Is it still a Severn Slam in Curtis Creek?

[scorchy]

My afternoon meetings got canceled yesterday and I already had my kayak and gear loaded and ready to go just for that possibility. The latest Severn reports convinced me to stay closer to home so I hit Solleys again instead.

Numbers wise, I had a great afternoon: 15 white perch (most under <9"), 8 rock (2 were maybe 14", the rest were tiny), 1 12" yellow perch, and best of all, 5 pickerel (all really good size). Two of those pickerel thrashed like crazy before I netted them and totally soaked both me and the sweatshirt behind my seat, and one was the best fighting pickerel I ever caught - turns out he was foul hooked in the back.

I fished from 2:15 to 6:15 and left them biting. Would have been nice if there were a few larger rock but can't really complain about catching almost 30 fish. So to get back to the question posed in the title, does John need to come up with a new catch-phrase for Patapsco tributaries (maybe even adding yellow perch) or does "Severn Slam" convey to the fish caught and not the body of water?

[UnkleRob2020]

"Solley's Smash?"

Good job Scorchy. I have been considering going home at lunch to get my kayak so I could go to Solleys after work tonight. About how long do you think you could have fished and still gotten loaded up before dark?

[UnkleRob2020]

Gotta ask...what were you primarily using? Were you catching stripers and pickerel on the same baits?

[dsaavedra]

Sounds like a fun afternoon. I am eagerly looking forward to catching some tidal pickerel now that the water is cooling down.

[UnkleRob2020]

One more:
"Curtis Crush?"

[scorchy]

Rob - I probably could have fished till 6:45 or maybe 7:00. I had to be home by 7:00 or else I would have stayed out longer. I try to keep things simple, so I don't generally switch up a bunch unless I'm getting completely skunked. All fish were caught on 3" gulp swimming mullet or a small beetlespin, and the pickerel and small rock were pretty much evenly distributed over both. The white perch were mostly on the the beetlespin (just tugged the tail of the swimming mullet) but a couple of the larger perch were caught on the gulp. Gotta love it when you don't have tie on a single new lure or jighead over 4 hours and still catch fish.

Good luck if you make it out today. Wish I could head out again but my son has a high school soccer game.

I do like Curtis Crush.

[J.A. Veil]

I am not the originator of the "Severn Slam", but I do like having a catchy term for catching the three main species. I caught all three species in the South River one day last summer and called it a South River Slam. I guess you can choose any title you like for the waters around the Solley Cove launch including a Solley Cove Slam. Here are a few more ideas:

Patapsco Potpourri
Curtis Creek Cache
Marley Creek Melange

[LC3]

Great to hear of the pickerel bite in Curtis Creek. Thanks for the report!

[scorchy]

I love Marley Creek Melange - the juxtaposition of a fancy french word against slimy pickerel is great, but Curtis Crush rolls off the tongue. If bassguy drops into this thread, he should get to decide since he's been fishing this area a lot longer than I have.

I went out yesterday around 7 am and went the opposite direction from Thursday afternoon. As I was trolling towards the Coast Guard station, my paddletails kept getting nibbled, so I stopped and switched to casting my other rod rigged with a beetlespin. Over the next 45 minutes, I caught 18 perch and 2 small rock, at one point getting hookups on 7 consecutive casts. And then the bite turned off as quickly as it started. So I started trolling out past the bridge, and somehow landed two channel cats who hit in the seconds between when I threw out my line but before I started paddling.

Out near the ship graveyard, I caught a few small rock and a 10" bluefish before the boat traffic sent me back up the creek. I fished for about an hour off some of the docks and brought in a few more white perch and got my "crush" with a 22" pickerel. I spent the last hour in a different cove seeking snakehead. A fellow yak fisherman that I saw at the launch a couple of weeks ago told me he had caught snakehead back in the coves. I've never even seen (much less hooked) a snakehead, so I was was fishing blind into grassy shores areas and unsurprisingly had zero luck.

catfish2.jpg

Edit to add: just read an article about damage from fish grips. I don't tend to use them with other fish but they certainly help with big cats. Should I reconsider?

[J.A. Veil]

I love Marley Creek Melange - the juxtaposition of a fancy french word against slimy pickerel is great, but Curtis Crush rolls off the tongue. If bassguy drops into this thread, he should get to decide since he's been fishing this area a lot longer than I have.

I went out yesterday around 7 am and went the opposite direction from Thursday afternoon. As I was trolling towards the Coast Guard station, my paddletails kept getting nibbled, so I stopped and switched to casting my other rod rigged with a beetlespin. Over the next 45 minutes, I caught 18 perch and 2 small rock, at one point getting hookups on 7 consecutive casts. And then the bite turned off as quickly as it started. So I started trolling out past the bridge, and somehow landed two channel cats who hit in the seconds between when I threw out my line but before I started paddling.

Out near the ship graveyard, I caught a few small rock and a 10" bluefish before the boat traffic sent me back up the creek. I fished for about an hour off some of the docks and brought in a few more white perch and got my "crush" with a 22" pickerel. I spent the last hour in a different cove seeking snakehead. A fellow yak fisherman that I saw at the launch a couple of weeks ago told me he had caught snakehead back in the coves. I've never even seen (much less hooked) a snakehead, so I was was fishing blind into grassy shores areas and unsurprisingly had zero luck.

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Edit to add: just read an article about damage from fish grips. I don't tend to use them with other fish but they certainly help with big cats. Should I reconsider?

Thanks for sharing your good fishing report. After struggling in the Severn several times last week, I may give Solleys a try soon.

I want to weigh in on your comment about Fish Grips. I believe that Fish Grips can cause damage to the lips and jaws of some fish. I always have them with me, but rarely use them. I do like them if I have a larger fish that I want to hold still on the Hawg Trough for a photo or if the fish has sharp teeth or spines (catfish). But for 95%+ of the fish I catch, no Fish Grips are needed. I should also add that I keep a very small percentage of the fish I catch, so there is not an urge to control a fish before putting it in the cooler. Others may disagree with my opinions, but so be it.

[Mark]

I use inexpensive plastic floating fish grips for larger toothy fish and occasionally for larger stripers that I cannot control with my left thumb and forefinger.

I have never used Boga Grips. Nor have I researched the topic but the narrow steel pincers of the expensive Boga Grips and knockoff versions have always troubled me. They seem primed to cause damage to mouth tissue of larger fish, especially when used to support the entire weight of a fish held vertically out of the water.

The plastic grips have a larger surface area at their business end and would seem to be less prone to penetrate or tear the tissue of the fish because of that fact. To my knowledge I have never torn mouth of a fish with plastic grips. But I also avoid holding them vertically by the grips out of the water. For larger fish, that could cause mouth and jaw damage we may not even notice. It may also significantly stress the internal organs of large fish not accustomed to the full gravitational pull of the earth when lifted from the water.

I'm a recent convert to using a net in my kayak. I believe that is a much better alternative than using a gripping tool or even grabbing the leader and lifting the fish by the hook from the water. A net shortens the boat-side fight considerably -- significantly reducing the inevitable "pickerel splash". It provides full support to the fish. And it allows you to remove the hook easily.

I use grips now in conjunction with a net only if I want a photo of a larger fish on my Hawg Trough.

[Mark]

Scorchy,

One more thing...

Snakeheads are in all the the western shore creeks of the South, Severn, Magothy, and Patapsco Rivers. Without exception, every time I paddle creeks of the Magothy and Patapsco in particular talkative folks on their docks ask me if I have seen or caught a snakehead. They then proceed to tell me they had either caught them from their docks or had seen them swimming nearby. Those conversations actually started in 2019. They have continued this year.

I caught my first local snakeheads in the Patapsco last year. They were in predictable spots in thick hydrilla. However, I believe they adapt to their environment and also inhabit waters with less vegetation, like areas near boat docks.

I have not caught any this year in our creeks. That's due to a combination of less local outings for me and less actual targeting of snakeheads. However, I have been surprised that we have not had more reports of snakeheads caught in the creeks of the rivers I mentioned above. They're definitely present. And it's no secret anymore.

I believe the fact that there are few reports of them here is due to the difficulty in catching them. They remain hard to hook. They have a knack for avoiding a secure hookup. It takes patience to let them take the bait, then knowing precisely when to make a hard hookset. Also, they can be contrary. They have more self control about chasing lures than any other predatory fish I have encountered. It's not unusual for them to ignore our offerings.

Finally, I believe some who are successful in catching them are tight-mouthed about it because they don't want to reveal their spots. However, rest assured that snakeheads are in all our tidal creeks. But in my opinion, they remain the most difficult fish to catch of those we target. They best thing I can say about them is that they have not displaced pickerels that remain prevalent in the creeks and willing to bite. I'm thankful for that.

[dsaavedra]

I agree with everything Mark said above, on both the lip gripers and the snakeheads.

I have metal lip grippers and plastic ones and I use them for different situations. The metal ones are definitely harder on the fish; I have seen them poke through the membrane on the lower jaw. I think fish can recover from this, as it doesn't seem a whole lot different than when your fishing hook tears a small hole. When they become really damaging is when the fish start thrashing around. This can rip a big hole in the mouth or even break the jaw. I've had this happen on snakeheads that I was harvesting anyway. I much prefer to use the plastic grippers (I have the floating Rapala ones) because they are easier on the fish and I feel they provide a more secure grip. I've had a trophy fish come off metal grippers... it was a design flaw of the grippers and I've replaced them with different ones that are more secure, but I'm still traumatized by that incident. My only complaint about the plastic grippers is they are much thicker and can be difficult to get in a fish's mouth, especially if it is being particularly lock-jawed. Snakehead are notorious for this so I always reach for the metal grips first since they are easier to slide in and pry the jaws open. Once I have the fish secured that way I secure it with the plastic grips and take the metal ones out. For all other fish that I may use lip grippers on (toothy fish, catfish, big fish I want to secure for a photo) I use the plastic ones.

I also think these Western shore snakeheads are a whole different beast from the ones on the Eastern shore. I've seen several in the creeks around Annapolis and could not even get them to bat an eye at my lures. They also don't really hang out in the same places I'd expect based on my experience with Eastern shore snakeheads. Often I'll be paddling out near the middle of a shallow creek and I'll spook a snakhead I didn't even know was there... This doesn't happen on the Eastern shore as they usually bury themselves as deep in the shoreline cover as possible. In either situation, they can be extremely tough to catch, definitely one of the most challenging sportfish around here, as Mark said. After discovering a healthy population of them in one particular Western shore creek last summer and trying unsuccessfully over many trip to catch one, I made it a 2021 personal goal to finally catch one there. I did not achieve that goal this year, though I think I only made one or two attempts.

[scorchy]

John, Mark, and Dave - thanks a ton for the input on fish grips (and snakeheads). I have cheap bass pro ones but they are metal, so maybe I'll get some plastic ones too. Like I said, I only have used them on catfish. Even with a net, I've found it easier to unhook the bigger ones if I use the grips as well, but it makes sense to refrain from holding them up with the grips just for a picture. What made me look this up in the first place was preparing to use grips on a big pickerel but then reconsidering - their mouths seem much more delicate than catfish and I didn't want to risk any harm.

[dsaavedra]

What made me look this up in the first place was preparing to use grips on a big pickerel but then reconsidering - their mouths seem much more delicate than catfish and I didn't want to risk any harm.

I have read online that using lip grips and holding the fish vertically can be particularly damaging to Esox species. Usually this is referring to big pike and muskie, but I could see how it might apply to pickerel too. Pickerel are probably less likely to suffer internal damage since they don't grow very large, but their mouths can be a little delicate like you mentioned. Use your best judgement out there and you'll be doing fine.