Decent Severn bite for a change

[Mark]

Most of us on this forum are good anglers. We catch fish in a variety of ways from live baits to cut baits to lures and flies. In other words we give our prey plenty of options to bite and we succeed often. When we don't catch fish I firmly believe the primary reason is that there are too few fish in the areas we are fishing. Brilliant, huh? Not really. Just common sense. I know that sometimes fish get lockjaw. But most of the time they'll eat when fully satiated. Think of stripers spitting up menhaden as you remove your hooks from their mouth. Or how many of you have saved a live crayfish from a smallmouth bass as you remove your fly or lure? I have.

August in 2021, according to weather bureau stats, was our third warmest on record. The numbers are not in for September yet but I bet that it too will rank high high on the all time list for heat. Our water temps in the tributaries still exceed 70 degrees. Stripers prefer water in mid 50s to high 60s.

In addition, we had a lot of rain in August and September. That leads to runoff, especially in the mid to northern portions of the Chesapeake and that leads to too many nutrients in the water and that leads to lower oxygen levels -- hypoxia. That's a condition of low oxygen in the water that literally builds a wall that fish will not penetrate.

So, I'm hoping that October brings us cooler water temps and less rain. If so, I believe we will enjoy "Rocktober" as an excellent month for stripers.

[jjyak]

I'm curious if you headed to the mouth of the river where you found fish? Im thinking the fish haven't really begun to move up the rivers to intercept baitfish yet.

I stayed between the fishing pier and Weems. The slower retrieve and pause seemed to help the past few times i've been out on the Severn.

[Red_Beard]

I'm in complete agreement, Mark. The high temps and all the runoff have clearly impacted the fishing and pushed the schoolies out of the creeks and rivers. The guides I follow that fish the main stem of the Bay have had a tough time of it too since Ida came through. I'm hoping for a good Rocktober, but I do worry that the bait may move out of the rivers before the rockfish even have a chance to really move up into them.