Patapsco, 11-19-11

[HJS]

Fished the Middle Branch Patapsco today, 11-19-11, 11:00am-2:00pm. A stiff SW breeze restricted me to the protected areas so I couldn’t get to most of my goto spots. Action was pretty slow. Caught one 17” striper plus several smaller dinks. Also caught a dozen or more smallish 8” wperch directly out from the ramps in the channel. Stripers hit chart silver glitter soft plastics and wperch hit 3/4oz pearl/chart trout bombs. No breakers seen and not much showed on the FF. Water vis is getting pretty good at 3’-4’ at most areas. Back in one cove I could still see my chartreuse lure lying on the bottom in 7 feet or water. I haven’t seen the Patapsco that clear for several years.

[ictalurus]

That water clarity is pretty amazing. I'd love to be over breakers when the water is that clear. Too bad the fish weren't more cooperative.

[YaknBass]

HJS, thanks for the report, the wind was stiff on sat.... sure does make it a tuff paddle. glad you were able to have a decent day with several hook ups!!! I fished the same area on sunday harbor hospital for the first time. The weather could not have been better....one of the most pleasant days i have had weather wise...little to no wind, Had a battery powered radio listened to the ravens game caught 3 one dink trolling a silver chrome rattle trap..... never really trolled before not sure how deep the lure was running but as the day went i added weight & subtracted weight ect..... not much luck trolling may be a learning curve for me. 2nd fish 12" 3rd fish 22" last two caught on a silver metal casting spoon. as the sun was setting it was so nice i thought i about fishing into the night,but it started to rain lightly and the deciding factor was i had no lights..... i think and ashamed to say if it didn't start to rain i may have stayed out on the water against my better judgement..... so soon enuff i need to purchase some type of light system to fish safely at night. HJS thanks again for your report!!! All the Best Always!! ""Bent Rods & Tight Lines Always My Freind""

[HJS]

Ok, this turned out to be longer I planned. Please bear with my rambling.

Ictalurus – The inner Patapsco, both the Inner Harbor and Middle Branch, has struggled with poor water visibility for the past several years. When I first started fishing this area during the summer of 2000 the water at times was surprisingly clear and striper fishing was very good. Water clarity reached a peak late in 2003. Once, while fishing back between two old burned out shipping piers near the HH, water clarity was (believe it or not) about 15-20 feet. At the same time most other areas were clear down to at least 8-10 feet… and fishing was HOT!, HOT!, HOT! But keep in mind that during the early 2000s, the striper population was also at a high point too.

I attribute this exceptional water quality to a major, colossal, population explosion of the tiny false mussel, By the billions, they filtered the water to the point that clarity improved markedly. (BTW, that’s just my opinion and I’m sticking to it.) They covered all hard surfaces to a depth of 1” to include pylons, riprap, crab traps, old rope, bla,bla,bla… everything was covered. But they are so small that hardly anyone knew they were there, they just looked like a thick layer of crud covering everything. The biggest ones were only as big as your little fingernail but they must have numbered in the billions maybe trillions. These false mussel not only populated the Patapsco but at the same time they were also found in similar numbers in the Magothy and Severn. All 3 rivers experienced exception clarity during 2003-2004. But regrettably, all good things must come to an end. During the winter of 2004/2005 they all died in mass… dunno why, maybe from old age… who knows. When all this dead mussel biomass re-entered the food chain major algae blooms ensued and water visibility tanked. With limited exceptions, water clarity in these rivers hasn’t been the same since.

I’ve rambled on long enough. But I must point out that during my last couple of trips to the Patapsco this fall I’ve seen a major resurgence in the false mussel populations. It’s too early to make population comparisons with populations back in the early 2000… but one can only watch and hope for the best. Maybe next summer we will be fishing much clearer water when we launch in the Patapsco. Ictalurus - Are you in some sort of fisheries study program or do I have you confused with someone else?

YaknBass – You still reading this post? I coulda kicked myself for not going on Sunday instead of windy Saturday. Oh well, live and learn, die and forget. I rarely troll but on Saturday I would have liked to troll the channel edges halfway to McHenry but the wind was too much to do that. On the very rare occasions that I troll I will sometimes insert ~2oz inline trolling sinker to get the lure down in the 20-30 foot level. I’m generally trolling 5”-8” soft plastics, mostly Bass Assassins, on 1oz jigs and it almost impossible to keep them deep enough without adding extra lead.

[DanMarino]

I need to catch a Rock Fish!

I need someone to show me how to catch a rock fish from my kayak. I've got a Manta Ray 11 sit on top and took it to Harbor Hospital two weekends ago. Water clarity was lousy, it was windy, and I tried to troll and fish around some structure, but got nothing.

Should I return to Harbor Hospital or try someplace else that might be more suitable? Of should I just wait until next May or June at this point?

In return I'd be happy to coordinate a trip with someone if they are interested in hitting the Upper Potomac in search of smallmouth bass.

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[ictalurus]

HJS--Interesting info about the mussels. I wonder why they died off? I'm surprised 2003 was clear, too, because that was a really high freshwater flow year, which is usually associated with lots of sediment and lots of algae in the water. Anyway, I'm probably the guy you're thinking of--I just finished my PhD in fisheries science in October. I know a couple folks that do research on the Patapsco, so I'll ask if they know anything about the mussels. They're chemists, so I'm not sure they really paid much attention to the mussels, but it's worth a shot.

[HJS]

Dan – There might still be some striper action to be found here and there in the C-Bay but the window of opportunity for 2011 is about closed. As water temps in the rivers and shallows drop below 50F striper numbers thin out as they head out to deeper water or exit the Bay altogether... and we are getting close to 50F about now.

IMHO, the inner Patapsco didn’t have a very good year this year. I think all the rain we had during August, September and into October put a serious hurtin on striper fishing in the upper Bay. I could catch a lot of small dinks but keeper sized stripers for me were few and far between. So don’t be discourage about you lack of action. There is always next year.

[DanMarino]

Spring too?

Thanks HJS, so are the rock fish active there in the spring too? Do they arrive in April or May?

I'm clueless about rock fish behavior. I understand that the biggies come and go up the coast seasonally.

Also is there any shad activity up that way in the spring?

This salt water stuff is totally new to me.

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[HJS]

ictalurus – Here’s a good article about the false mussel population explosion I was referring to in the Magothy River (and other rivers). As you can see in the pic of the pylon, the false mussels grow thick on pylons about a foot lower than the barnacles. So you really don’t see them very well unless there is a really low tide or the water is quite clear.

False mussels are famous for going thru extreme population cycles. It’s my guess that since they all suddenly appeared that they were all of the same exact age. They appear to have a fair short life span so conceivably they could all have died of old age just months apart. This would explain their sudden demise over an extended range (Patapsco to the South Rivers).

The Bay and all the organisms that live in it make up an eco-system that is waaaay more complex then most people can grasp.

Just one small example: Because the mussels clarified the water, bay grasses took off bigtime in the Magothy due to increased light penetration. With increased vegetation the pickerel populations produced a couple bumper hatches. Vegetation is needed for pickerel spawning. A couple years after these good hatches, pickerel fishing went off the charts good for a couple of years. Its all interrelated. A population explosion of false mussels leads to excellent pickerel fishing a few years late... who'da thunk there was a connection.

http://www.mdsg.umd.edu/CQ/V06N2/main/index.html