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Lately I've been trying out a "new to me" launch site: Galesville Wharf on the West River. It's a convenient little soft launch about 10 minutes from my house, I'm not sure why I waited so long to try it out. There's a small parking lot that holds maybe a dozen cars and paved path that goes from the lot about ~100ft to a sandy soft launch at the base of a public pier. Very easy to rig up in the parking lot then wheel your kayak right over to the launch.
On my first trip a couple weeks ago I went out crabbing from the kayak and didn't do great. I caught a lot of females (some of them BIG), but eventually found some nice males. Only caught 9 keepers. I talked to other crabbers in the same area the next day and they didn't do well either, one guy said it was something to do with the current lunar cycle.
A couple days ago I decided to go back and try fishing. The goal was to catch some perch for the table and keep the carcasses for crab bait. This time I fished upriver of the launch, primarily targeting shady areas with fallen trees, and caught 13 perch, 1 rockfish, and 1 croaker. A couple of the perch were nice ones, probably around 10". I also made a friend while on the water... this little guy was working the shoreline digging up clams and munching on them, he didn't seem the least bit bothered to share the cove with me while I sought out perch.
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All in all it's a decent little spot to fish that I don't hear many others talk about. I'll definitely be going back, especially considering how close to home and convenient it is. This portion of the river has several marinas so it can get busy with power boat, sail boat, and jet ski traffic, but I believe there are no-wake buoys so most of these boats go very slow. There are also TONs of docks along the shorelines if that's your thing - I prefer to fish natural shorelines/structure over docks.
On my first trip a couple weeks ago I went out crabbing from the kayak and didn't do great. I caught a lot of females (some of them BIG), but eventually found some nice males. Only caught 9 keepers. I talked to other crabbers in the same area the next day and they didn't do well either, one guy said it was something to do with the current lunar cycle.
A couple days ago I decided to go back and try fishing. The goal was to catch some perch for the table and keep the carcasses for crab bait. This time I fished upriver of the launch, primarily targeting shady areas with fallen trees, and caught 13 perch, 1 rockfish, and 1 croaker. A couple of the perch were nice ones, probably around 10". I also made a friend while on the water... this little guy was working the shoreline digging up clams and munching on them, he didn't seem the least bit bothered to share the cove with me while I sought out perch.
20210706_193109.jpg 20210707_124137.jpg
All in all it's a decent little spot to fish that I don't hear many others talk about. I'll definitely be going back, especially considering how close to home and convenient it is. This portion of the river has several marinas so it can get busy with power boat, sail boat, and jet ski traffic, but I believe there are no-wake buoys so most of these boats go very slow. There are also TONs of docks along the shorelines if that's your thing - I prefer to fish natural shorelines/structure over docks.
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