My first birthday fish

[J.A. Veil]

Ictalurus (Bill) and I had talked about fishing together for pickerel for several months. We finally found a day when our schedules coincided and the weather was workable. We launched at a mid-Severn spot about 10:00. The water was calm, with the air in the upper 30s. I arrived before Bill and decided to jig some nearby structure while he got rigged up. I jigged up two 18" rockfish with a chartreuse glitter BKD.

Bill soon joined me. He had a few bites but none were firmly hooked. Since our plan for the day was to catch pickerel, we left the structure and paddled to a location where I found them biting last week.

As we entered that tributary, we saw a few patches of skim ice.

Fortunately, the areas where we wanted to fish were fully open. Bill had the hot hand in that tributary, catching about 4 pickerel to 22" and seeing several others follow his lure to the boat. He fished several types of artificial lures, whereas I fished minnows.

I caught only one pickerel in that location today. We fished for over an hour, then moved to a second tributary where I have found pickerel. Before leaving the first location, we saw Pat, the angler whom I met last Thurs. He was there with his grandson. I hope they had a hotter bite than we did.

At the second location, I fared somewhat better, catching 4 pickerel in 45 minutes. Bill did not catch as many fish there, but landed another 22" pickerel.

Today is my birthday -- these were the first fish I have ever caught on my birthday. What a fine gift. Thanks Severn River. I also enjoyed meeting and fishing with Bill. I look forward to our next fishing trip together.

[Memory Maker]

Huh ....... you're first birthday ........ could've sworn you were older ....... Oh well ... HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!!!!!!

[Meadeo]

Great report... Makes me wanna go aftersome pickeral!!!

Meadeo

[Shady]

Hmm, those are some interesting landmarks on the pic of the Striper...just kidding.

Glad you got some nice fish on your birthday and Happy Birthday!

[ictalurus]

Thanks for the invite, John. It was an awesome day. A couple of 20+ inch pickerel were just what the doctor ordered.

The 3 small pickerel I landed and all the followers fell for the "St. Mary's Special" Rapala (2" fire tiger). My biggest pickerel today was caught on a 2" fire tiger Storm shad as I jigged it under my yak. The second biggest came as I was casting it randomly near where John hooked up. The funny thing is I picked up the storm shads yesterday on sale at Dick's. I definitely got my money's worth.

John's pics of my fish came out better than the ones I took. Here are a couple pics of the fish John caught.




The salinity according to the Chesapeake Bay Program sampling earlier this month was 3.5. The water temp according to my sonar was 42-43*. John was an excellent guide and put me on fish right away. The day was even better since John caught fish on his birthday. I'm looking forward to poking around for pickerel again.

[medicyaker]

Happy Birthday John, Nice present from mother Severn!
Ictalurus, Had a question about your Camera/FF mount. first of all, VERY NICE!! Is that a GoPro camera? If so, being there, how do the hero shots look from that close? Do you get all of the fish in the frame. If not a GOPro, then nevermind. Nonetheless, Nice Mount!!! Also, How did you mount the camera to the PVC?
Thanks,
Tom

[ictalurus]

Tom--It's not a GoPro, but you can use the same mounting system if you want. It's a cobbled together system that involved a drill press to drill the holes straight, but you can probably achieve the same results with a steady hand.

Here's the camera arm branching off my fish finder mount:

I usually leave the camera off until I'm ready to take a picture.

Here's the mount, which I leave attached to my camera:


And a close-up:


It's a 90* elbow with an end cap. I glued the end cap into the elbow and drilled a hole through the center of everything. I then ran a bolt that will fit the tripod mount on the camera (1/4" 20 thread, I think) through the hole. The black thing is a rubber grommet from West Marine that keeps the camera from spinning around on the bolt. It works pretty well. I should drill a hole through the arm and the elbow so I can leave the entire rig securely attached with a retaining pin of some sort. It takes a few seconds to set up, so I only take pictures of fish I plan on keeping or of fish that are unusual, like nice pickerel (it's been a while since my last 20+ incher).

[medicyaker]

Thanks Buddy, I may have to get with my PVC Guy and see if I can do that or not. What is, and/or where did you get the flat piece of PVC Looking thing that you have your FF Mount on. I like the whole rig, how its up close and off the Yak. I'm nearly blind, (Old is more like it) and I have a small 4" view screen on my 385ci Hummingbird and would like to have it up at nearly eye level. Has it ever gotten in the way while fighting a fish? I hope you don't mind me eyeing-up your invention! I LIKE IT!!!

[ictalurus]

The flat piece is a scrap of Starboard I picked up from our research fleet shop. Actually, I built almost the entire thing from scraps. Anyway, I drilled a hole in the center of the Starboard to run the cables through. Most adhesives don't stick to it, so the hole is wide enough so that the PVC fits into it very tightly, i.e. I hammered the PVC in place with a rubber mallet after sanding the PVC a bit. It's never been in the way of fighting a fish, but it interferes with casting sometimes, especially when I'm freshwater fishing and need to cast accurately. If my local waters freeze over again this year, I might lower it and move it forward a bit. If you need any other pics to complete your design, let me know.

[mmanolis2001]

Way to go guys. Great report and thanks for sharing. I’m already suffering from cabin fever and reports like this cheer me up.

J.A. Veil,
Happy birthday I could not think of a better way to celebrate a birthday.


ictalurus,
Congratz on the nice pickerel. I love those small fire tiger and chartreuse rapalas. They always catch.

[medicyaker]

Ictalurus, Thanks for the info. Not sure if I can pull it off but I'm thinking I may give it a try, As a 4th generation Marine, I've always had drilled into my psychy, adapt, improvise and overcome. Looks like I may be doing all 3 on this project. Or at least, my freinds and I will be doing all three. LOL
Thanks again for the help and If I do it, I hope it turns out as nice as what you've got there.
Happy New Year,
Tom