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I was very pleased when I hooked 13 pickerel and landed 7 of them on Sunday afternoon. I knew there were pickerel in that particular Severn tributary so I am not really surprised. Today I decided to leave those fish alone and try a totally different tributary, also in the mid-Severn. Once again I fished from my kayak using live minnows.
The river was beautiful and glassy calm this afternoon. Before paddling to the targeted tributary, I tried jigging with a BKD and a metal lure on some structure piles in the main river. I could see marks on my sonar but got no bites there.
I entered the tributary after 3:30 leaving myself just over an hour to fish before having to race the setting sun back to the launch spot. I have not fished in this tributary in several years and have never caught a fish there. My expectations were not high. Since all of Sunday's fish were caught in water deeper than 4 ft, I initially ignored the shallows near the banks and focused on the dropoffs and the 4-8 ft channel in the middle. Eventually I felt some taps and a hookup. It turned out to be an 11.5" white perch.
I continued along the same shoreline, casting in various directions. On one of the casts near the shore, I hooked an energetic but small pickerel. I continued throwing the minnow toward the shore and found a real hot zone in 2-3 ft of water. Over the next 50-yard stretch of shore, I hooked many and landed 7 more pickerel. The largest was only 19" and most were 13" to 14" -- many looked like siblings. They had very faint markings compared to the larger fish that have a prominent "chain" pattern.
All told, in about an hour of fishing, I beat Sunday's performance, hooking at least 15 and landing 8 pickerel. In the heart of the hot zone, I had hookups on nearly every cast. On Sunday, I had no minnows stripped from the jighead. Yet today, I cast three times in a row to the same spot, hooked up and had a few seconds of rod-bending action, then the pickerel let go. The fish had grabbed the minnow but had evaded the hook -- pretty clever rascal.
I am convinced that I could have caught another 20 fish if the daylight had not faded. I spoke with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's chief naturalist, John Page Williams, this morning. He mentioned that he thought we were going to have an outstanding pickerel winter. Judging from my last two outings in two different locations, John Page may be right.
If you have the time and the access to the water, the Severn pickerel bite is definitely on.
The river was beautiful and glassy calm this afternoon. Before paddling to the targeted tributary, I tried jigging with a BKD and a metal lure on some structure piles in the main river. I could see marks on my sonar but got no bites there.
I entered the tributary after 3:30 leaving myself just over an hour to fish before having to race the setting sun back to the launch spot. I have not fished in this tributary in several years and have never caught a fish there. My expectations were not high. Since all of Sunday's fish were caught in water deeper than 4 ft, I initially ignored the shallows near the banks and focused on the dropoffs and the 4-8 ft channel in the middle. Eventually I felt some taps and a hookup. It turned out to be an 11.5" white perch.
I continued along the same shoreline, casting in various directions. On one of the casts near the shore, I hooked an energetic but small pickerel. I continued throwing the minnow toward the shore and found a real hot zone in 2-3 ft of water. Over the next 50-yard stretch of shore, I hooked many and landed 7 more pickerel. The largest was only 19" and most were 13" to 14" -- many looked like siblings. They had very faint markings compared to the larger fish that have a prominent "chain" pattern.
All told, in about an hour of fishing, I beat Sunday's performance, hooking at least 15 and landing 8 pickerel. In the heart of the hot zone, I had hookups on nearly every cast. On Sunday, I had no minnows stripped from the jighead. Yet today, I cast three times in a row to the same spot, hooked up and had a few seconds of rod-bending action, then the pickerel let go. The fish had grabbed the minnow but had evaded the hook -- pretty clever rascal.
I am convinced that I could have caught another 20 fish if the daylight had not faded. I spoke with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's chief naturalist, John Page Williams, this morning. He mentioned that he thought we were going to have an outstanding pickerel winter. Judging from my last two outings in two different locations, John Page may be right.
If you have the time and the access to the water, the Severn pickerel bite is definitely on.
The hefty perch is good news, too. I've got two more days of unavoidable work, then four days of family visits. Hopefully, they'll still be hungry next week. I'd love to know where the pickerel go during dry years. Do they all jam up together in the freshwater part of the creeks?
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