A decent evening on the Severn 7/26

[dsaavedra]

Last night I got out for a couple hours and tried some new water on the Severn. I had a great time, it was fun exploring new water and I caught enough fish to keep me entertained all night. The day's totals were 18 perch, 2 rockfish (unhooked and released in the water), and 1 random, foul-hooked pumpkinseed. Pumpkinseeds are a fun catch for me - I catch them infrequently enough that it's always exciting when I get one. I think it's also interesting that they are primarily a freshwater fish in almost all of North America, but around here I only seem to catch them in brackish tidal waters.

90% of the fish were on a bignose spinner, I got a couple on a 1/8oz rattle trap which I subsequently lost to a poison ivy bush... no way I was trying to retrieve that. The perch were holding tight to fallen timber and slow rolling the spinner through the limbs was the ticket to get a bite.

[UnkleRob2020]

Thank you for the report, Dave. From reading a couple of reports lately, it seems that the areas of the Severn that held fish in previous years are no longer holding fish and there are fish to be found in alternative areas? I must admit that my last trip on the Severn (approx 1 month ago), I literally launched from Jonas Green and paddled furiously to my favorite spot...passing up lots of prime areas under docks, etc. I can be rather myopic at times. I will try to be more open minded about fishing new areas.

[Mark]

Dave,

You did very well on your visit to the Severn. Aside from the scenic nature of the river with the USNA campus and the large houses to view, there are many distinct "fishy" areas of it reachable by kayak anglers who launch from Jonas and Weems, in particular. If one spot does not have fish biting at a given time, another one surely will. That's what makes it such a good place to fish. The Magothy and Patapsco offer similar fishing scenarios. If one location on those rivers is not producing, another one nearby will. So much water nearby. We're very fortunate in Anne Arundel County to have these options.

As to Pumpkinseeds, prior to this year I had caught only one in tidal water -- in College Creek off of the Severn, in fact. However, this year I have caught many on a dropper fly while fishing for white perch:

P1060362 (2).jpg

I'm sure they have always been there but I think my normal white perch lures and flies have been too big for them. The small dropper fly must look like a tasty morsel to a pumpkinseed in comparison to a perch lure.

There are good numbers of them in Eastern Shore ponds. Unicorn Lake has a bunch. They're bigger than the ones I've caught thus far in tidal waters:

P1020976.jpg

They're colorful fish for sure.

[dsaavedra]

Rob - Like Mark said, there's so much water to fish on the Severn. Sometimes it pays to go off the beaten path a little. If I don't have a specific fishing mission in mind, a lot of times I'll just look at google maps and find a creek that looks good and go see how it is. This helps me build up a mental inventory of different places I can access that are worthwhile, and I can pick from that list when I want to do a specific kind of fishing or think conditions would favor one place over another. For example, the creek I fished last night was loaded with fallen timber so I will 100% be revisiting that creek to target pickerel when the water gets cold because last winter I had great success catching pickerel off fallen timber in the Severn.

Mark - Wow! That is an impressive pumpkinseed. I didn't realize they were in Unicorn. I've only fished there once though, I think. Are they in other mill ponds that you know of?

[Mark]

Mark - Wow! That is an impressive pumpkinseed. I didn't realize they were in Unicorn. I've only fished there once though, I think. Are they in other mill ponds that you know of?

Dave,

I've caught them in several of the Sussex County Delaware ponds and also at Smithville Lake in Maryland. But sometimes it's hard to tell if they're true pumpkinseeds. I read that they will spawn with bluegills. Some of my "pumpkinseeds" may have been crosses.