Good day on Severn - 8/28

[dsaavedra]

I launched from Tucker Street this morning at 6 am with the goal of trolling to Greenbury Point and back (mission accomplished). This trip would serve as my last training session for a 30-mile kayaking race I'm participating in on Monday.

I was trolling a 4" white Zman paddle tail on a 3/8 oz jig head on one rod and a 3.5" electric chicken Zman on a 1/8 oz head on the other rod to cover different levels of the water column and both lures caught fish about equally. The recent storms flushed a bunch of grass and reeds and other junk into the river which made trolling a little difficult, but it was doable as long as I checked my lures periodically. I finally found the fish south of the Naval Academy bridge and ended up landing 9 rockfish and losing 1. Most fish were in the 17-19" range with the biggest being 19.25" but very skinny. Lots of fun on light tackle. Attached is a photo of the smallest and largest fish of the day. I was hoping to encounter a cutlassfish but had no such luck.

My dad called me on the phone to check in about the kayaking race and I landed 2 fish while trolling and talking to him on speaker phone; that was fun for both of us. I was off the water by 11:30. All in all I trolled 11.5 miles today - good practice but I'm feeling it... 30 miles will be brutal.

[J.A. Veil]

I'm glad to hear that you found some stripers in the main river. I was on the Severn on 7 of the last 10 days fishing in 7 different creeks and trolling in the main river. I caught very few fish in the main river, but caught stripers or perch in each of the creeks I visited. The floating grass I encountered was in small intermittent patches -- enough so I had to check my lures frequently. When I did find a pocket of stripers, they were not there the next day.

Good luck in your 30-mile trip.

[Mark]

Dave,

Are you going to pedal or paddle during the race?

Regardless, I can tell you that you will be looking at the sterns of a lot of sea kayaks -- for a little while, unless you are in one yourself. They can fly.

Good luck,

[dsaavedra]

I'll be pedaling, and maybe paddling for 10-15 minutes here and there to give the legs a break. I fully expect to be the slowest one out there... if I can maintain 3mph I would consider that good speed. The good news is it isn't exactly a "race" in the competitive sense... the goal is just to make it to the end. It's just one day out of an 8 day 215 mile relay to raise money and awareness for Chesapeake bay restoration.

[Mark]

I'll be pedaling, and maybe paddling for 10-15 minutes here and there to give the legs a break. I fully expect to be the slowest one out there... if I can maintain 3mph I would consider that good speed. The good news is it isn't exactly a "race" in the competitive sense... the goal is just to make it to the end. It's just one day out of an 8 day 215 mile relay to raise money and awareness for Chesapeake bay restoration.

Congratulations for participating Dave.

Three mph is a good speed. I can maintain that for a long time in my Revo with minimal effort. But you're correct that you'll be paddling on occasion. Pedaling gets tiring too.

Here's to an outgoing tide and the wind at your back.

I wish you the best.

[UnkleRob2020]

I am glad you had a good day Dave and I wish you the best of luck in the race today.

I wish I could have joined you on Saturday morning. Sadly, I did not get to fish this weekend. I am hoping to make up for it by going twice this coming weekend, but family and girlfriend may have other ideas. I hope to meet up with you soon.

[J.A. Veil]

As a follow-up to my previous comment about fishing in the Severn last week, the trolling bite was nonexistent this morning. I launched from Tucker St at 8:30 am and visited four other creeks/ponds, trolling in between the tributaries. I caught a few perch in each of those tributaries (and I mean a few, not many) but had absolutely no bites while trolling. The water had almost no floating grass today (much better than last week).

I place at least some of the blame on the lousy tides. Even though I had an incoming tide all morning, the differential between the 6:14 low and the 10:57 high was only 0.3 ft. The tidal coefficient for today according to Tides4Fishing is Low. The continued hot air temperatures did not help either.

[scorchy]

Good luck with the race today. I would definitely be up all night with leg cramps after something like that.

I launched from Weems yesterday around 4:00 and headed to my usual zone below the bridges. What I missed in quantity was made up for in the size of the fish (in two cases at least). My first stop, I caught a nice 9" perch and then not even another nibble in the area. Feels like that's been the story for me this year. Last summer, it seemed one perch always begat at least a half-dozen while this year, save for one outing, it's been one and then move on. Trolling a paddle-tail to the next spot, I got a decent rock, maybe 17", but fought like he was bigger. So 2/3 of a Severn Slam in less than 20 minutes - not a bad start.

Next up was working the banks hard to complete the trifecta. On on of my first casts, I saw my paddletail get followed by what looked to be a huge pickerel, but no dice. After that, every other cast was getting snagged in all the submerged branches, but luckily I was able to retrieve most of them thanks to the handy notch on my paddle blade. About 45 minutes of fruitless fishing later, my rod tip went nearly straight down and it was so abrupt and unrelenting that I assumed it was a major snag, at least until the snag started moving. As I was getting pulled into a pier, I'm thinking this is a legit striper, until it absolutely refused to surface. I had never caught a catfish in Weems, but knew from reading here that it's not unheard of, and it gave me one heck of a ride. After several minutes, I finally got at least its head out of the water and, man, what a giant ugly mug this thing had. As I went to reach for it with my grippers, my 6-lb test finally gave out and the beast disappeared, unfortunately with a hook still in its mouth.

From there, I caught a few more perch (two were at least 9"), another small rock on the troll, but no pickerel. Paddling in to the launch around 7:30 I decided to go back to the spot where I thought I saw the big pickerel. On the second cast, my line blew up again and I knew right away that my slam was on the line. The pickerel fought like crazy, and when I got her to the boat, she was as mean and ornery as she was huge. No way was I getting my hands around her body the way she was thrashing, but I did manage to grab the jighead with my pliers and release her with a little twist. I'm eyeballing it as a personal best, so if one of you braver souls catches a massive pickerel near the bridge, give it a measure for me.

I know last year when I caught a couple of big fish there was a lot of advice from John, Mark, and others about how to boat them. I even bought a hawg trough for just these occasions. But yesterday, I totally chickened out. I'll blame it on the fact that I'm on blood thinners, so no way did I want a fat spiky catfish or an angry pickerel in my lap. I was thinking earlier today that maybe I should buy a net to help, but honestly, if I'm just doing it for a picture, is it really worth the hassle? Regardless, it was a really good day out there. Can't wait for some cooler weather.

[J.A. Veil]

Nice job on the Severn Slam. I have caught a few large pickerel in Weems this summer, but not very often. It sounds like you found a big one. I caught one channel cat in Weems and another one in a different creek.

I am cautious when handling catfish because I was jabbed by a spine from a hardhead catfish in Tampa Bay a few years ago. It hurt a lot for several hours. Now I rely on a rag and FishGrips to handle cats.

Pickerel are less worrisome. As long as your hands are large enough, you should be able to grab a pickerel behind the gills as if you are grabbing the fat end of a baseball bat. Once you have a grip on the fish, you should be able to use your fingers or pliers to pop the hook free.

If you are on blood thinners, you are wise to be extra cautious. For the past 6 years, I have worn lightweight fishing/sun gloves on all my fishing trips. They provide a small barrier that helps to minimize the number of fin pricks or other cuts.

[Mark]

Scorchy,

You had a good outing in Weems.

For almost 9 years I fished without a net. Now I wonder why.

I started using one last year and what a difference maker it has been for me, especially for pickerels. My hands are not large enough to grab picks behind their head when they approach or exceed 20 inches. So I would go through the boat-side thrashing routine you mentioned while I tried to get my fish grips in its mouth. That method prolongs the fight needlessly, potentially hurting the fish while getting me wet in the process.

Now I gain control of them much quicker and release them faster too:

Millsboro1 (2).jpg P1060352 (2).jpg

The net has also come in handy for those unexpected channel cats.

And it's good to keep little stripers in the water prior to release:

P1060359 (2).jpg

So, if you can make room to carry one, I'd suggest that you to get a net.

[scorchy]

Scorchy,

You had a good outing in Weems.

For almost 9 years I fished without a net. Now I wonder why.

I started using one last year and what a difference maker it has been for me, especially for pickerels. My hands are not large enough to grab picks behind their head when they approach or exceed 20 inches. So I would go through the boat-side thrashing routine you mentioned while I tried to get my fish grips in its mouth. That method prolongs the fight needlessly, potentially hurting the fish while getting me wet in the process.

Now I gain control of them much quicker and release them faster too:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]27943[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]27945[/ATTACH]

The net has also come in handy for those unexpected channel cats.

And it's good to keep little stripers in the water prior to release:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]27944[/ATTACH]

So, if you can make room to carry one, I'd suggest that you to get a net.

Thanks, Mark. What kind of net is that?

[dsaavedra]

Thanks for contributing your additional Severn reports everyone! Seems like the river and its creeks are sort of hit or miss but you can get into some good fish if you put in the work to find them.

An update on the race... I made it!!! I did 28.2 miles in total (I must have found some shortcuts that I didnt account for in my pre-trip planning) over 8.5 hours. I'll make a separate post with some more detail and photos sometime tomorrow.... it is time for some well-earned sleep now.

[Mark]

Thanks for contributing your additional Severn reports everyone! Seems like the river and its creeks are sort of hit or miss but you can get into some good fish if you put in the work to find them.

An update on the race... I made it!!! I did 28.2 miles in total (I must have found some shortcuts that I didnt account for in my pre-trip planning) over 8.5 hours. I'll make a separate post with some more detail and photos sometime tomorrow.... it is time for some well-earned sleep now.

You averaged over 3.3 miles per hour. That's impressive!

[Mark]

Thanks, Mark. What kind of net is that?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I like it for four reasons:

1. It floats.
2. It has rubber mesh to protect the natural slime coating of the fish I catch.
3. It's large enough for big fish.
4. Its short handle makes it easy to store onboard.

[scorchy]

Thanks, Mark. Just ordered it. And looking forward to details and pics, Dave.