more Pickerel Fishing on the Severn

[Turtle135]

Thanks to the MKF fisherman who have posted some intel on Pickeral Fishing in the Severn River!

I do a lot of Largemouth Bass fishing in the winter which largely involves crawling jig and pig on the bottom at an excruciatingly slow pace. While it does produce good sized largemouths most days of fishing you are fortunate to just get one or two bites.

The Pickerel fishing that has been posted up on this site sounded like the perfect change of pace.

I had my best luck with a Lucky Craft Live Pointer 78 suspending jerkbait. I would position myself shallow in 2-3 feet of water and cast out into 4-6 feet of water. I think the Pickerel would follow the jerkbait looking to trap it in the shallows. I also caught a few on a small spinnerbait but that seemed to attract the smaller Pickerel (around 15"). I hooked about 12 and landed about 10. The four over 18" all came on the Live Pointer.

Fishing for these guys was a lot of fun! They were very active in the 45 degree water. I kept speeding up the retrieve on the jerkbait which seemed to be what they wanted. Got to love a fish who comes out to play in the cold water!







lures used, that is a quarter in the image for size reference:

[J.A. Veil]

Nicely done. Congratulations on a successful pickerel catch. It is interesting to hear that other anglers are catching pickerel on different types of lures/baits. Those hard plastic lures look to be about 4" long and fairly slender. That is a good size. If you go much larger or thicker, you might catch a bigger pickerel, but in my experience using very large minnows, you get few bites.

[Turtle135]

Thanks! I do appreciate the information you and others have posted up on this board about this fishery. It was a really nice day on the water and I did not see another angler fishing these areas all day. Just a few power boaters who were headed towards the bay.

I've always had better luck with members of the "Esox" clan (Northern Pike, Musky) using elongated minnow shaped plugs (rather than some of the short fat crankbaits that do so well with largemouth and smallmouth bass).

Do you ever have success on the main river for Pickerel? By the time I got done exploring one of the creeks it was about time to paddle back to the launch.

[J.A. Veil]

Thanks! I do appreciate the information you and others have posted up on this board about this fishery. It was a really nice day on the water and I did not see another angler fishing these areas all day. Just a few power boaters who were headed towards the bay.

I've always had better luck with members of the "Esox" clan (Northern Pike, Musky) using elongated minnow shaped plugs (rather than some of the short fat crankbaits that do so well with largemouth and smallmouth bass).

Do you ever have success on the main river for Pickerel? By the time I got done exploring one of the creeks it was about time to paddle back to the launch.

I never try fishing for them in the main river. They may be there but I don't have any first hand knowledge.

[wfauby]

Nice report, thanks for sharing...i responded to an earlier post about fishing for Picks and asked if anyone was using hard jerkbaits...it is my prefered method on other waters but i have never fished the severn or its feeder creeks...its encouraging to see that it worked for you. can someone reply with points of public access to the tributaries that feed the severn...i know several folks on this board have private access, Im not that lucky. Thanks again

[DanMarino]

Great report Turtle! Let me know if you head out that way again and maybe I can join you.

[J.A. Veil]

Nice report, thanks for sharing...i responded to an earlier post about fishing for Picks and asked if anyone was using hard jerkbaits...it is my prefered method on other waters but i have never fished the severn or its feeder creeks...its encouraging to see that it worked for you. can someone reply with points of public access to the tributaries that feed the severn...i know several folks on this board have private access, Im not that lucky. Thanks again

Here is a map I posted several times before. But for our newer members, I am posting it again. The yellow boxes indicate tidal creeks/coves in which I caught pickerel last winter. I am quite confident that other upstream and downstream creeks also hold pickerel -- but I can not get there easily in my paddle kayak.

[wfauby]

John - thank you for the reply and map. now if i can find the time to set aside a entire day to venture from my cave in Frederick County. Regards

[J.A. Veil]

Its good you didn't choose today for your first try. About 10:30 this morning, I found I had a window of opportunity to fish for about 2.5 to 3 hours. I quickly loaded up, drove to the Tucker St ramp in Weems and launched only 30 mins after making the decision to go (a real benefit of living in Annapolis). I drove across the Ridgely Ave bridge on the way to the launch -- I could not see the launch from there because of the heavy fog at bridge level -- normally it is easily visible. The fog was thick at water level too. Here is a photo I took at 11:15 sitting underneath the Rowe Blvd bridge looking upstream. I could not clearly see any shoreline in the distance. The water was flat calm with a mild temperature, so it was comfortable being out. When I returned underneath the same bridge at 1:45, the visibility was not much better, and now there was a heavy mist in the air making everything wet.



I thought the dim light and calm water would generate a strong bite, but I managed only 5 pickerel today. After thinking about that statement, I put it into perspective and realized how lucky we are this year. I can't recall ever catching 5 pickerel in a single trip in Weems on any previous winter. This year the abundance is so much better, that a 5-fish day seems pretty Ho-Hum.

[wfauby]

that is some serious fog for almost being noon...

[Grady-Black]

I know were that is! Lol
GB