Severn pickerel

[J.A. Veil]

Ictalurus (Bill) and kevinfry (Kevin) met me at Jonas Green park this morning. We headed upstream to a nearby creek and began to fish. One portion of the creek was exposed to the wind, making a very fast drift -- none of us caught fish there today. The other portion was out of the wind and much warmer. But one section of typically productive shoreline was filled with floes of skim ice that made casting and retrieving impossible for the first hour.

We worked different sections of the creek for the next two hours. Bill picked up three pickerel, Kevin caught three (his first Severn pickerel -- one of them is shown in the photos), and I caught six little ones. I spent more time today casting to shallow shorelines and flats that had not produced bites on my previous trips. Today, I picked up at least two of my fish in new areas. The other guys fished artificials, while I stuck with live minnows.

I watched the hookup made by one of my fish. I had just wound the line back in and let the minnow hang just off the bow. I saw a 12" pickerel swim over and snatch the minnow. I had only a few feet of line out, but the little rascal still bent the pole. A few minutes earlier, I watched another small pickerel chase the minnow back to the boat, then veer off. I opened the bail to let the jig sink -- the fish hit the minnow on the drop and pulled for a few seconds before letting go. That was great fun watching their antics.

After two hours of fishing, I returned to the park. Bill and Kevin continued on to try out a different creek. I look forward to their reports.

[Aesiegel]

John,
You've been getting alot of fishing in! I actually had to work this week, although I did get out in Weems on Wed. For about two hours. I still smell like skunk. Nothing in any of the previous spots or new spots I tried.
I'm going to try and get out this week a couple of times, depending on the weather.

Ed

[ictalurus]

After we left the area we fished with John, Kevin and I headed to another section of the Severn that looked fishy on Google Earth. It wasn't. I picked up one tiny pickerel there, and that was it. That area was deeper, with lots of water around 8ft deep and not much in the way of shallows. It was also more open to the wind.

Today I used firetiger and white 2" Storm shads, my trusty Rapala, a white twin tail grub with and without a spinner arm, a Zoom minnows in white and chartreuse, and a Joe's Fly that was more or less firetiger colored. I also dragged around a perch rig with a couple of homemade Clouser minnows that looked really sweet. I let it dangle in the water and thought it would jig itself while I moved around in the boat. The only thing that caught was the firetiger Storm shad. All the fish hit while casting, and I didn't have any luck jigging, unlike last time.

I was really hoping for a couple of 20"+ fish today like last time, but I only caught a 15-incher and 13-incher. The other two fish were smaller, so I wanted to get them back into the water quickly so we can catch them again next year.

I missed Kevin and John hooking into fish, so the only pics I have are of my fish:





I guess I'll just have to come back and try again for bigger fish.

It was good fishing with John again and hearing the update on action in the river. When Kevin and I fish, we either cover 10+ miles or fish in the howling wind. Today was a wind day, and the paddle back to the launch was interesting. I was surprised at the amount of chop that developed in the river. Kevin had the hot hand today, so it sounds like I have to pick up some Powerbait lures.

[Yak Fish]

thanks for the report guys. I want to make it down for the next meet and greet and catch my first pickerel ever. I'll need some lessons from you guys

[chex]

Nice going guys! I've yet to catch a pickerel... I should get out there next week

[kevinfry]

It was really great to catch my first ever chain pickerel. oddly enough I caught them all on powerbait grubs even though I had minnows. I think all mine were quite a bit smaller than everyone else's and I seemed to miss quite a few fish too! I was happy.
As for the howling wind...the extra 2 hours Bill and I fished after John left made things interesting. In the sheltered creek I could hear the wind begin to howl but went into "ignore it" mode. Well it wasn't the worst wind I ever paddled home in (that nod goes to my misadventures with Ronault this fall) but that was the farthest I've paddled in that kind of wind. Bill was a champ for sticking beside me but in spite of the hard paddle it was fairly routine since we were going straight into the wind! Could NOT raise my arms this morning though...whispered a prayer of thanks for the inventor of Aleve, Lord bless him.
Here are a couple pics including my first ever pickerel!! John...love the one of me fumbling with the little guy. They are slimey!! Maybe next time i'll try to catch one longer than a cigar.

[J.A. Veil]

It was really great to catch my first ever chain pickerel. oddly enough I caught them all on powerbait grubs even though I had minnows. I think all mine were quite a bit smaller than everyone else's and I seemed to miss quite a few fish too! I was happy.
As for the howling wind...the extra 2 hours Bill and I fished after John left made things interesting. In the sheltered creek I could hear the wind begin to howl but went into "ignore it" mode. Well it wasn't the worst wind I ever paddled home in (that nod goes to my misadventures with Ronault this fall) but that was the farthest I've paddled in that kind of wind. Bill was a champ for sticking beside me but in spite of the hard paddle it was fairly routine since we were going straight into the wind! Could NOT raise my arms this morning though...whispered a prayer of thanks for the inventor of Aleve, Lord bless him.
Here are a couple pics including my first ever pickerel!! John...love the one of me fumbling with the little guy. They are slimey!! Maybe next time i'll try to catch one longer than a cigar.

Don't worry about the size -- you got several fish. I have fished that cove at least 10 times since December. The largest fish I caught there were during the first few outings (I caught one really fat 22" pickerel early on). Plus all the earlier trips had a higher catch rate. Those fish have seen quite a bit of angler activity in two months. Some have been caught multiple times and may be getting wary. Others may have sore mouths, and yet others may have been injured or killed by catch and release, including excessive time out of the water for photos.

In spite of all the fishing pressure, three of us were able to catch 12 fish in an hour and a half. One half of the cove that usually is productive generated zero fish yesterday. All-in-all, not a bad morning.

P.S. - A Conservation Moment: Yesterday I caught my fourth pickerel of the winter that had the jighead deep inside its mouth. If I tried to grap the shank of the hook with needlenose pliers and yank, I would have severely injured the fish's mouth, perhaps fatally. I used my jaw spreader tool (shown in the photos below on the fat 22" fish referenced above -- caught on Dec 22) to prop open its toothy mouth and gently push the jighead down a bit to release it, then quickly extract the hook without any serious mouth damage. Plus it got the fish back into the water sooner. I encourage all of you who target pickerel to carry one of these simple tools with you.

[chex]

P.S. - A Conservation Moment: Yesterday I caught my fourth pickerel of the winter that had the jighead deep inside its mouth. If I tried to grap the shank of the hook with needlenose pliers and yank, I would have severely injured the fish's mouth, perhaps fatally. I used my jaw spreader tool (shown in the photos below on the fat 22" fish referenced above -- caught on Dec 22) to prop open its toothy mouth and gently push the jighead down a bit to release it, then quickly extract the hook without any serious mouth damage. Plus it got the fish back into the water sooner. I encourage all of you who target pickerel to carry one of these simple tools with you.

Looks like a pickerel at the dentist! Good looking out for the fish and spreading the wisdom.

[J.A. Veil]

Looks like a pickerel at the dentist!

Open wide and say "Ahhhh"

[kevinfry]

went looking for one locally. Only found the size for monster rockfish. I'll keep looking.

KF

[kevinfry]

John,
Hey at the Mar 10 M&G I was hoping to fish College Creek by the naval academy. Any reason why I couldn't? Shouldn't? Ever have any luck there?

[J.A. Veil]

John,
Hey at the Mar 10 M&G I was hoping to fish College Creek by the naval academy. Any reason why I couldn't? Shouldn't? Ever have any luck there?

Kevin -

Most of the College Creek shorelines within the Academy boundaries are hard walls -- those shorelines do not normally hold pickerel. There are some fishy shorelines in College Creek on either side of the Rowe Blvd bridge. Unfortunately the fish have not made a home there in recent years. I fished there on Jan 7 to scope out the presence of pickerel in different areas. I was really disappointed -- I fished for two hours without a bite. Shortly before leaving College Creek, I tried one last spot (and an unlikely one at that). I hooked my smallest ever pickerel (9.25") for my only fish from that creek. My report was posted on MKF at http://www.snaggedline.com/showthread.php?t=2389.

On the way back to the ramp I fished at another nearby tributary that I knew held fish. I caught well there, giving me some indication that it was not the weather or tide that caused a poor bite in College Creek.

So back to your original question, you can try fishing in College Creek, but I suspect you will be disappointed.

As a preview of the Severn M&G, here is a chart I made that shows the locations of three launch sites and 8 different creeks or coves in which I or others have caught pickerel this winter (the same chart I gave you on Sat). All of the creeks are within a 1.5-mile radius of one of the launch sites. This is intended as a starting point -- not all creeks are equally productive, and not all shorelines stretches are equally good either.