucity of stripers at this time of year is not new. Larger stripers usually vacate the areas of the river easily covered by kayakers launching from Jonas during the summer. Your best bets to catch legal stripers from Jonas were during the early spring -- which were off limits to striper fishing this year anyway. You may catch some small schoolies now swimming with white perch. However, larger stripers will return in the fall to feast on menhaden departing the creeks. Many will venture far into the creeks gorging themselves on menhaden even into November.

I have a few thoughts on this. I don't think there are as many perch in locations close to launch points as we usually see. I see more anglers on the water in Weems and on the river than in past years. I know that some of them are catch-and keep fishermen who will take home buckets full of perch each time out if they can. Some of my favorite spots in Weems that used to be can't-miss locations have come up empty in my last few trips there. I really believe that high fishing pressure has removed some perch from the population and has spooked some of the others.

I know of other tributaries on the Severn that get minimal fishing pressure. When I visit there, I usually catch lots of perch within an hour or two -- not so in Weems. I rarely fish for perch in the main stem -- I target them in the tributaries.

This may be just my imagination, but I seem to recall that last summer and the previous year, the SAVs were prevalent in many of the creeks and ponds well into June. Those SAVs were thick for a while this spring but died off within a few weeks. Perhaps an earlier die-off of the SAV has reduced habitat and lowered oxygen levels.

During the three years prior to last summer, pickerel were pretty much absent from the Severn. For some reason, they came back quite strong last year. I caught them on many trips during the summer and fall. I think I had more trips in 2020 in which I caught a Severn Slam (striper, perch, pickerel) than in the previous ten years combined.

The stripers often have a good run in the main stem of the river in late spring. Mark notes that DNR shut down striper fishing for all of April. We missed out of this run, if it actually happened. There is often another good striper run in some of the tributaries for several weeks in Sept or Oct. I have been fishing this run for about 5 years. Some years it is amazing, others years just okay. I hope it works out well this year. Even when the run ended I caught a few powerful stripers in different Severn creeks well into the fall and had some fun "sleigh rides" from these broad-shouldered fish that had fattened up for the winter.

[Mark]

I think John raises a good point on the grasses and the negative impact of their dying on shallow water oxygen content.

The grasses definitely have not lasted as long this year. Why, I do not know. Perhaps fluctuations in our weather led to their die off. And that observation about grasses goes for creeks I have visited in the Patapsco and Magothy this year.

The Severn gets a lot of traction on this forum because of the easy kayak launches at Jonas and Tucker street. But there is public access to the Magothy and the Patapsco too. The hill at Beachwood on the Magothy is a bit of a haul but Downs Park provides an easy trek to the Bodkin and three other creeks and the Patapsco River itself.

The same patterns discussed above for stripers and perch in the Severn occurs in the creeks of the Magothy and Patapsco. Pickerel also returned strong to the creeks in each of those rivers after their inexplicable absence several years ago.

I have not been to the Homeport Farm launch this year that provides public access to the South River. Again, that launch requires us to negotiate a hill. But I bet fishing conditions are similar to the other rivers I mentioned above.

So, my point is that there are several places we can go in the same general area of Anne Arundel County to catch white perch and stripers in season and picks after those two species depart in the late fall. Maybe it would be wise to relieve some of the pressure on Weems.

[Red_Beard]

The fishing pressure was definitely up in the area around Weems and Jonas Green last year. Every time I went to Weems last year, there were cars parked all the way up Tucker St, and on the street that intersects with it. And don't even get me started on the boat traffic on the main river. I went out one evening with little to no wind, and found myself battling erratic 3 foot swells coming from multiple directions. I quickly realized they were all boat wakes coming from a steady stream of vessels flying up and down the river. It was like I-95 out there. Some days the wakes were so bad, I even had to avoid the mouth of Weems Creek. I'm hoping things will ease up a bit this year now that people can start going back to other indoor entertainment options.

[scorchy]

Good morning everyone,

Paddling back to Jonas Green from the Rt 50 bridge was humbling. I am not sure that i have ever had such a difficult time paddling in the Severn. It seemed like everything was working against us yesterday. There is something about being out in the water and struggling to make it back to the launch that helps me put my place on this earth into perspective.

We've all been there. Last year I launched out of Hoopersville and the 45 minutes it took me to drift down to the bottom of the lower island turned into a brutal 2-hour paddle pack. I thought I was in good shape but paddling as hard as I could for a 5-minute stretch and seeing that the trees I was using as a waypoint had barely moved nearly broke my spirit a couple of times. Definitely provided some perspective as well as reminder to check the tides and wind a little better next time.

[scorchy]

I've definitely noticed the increased activity on Weems as well and would love to find another spot that provides me the same combo of accessibility, tranquility, and fishing within a 30-minute drive from Catonsville. I've tried SW Park in Baltimore Highlands several times as it's only like 10-15 minutes from my house but just can't get the hang of the fishing and it's really really dirty. Fishing in the Patapsco near Daniels Dam is pretty meh and there's really no need for a kayak. I would love to try one of the reservoirs but the learning curve seeks pretty overwhelming. May give Solley's Cove a go later this week and see how that stacks up as an alternative.

[Mark]

I would love to try one of the reservoirs but the learning curve seeks pretty overwhelming.

I believe most of us who fish from our kayaks on this forum are shallow water anglers. The strategies we use to find fish in the shallows transfer readily to other venues, be they tidal creeks, rivers, ponds or large impoundments. The species we target relate to structure, current, oxygen levels, degree of light, water temperature and depth. Season matters because of the migratory patterns of fish in tidal waters and the behaviors of fish in impoundments. (i.e. You'll catch few white perch on a spinner and few bass on a popper in January.) And then each location has its nuances that you’ll discover if you focus on the above parameters.

My point is that your learning curve has less slope than you think. If you can catch fish in one location in your kayak, you’ll learn quickly to catch them in other kinds of waters. The differences required in our approaches between various shallow water destinations are not great. Reading the water requires knowledge of only one language.

[john from md]

Good morning everyone,

I launched at Jonas Green yesterday at 5:30am. The water was calm, the wind not too bad and it was a beautiful day. I began replaying the great fishing days from last summer in my head that I had in these exact same locations of the river, tidal ponds and creeks.

My buddy and I fished until noon and we managed a few small perch and one very ambitious spot. It was a let down for sure.

Paddling back to Jonas Green from the Rt 50 bridge was humbling. I am not sure that i have ever had such a difficult time paddling in the Severn. It seemed like everything was working against us yesterday. There is something about being out in the water and struggling to make it back to the launch that helps me put my place on this earth into perspective.

The quality of my problems is quite high. I enjoyed a beautiful day on the water and got a lot of exercise :--) It was a really nice day...too bad the fish did not show up for it.

That is why I added a trolling motor to my yak a few years ago. I had to paddle back from Tolly point against the current and wind. After resting up for a few days, I designed a mount for a trolling motor. I still paddle, even with the motor running but now I don't have to kill myself getting home.