Decent morning on the Severn 9/4

[dsaavedra]

I met up with Rob around 6:15 this morning to fish on the Severn. Our plan was to head south to the mouth of the river - an area where I did well last weekend and where Rob had never fished, so it was new water for him to explore. Trolling our way to the mouth of the river was rather dull, I managed to pick up two little 12" rockfish. Things were looking pretty slow but we found some perch in a cove that saved the day. Rob caught so many he lost count, he figured it had to be 30 or more. I caught my share of perch in the cove too, along with two oddball surprises that made for a fun and interesting morning for me. The first was a channel catfish, I'd estimate around 4 or 5 pounds. It has been a very long time since I caught a channel cat in the Severn and I caught this one on my 6' light action perch rod which made for a very fun fight... I simply could not get this fish to the surface for a solid 5 minutes or more, my rod didn't have the backbone and my reel didn't have the drag power so the catfish was pulling me around in the kayak. Eventually I got it in the net and as I was unhooking it the hook snapped right off my Bignose spinner. Lucky it didn't snap during the fight!



Next oddball species was a lizardfish. I know the SMOG crew and many others consider these fish a nuisance but I have NEVER caught one this far north, so I was delighted with the catch. I think this is only the 2nd or 3rd lizard fish I've ever caught.



Perch fishing slowed down in the cove so we trolled our way out and I found some schools of bait with rockfish mixed in:



Trolling through the schools of bait proved productive with a 22.25" rockfish in the boat (my largest one in a loooong time), followed by a 17" that flipped right out of my hawg trough before I could get a picture. After that I had another one on the line that felt 17-19" but it came unhooked during the fight.



This bite seemed to dry up and it was nearly noon... the heat and boat wakes were getting less than comfortable so we decided to call it a day. All told I boated 14 white perch, 4 rockfish, 1 channel cat, and 1 lizardfish. Far exceeding my expectations following some woeful post-storm reports from John Veil and others.

[UnkleRob2020]

Yesterday was interesting on the Severn. I didn't get a single strike while trolling from Jonas Green to the mouth. Part of that is my fault as I was not checking my lures until Dave told me I should check them for grass periodically. When I retrieved them, they were loaded with grass like I have never seen before in the Severn. I began checking them regularly and was pulling grass (less and less grass as I neared the mouth).

I had resolved that the day may not be great for fishing but it was an excellent day to be on the water. I pulled over on the side of the river and decided to check for perch. First cast, a nice perch. Second cast, another nice perch. I fished all around that area and noticed that the overwhelming majority of the perch were in a very small area that did not appear to be any different than the other areas that did not hold fish.

What stood out to me was the size of the perch. I caught many over 10" and a few over 11" (which is rare for me). The perch saved the day for sure. On ultralight tackle, they were a ton of fun.

I tried to follow Dave's trolling routes as he caught a couple nice stripers, but I wasn't as fortunate yesterday. He was able to see structure with his fish finder that I am unable to see (I suspect he is also a much better angler).

My takeaways:

1. Thank God for Perch
2. I should add a fish finder to my arsenal. Coincidentally, Dave gave me his older model that he had posted in the Tackle Forum. Now my next adventure begins trying to figure out how to set everything up, mount them properly and learn how to read a fish finder.

Even though I got skunked trolling, I had a great day and I would have never gone that far without Dave's encouragement. Getting me out of my comfort zone is helpful for me to learn, experience new things and fish new water.

Lastly, the popping cork quickly tangled with my forward rod and I abandoned it for the rest of the day.

[J.A. Veil]

Nice work on your catches yesterday. Perch can definitely save an otherwise slow day.

It is fun to catch unexpected species. Channel cats do inhabit the Severn, but are not very common. I have caught a few of them on a 6' perch rod -- it is quite a fight from a thick, powerful fish. I had not heard of any lizardfish getting caught in the Severn before. Congratulations on adding another infrequent visitor to your catch list.

After fishing at different spots in the Severn this week each day from Mon to Fri without much success (especially for stripers), I decided to look for a different location that was likely to offer cleaner water. I fished in a shallow water spot in the Prospect Bay area and found stripers. Over 3.5 hours, I caught 24 of them, with at least two at 20". I caught about half while trolling in 4 to 5 ft depth, and the other half while casting to the same area in 3 ft water depth. It felt good to get some steady striper pullage after being frustrated in the Severn all week.

With cooler air and water temperatures, hopefully fish will become more active again.

[ski357]

Sounds like an excellent day on the water!