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After two weeks of business travel followed by a week recovering from flu, I have not gone fishing in 3 weeks. But today, I could not pass up a calm and beautiful morning. I launched the kayak at 8:45 on a flat calm Severn. I paddled a while to reach my destination then began casting. My absence from fishing left me a bit rusty -- I failed to charge the fishfinder battery and found it dead, and I left my landing net in the garage.
I fished an area that held loads of perch all summer. It appears that the perch have all departed for other spots -- I did not get any perch bites today. But I did find some toothy denizens lurking in various spots. In two hours of casting, I caught five pickerel from 17" to 23" and had at least two other bites that did not stay hooked up.
The first 3 fish of the day came on a Strike King Micro-King 1/16-oz spinnerbait in sun perch color. All fish were caught in shallow water (1-3 ft) - the light lure ran up near the surface and stayed out of the green slime on the bottom. The first fish was long and strong. Without the landing net, I was nervous about trying to lift a fresh fish into the kayak, so I let the fish make a series of runs before trying to lift it in the boat. I had hold of the line 4" above the lure when it made one last lurch and spit the hook. I would have liked a photo and length measurement on that guy -- I estimate it to be 22-23".
The next two fish were smaller (17" and 19"). I watched the 19" fish hit the lure 5 ft from the kayak. I was ready to lift the lure from the water for the next cast, when a greenish-yellow torpedo dashed in and took the lure. The 2 to 3-ft visibility today was definitely better than it has been for a while.
After working the same area for a while without more bites, I moved to a slightly deeper area (5-8 ft). I cast a 4" Gulp swimming mullet on a 1/4-oz jighead (I used a salt and pepper colored Gulp today that looked similar to natural minnow color). This lure was considerably heavier and rode near the bottom. The catching was not fast and furious, but I did bring a 22" and a 23" to the boat. Both were measured and serve as my first and second entries for the Severn River Rod and Keg Club pickerel derby (min size - 21").
Among the challenges of subduing a large fish and taking its picture while still afloat in the kayak is that some times it is not possible to lean back far enough to get a good clear shot of the entire fish on the board.
Now as the water is cooling off and some of the natural bait sources are becoming more scarce, the pickerel are beginning to bite live bait and lures with more interest. I suspect the pickerel will be very active over the next month as they pack away some calories for the winter months. They are also much more energetic than they will be in Jan and Feb when the water temp is far cooler.
I fished an area that held loads of perch all summer. It appears that the perch have all departed for other spots -- I did not get any perch bites today. But I did find some toothy denizens lurking in various spots. In two hours of casting, I caught five pickerel from 17" to 23" and had at least two other bites that did not stay hooked up.
The first 3 fish of the day came on a Strike King Micro-King 1/16-oz spinnerbait in sun perch color. All fish were caught in shallow water (1-3 ft) - the light lure ran up near the surface and stayed out of the green slime on the bottom. The first fish was long and strong. Without the landing net, I was nervous about trying to lift a fresh fish into the kayak, so I let the fish make a series of runs before trying to lift it in the boat. I had hold of the line 4" above the lure when it made one last lurch and spit the hook. I would have liked a photo and length measurement on that guy -- I estimate it to be 22-23".
The next two fish were smaller (17" and 19"). I watched the 19" fish hit the lure 5 ft from the kayak. I was ready to lift the lure from the water for the next cast, when a greenish-yellow torpedo dashed in and took the lure. The 2 to 3-ft visibility today was definitely better than it has been for a while.
After working the same area for a while without more bites, I moved to a slightly deeper area (5-8 ft). I cast a 4" Gulp swimming mullet on a 1/4-oz jighead (I used a salt and pepper colored Gulp today that looked similar to natural minnow color). This lure was considerably heavier and rode near the bottom. The catching was not fast and furious, but I did bring a 22" and a 23" to the boat. Both were measured and serve as my first and second entries for the Severn River Rod and Keg Club pickerel derby (min size - 21").
Among the challenges of subduing a large fish and taking its picture while still afloat in the kayak is that some times it is not possible to lean back far enough to get a good clear shot of the entire fish on the board.
Now as the water is cooling off and some of the natural bait sources are becoming more scarce, the pickerel are beginning to bite live bait and lures with more interest. I suspect the pickerel will be very active over the next month as they pack away some calories for the winter months. They are also much more energetic than they will be in Jan and Feb when the water temp is far cooler.
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