What a difference a day makes

[J.A. Veil]

I reported on my fishing in Weems Creek yesterday. It was cool and windy. The pickerel bite was spotty and slow. I managed 7 pickerel in 3.5 hours.

Today I fished in another Severn Creek. The sun was bright, and my location sheltered me from most of the wind. I began fishing at 2:15. The first ten casts were spectacular -- I caught 3 pickerel, 1 yellow perch, and had nibbles or bumps on 5 of the other 6 casts. The bite remained good, just not that fast. After two hours, I had caught 18 pickerel. I decided to stay out a bit longer to get another two fish. Number 19 came quickly, but it bit off part of the Gulp tail. I cast the wounded Gulp out several more times and there was number 20! Most of the pickerel today were 15" to 17". I did have one gargantuan pickerel of 23.25". This was by far my largest this season, and it tied my largest fish of last winter. Too bad the SRRKC pickerel tournament does not start for another 11 days. I caught no skinny hammer handles (10" to 14" pickerel) today - all were larger and fought well against my ultralight rods. Several of them gave me a real aerial show with multiple jumps.



I fished two rods today with 1/8-oz jigheads and Gulps. On one rod, I used the 2" minnow grubs that have been working well. On the second rod, I experimented with 4" swimming mullet. Both caught well today, but I caught a few more on the larger Gulp.

[moc]

Nice pickerel John.... I wish I was out there with you. The pickerel I caught yesterday gave me an arial show also. I can't wait to get more pickerel pullage.

[chimo]

Nice looking chain sider John!

[mytmouse]

Great report John! I mike have to get over there and try my hand at some Pickerel. Looks like they are getting some size to em!

[Shady]

nice! seems that you wont need to use live bait this year.

[J.A. Veil]

nice! seems that you wont need to use live bait this year.

I have not reached any conclusions about how effective Gulp baits are in cold water. I estimate the water temp this weekend to be in the mid- to upper-50s. Obviously Gulp worked well at those temperature. I am not sure how they do at 35 to 45 deg. If they do work, it would be easier to carry a bag of Gulps than a minnow bucket.

As an anecdotal note, I found that after an hour of use, the tail on the 4" swimming mullet became more rigid and did not flop around much on the retrieve. I stopped getting many hits. I changed out the bait for a fresh one with a more floppy tail, and started getting frequent bites again. I will pay some attention to this -- possibly the colder water changes the flexibility of the Gulp material. I do recall that the 2" minnows I used last winter (not the minnow grubs with twister tails that I am using now) did not flex much, and did not get many bites.

I also observed that one time I pushed a new Gulp onto a jighead and did not get it on straight. As a result, the bait corkscrewed when coming through the water. I had no hits in several casts. After I removed the Gulp and repositioned it properly, I started getting bites again.

[chex]

Very nice!

Thanks for all the info.

[CB kayak 02]

Did you fish during the low or high tide?

[J.A. Veil]

Did you fish during the low or high tide?

I did not notice much tidal flow while I was out. Judging from today's and tomorrow's afternoon tide times, I was probably there on either side of the low tide. I'm not sure it mattered there. The fish were hungry, the sun lit up the clear water and they pounced on the Gulps as it moved by their location. I had quite a few fish that followed the lure back to the boat. One actually grabbed the Gulp with only 18" of line off the tip. The shock of that broke off the jighead. It was my only lost lure for for the day.

[dsiekman]

I have not reached any conclusions about how effective Gulp baits are in cold water. I estimate the water temp this weekend to be in the mid- to upper-50s. Obviously Gulp worked well at those temperature. I am not sure how they do at 35 to 45 deg. If they do work, it would be easier to carry a bag of Gulps than a minnow bucket.

As an anecdotal note, I found that after an hour of use, the tail on the 4" swimming mullet became more rigid and did not flop around much on the retrieve. I stopped getting many hits. I changed out the bait for a fresh one with a more floppy tail, and started getting frequent bites again. I will pay some attention to this -- possibly the colder water changes the flexibility of the Gulp material. I do recall that the 2" minnows I used last winter (not the minnow grubs with twister tails that I am using now) did not flex much, and did not get many bites.

I also observed that one time I pushed a new Gulp onto a jighead and did not get it on straight. As a result, the bait corkscrewed when coming through the water. I had no hits in several casts. After I removed the Gulp and repositioned it properly, I started getting bites again.

John,

I think I am going to have to fish with you sometime. I cannot seem to catch anything but blue crabs on gulp baits. I'm sure it's user error, but it is very frustrating!