Severn Report 9/28/12

[jsquare]

Got a late start on account of the am rain and my bed being very comfortable...

Launched at Jonas Green at 9:30 and went straight to some of the deeper oyster piles. Worked metal jigs with dropper flies in the deeper water, and heavy shad darts in the shallower waters. Pretty good action and I traveled most of the area between the two bridges. Tally: Countless small stripers, a couple dozen perch, one small bluefish, and a 16 inch red drum that gave me a workout on my 4 lb test lite setup.

Kept 5 perch at 10-11 inches. Did a last minute exploration of their stomach contents: Couple empty bellies, one oyster shell, one blue crab leg, and a half dozen small mud crabs. No wonder they were so eager to hit the jig.

Met a couple gents who were members of the Severn River Rod and Keg Club while I was out there. They were on the hunt for a 13 inch perch to top the leader board in their perch tourney. Apparently Woody just caught a monster perch and they were eager to try and top that.

BTW they seem to be done paving at the small side lot, but there are no lines marked for the parking spaces.

[Sun]

Nice report. Thanks for the tip about the parking lot.

[J.A. Veil]

Got a late start on account of the am rain and my bed being very comfortable...

Launched at Jonas Green at 9:30 and went straight to some of the deeper oyster piles. Worked metal jigs with dropper flies in the deeper water, and heavy shad darts in the shallower waters. Pretty good action and I traveled most of the area between the two bridges. Tally: Countless small stripers, a couple dozen perch, one small bluefish, and a 16 inch red drum that gave me a workout on my 4 lb test lite setup.

Kept 5 perch at 10-11 inches. Did a last minute exploration of their stomach contents: Couple empty bellies, one oyster shell, one blue crab leg, and a half dozen small mud crabs. No wonder they were so eager to hit the jig.

Met a couple gents who were members of the Severn River Rod and Keg Club while I was out there. They were on the hunt for a 13 inch perch to top the leader board in their perch tourney. Apparently Woody just caught a monster perch and they were eager to try and top that.

BTW they seem to be done paving at the small side lot, but there are no lines marked for the parking spaces.

Thanks for the report. I have caught numerous stripers to 16.5" in Severn tributaries over the last three weeks by trolling a 1/8-oz jighead with a 2" Gulp from an ultralight rod. They prefer that bait to spinners or larger Gulps (probably 5 to 1 preference). Nearly all of these stripers have been skinny, which concerns me a bit. This time of year, stripers are trying to fatten up for the winter and prefer calorie-rich baits like menhaden. They seem to be feeding mostly on 1" to 2" silversides minnow. On the two times I have jigged over oyster bottom, they almost always hit the dropper fly (skinny profile) rather than the 2-oz trolling weight on the bottom of the trout bomb. I have not cut any perch or stripers open this year to see what they are eating. Thanks for the intel on the stomach contents.

You mentioned the SRRKC. The two-month long white perch tournament comes to a close on Sunday. The largest perch so far is 13", and the largest composite of the best three fish is 37.25". That is some pretty good catching.

Now for some shameless recruiting (I am the current SRRKC president). The winter-long pickerel tournament will start up probably in Nov or Dec (no details yet). It costs just $10 to enter and provides an incentive to keep fishing the Severn throughout the winter. If you enter any of the SRRKC events, you become a member-for-life.

[ronaultmtd]

John- I have been meaning to get into Pike fishing for the last two years, but "the road to hell is paved with good intentions." Maybe this year I will make the commitment to this fishery- Got the tackle for it-lots of super fine UL gear (my favorite way to fish) Catch and release is the way to go with pike- no need to take one home-let someone else get the enjoyment of catching the one you release-

[ictalurus]

Thanks for the report. I wonder if the Severn is slightly warmer than the surrounding bodies of water. That could make it difficult for stripers to pack on weight.

[BassMoore]

i am in that 2 month long perch tourny.. i have not sent in a perch that will propel me into 2nd place.. all by fishing by kayak.

i am going out these last 2 days to top .. all i need in a 12 1/4 inch perch to tie the lead!

wish me luck... i think these guys would be upset if they lost to a kayaker only

[J.A. Veil]

I fished out of my kayak from Weems for about 2 hours this morning. On my 4th cast, I hooked into a very solid pickerel that worked the line for several minutes before succumbing to the Hawg Trough. The fish measured out at 21.5".




After releasing him, I hooked another heavy fish on the next cast. It swam around for a few seconds before the 8-lb test snapped. Then after retying, I cast out again and on the 2nd cast had another good hit (not as strong as the first two). It fought for 10 seconds then spit the hook. My first 10 minutes of fishing this morning looked like a highlight reel, but it slowed down quite a bit after that. I did troll up some small stripers and perch and jigged a trout bomb over oyster bottom to pick up small blues and rock. Considering the redfish and pumpkinseed I picked up in Weems on Thurs, that is a pretty good group of species for one Severn creek.

[J.A. Veil]

ps - i am interested in jigging oyster structure for white perch in/around the severn in coming weeks. any further tips on same is appreciated. hopefully no stripers around - i'm too easily distracted,...

I have been making a half-hearted effort to jig over oyster bottom on my last 3 or 4 trips. I have used only an old, beat-up trout bomb (2-oz-inline sinker painted and with a trailing hook on the bottom; a fly or small feather jig tied a foot up the line.) There are many versions of this -- you could try a Stingsilver or other "knife-handle" style metal lure on the bottom.

My new Manta Ray has not come in yet. My Mini-X does not have a fishfinder, so I am guessing whether I am over hard bottom or not by eyeballing my position in relation to the DNR oyster bed map. The old Rt 450 bridge debris near Jonas Green or the old railroad bridge debris (the far side is next to Manresa) provide a slightly different type of hard bottom habitat. They have much more vertical extent and can snag lures though.

[J.A. Veil]

John- I have been meaning to get into Pike fishing for the last two years, but "the road to hell is paved with good intentions." Maybe this year I will make the commitment to this fishery- Got the tackle for it-lots of super fine UL gear (my favorite way to fish) Catch and release is the way to go with pike- no need to take one home-let someone else get the enjoyment of catching the one you release-

Ron -

When you are ready to fish the Severn, let me know. From what I have seen during the past month, and hearing reports like the one Moc made last weekend, this late fall and winter should turn out to be an excellent pickerel season. My experience shows that as the perch and small rockfish move out of the shallow water, and the baitfish become scarce, pickerel are much easier to find and convince to bite. Last winter I introduced several MKF members to the excitement of Severn pickerel fishing. I look forward to breaking in some new anglers (or experienced anglers in your case) again this year.

[jsquare]

All of my fishing is fishfinder- and gps-less, so my fish catching is usually the result of educated guessing and dumb luck. I have proven to be an expert at snagging oyster shells, so if I can feel hard bottom with the jig and am pulling up oyster shell, there's a good chance I'm over oyster piles. If I can remember key areas on the charts, that gives me a good place to start.

The jig and teaser combo makes a good search bait when you think the perch are out deeper. You can cast it far from the yak and bounce it back to you, feeling for the obvious fish and getting a feel for the subtleties of the bottom.

[Shady]

Thanks for the reports guys! Im looking forward to catching a few linksiders again this year. By the way things are going, you might be able to get them this winter without bringing along the minnow bucket.

[ronaultmtd]

those are good techniques and back in the old days and in that short period w/o a FF on the new-to-me yak, that's more or less what i did. i have a nice FF. makes fishing brand new water like going to the supermarket. just look around and pick out what size/species fish you want. plus i know it will take me back to my car after fishing till complete darkness in a place i've never been before.

but either way is good.

truth is - quite often the FF isn't really doing much good, but i do appreciate any add'l info about what's going on around me even if i can't quite tell what it means.

I have the GPS Combo and the main feature I use is when I am deep trolling for big fall rockfish and catch a nice fish trolling I remember where I am on the screen- I zoom the screen and switch to full screen for the GPS feature so I can return on the exact same track in a figure 8 pattern- I find the fish move a little but are pretty much hanging around the same contours and don't move that much- the other features are water temp and depth- seeing fish on the screen does not necessarily mean much except that fish are there- you don't know what species, or if they will bite- it is nice to note how deep they are hanging so you can adjust the depth of your lures- I don't know how you would not want a fish finder onboard- it is a valuable tool-

[jsquare]

Oh I would totally love a fish finder, just don't have one yet.

Another pattern I noticed yesterday was that the small stripers seemed to be swarming throughout most of the water column, bottom to top. They were much more attracted to the jig when it was jigged aggressively and vertically, and I caught many fish just bringing the jig and teaser back to the surface. The perch hug closer to the bottom and seemed to respond better when the jig was tossed out away from the yak and hopped/twitched back.

[dsiekman]

Now for some shameless recruiting (I am the current SRRKC president). The winter-long pickerel tournament will start up probably in Nov or Dec (no details yet). It costs just $10 to enter and provides an incentive to keep fishing the Severn throughout the winter. If you enter any of the SRRKC events, you become a member-for-life.

John,

1. Severn Rod and Keg Club??? Two of my favorite things! Sign me up!

2. I was out this morning north of Cedar Point. Landed six fish in two hours, 14-16", all fat and happy. Had one spit a lure - 6" crank bait, and another that pulled me around for five minutes before spitting at the boat. Never saw him but he hit a 4" crank bait on a medium weight spinning rod with a 2500 series reel and 8lb test. Every time I'd get him close to the boat he'd run. I'm guessing he was a keeper...or he was REALLY feisty...