Weems Creek 5-22-12

[ronaultmtd]

It is a lot of fun and you hone your shooting skills with a lot of practice until it is second nature- the one thing is trigger control- gently squeeze- never, ever snap the trigger- that is a recipe for a complete and humbling miss- the follow through (form) is critical on long distance shooting- control your breathing, get into a rigid, solid position where you are rock steady and make sure your target is clear and there is nothing behind it- safety, safety, safety- you are firing a high power projectile that has extreme range and is lethal- lots of responsibility to be an ethical hunter and a safe marksman.

[J.A. Veil]

How far back do you go in Weems Creek? I used to fish the dock of a house we remodeled a few years ago........beautiful area!

I fish Weems many times throughout the year. Although most of the time I fish from about 1/2-mile upstream of the Rowe Blvd bridge to the mouth, I have paddled all the way to the very end of navigable waters. The last 1/4 mile is so shallow that it is not a very good place to try to fish.

[Shady]

It is a lot of fun and you hone your shooting skills with a lot of practice until it is second nature- the one thing is trigger control- gently squeeze- never, ever snap the trigger- that is a recipe for a complete and humbling miss- the follow through (form) is critical on long distance shooting- control your breathing, get into a rigid, solid position where you are rock steady and make sure your target is clear and there is nothing behind it- safety, safety, safety- you are firing a high power projectile that has extreme range and is lethal- lots of responsibility to be an ethical hunter and a safe marksman.

Do you eat the groundhog, or is this just more of a pest control for the farmers. Sounds like fun!

[ronaultmtd]

It is dangerous to eat the ones we shoot- I hand load all my varmint ammo- 55 grain Sierra BlitzKing plastic tipped boattail bullets propelled by Hogdon Varget powder ignited by Remington Benchrest Large Rifle primers in Winchester brass at 3850 FPS muzzle velocity- makes a groundhog hamburger meat- tiny bone slivers are throughout the carcass- they are throughly "tenderized."

I don't post pictures of the groundhog for obvious reasons...

[john from md]

John Veil,

I keep a black snake in the garage under the wood pile. Keeps the field mice away.

Back on topic.

I fished Jonas Green this morning and tried everything I know but got nada. There was a guy catching grass shimp and even he couldn't get any hits.

I think there is too much food available lately. Maybe in a couple of weeks things will get better.


John

[bignose]

Weems Creek update:
I got out relatively early today to try to beat the heat and pleasure boat wakes. (Early is a relative term when you are used to getting to the charter boat as first mate at 5:30.). There was a crowd waiting in line to launch as I was packing it in at 11:30. Never seen that at Tucker Street before.

The fishing was very slow.
Maybe 10-12 perch, most of which were live lining size 4-5 inches. Only two made the cut for a dinner invitation.
Two pickerel, one of which was a true "gator" perhaps 20-22". They were put back to play another day.
The Creek was a good bit more turbid than earlier in the week with visibility down to about 2 feet. I saw some pods of baitfish early, but then it got a little choppy and I couldn't see them on the surface.
I didn't want to go out on the main stem of the Severn, as an open canoe and big boat wakes is not a good combination. Maybe during the week.

[J.A. Veil]

I headed back to Weems this evening. I headed out to the mouth of the creek trolling three spinner lures on ultralight rods. In my circuit from the ramp to the creek mouth and back upstream to the first bridge, I caught only two stripers less than 12". I was a bit discouraged. I trolled above the bridges and cast to some shoreline. About 7:00 I passed a section of shoreline that does not normally hold fish. But today there was a lot of bait activity and swirls of fish. I cast into the area and hooked up steadily for the next 10 minutes. I threw a Bignose 1/16-oz spinner bait, a Strike King Microking 1/16-oz spinnerbait, and a 1/8-oz jighead on a gold spinner arm. The jighead was tipped with a 3" long white paddletail minnow.

Note: last summer I did very well with a spinner arm and 3" paddletail up until late June. After that lures with a smaller and narrower profile seemed to work better. My bigger fish in the past week have come on the white paddletail minnow.

After 10 minutes the bite stopped there. I continued upstream for a while but did not find fish there. I returned to the previous hot spot and caught back-to-back 11.5" perch. They fought nicely on the ultralight rods. I rarely eat perch, so these two bigguns are swimming again tonight. I hope to meet them again soon. In addition to the good perchin', I saw a small beaver slip in the water at that spot and paddle across the creek.

I worked my way back to the ramp at dusk. This was my best Severn perch outing of the summer.

[Grady-Black]

WTG John..
GB