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I have first hand evidence that the Severn River contains rockfish at this time. I launched my kayak from Jonas Green park about 10:45 this morning hoping for a bit of pullage. I spent the first hour checking to see if the perch have moved into their shallow water shoreline spots in the mid-Severn. They were not there today. I plan to check every week or so until they show up.
After that I broke out three medium spinning rods and began trolling. Two of the rods had soft plastic paddletails that have been my go to lure recently. On the third rod, I tied on a Rapala swimming plug. I paddled along at about 2.5 to 3.0 mph. After about a mile, I moved close to shore to depth of about 10-15 ft (one cast length from shore). All of a sudden, the right hand rod behind my seat began a fast pulsation. I stopped paddling and wound it in. It was a 21" rockfish that had taken the Rapala. I grabbed the leader and was trying to figure out how I would lay a healthy fish across my thighs with the twin treble hooks flopping around. While I debated for a few seconds, the fish lunged, and the leader parted at the lure knot. There is a striper swimming around with a plug in its mouth -- if any of our members catch it, you can keep the lure, just tell me where you found it.
I tied a 6" Storm shad onto that rod and began paddling again. I made a U-turn and worked the same 200-yd stretch numerous times. The first 30 minutes were red hot.
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On 8 consecutive passes, I caught two 21" and two 15" rockfish, and had strikes but not hookups on two more passes. After that short burst, the bite died or the fish moved off. All the fish came on the same rod -- one on the plug, and three on the Storm. All fish were gently returned to the river to swim again.
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I took advantage of the split screen feature on my FF/GPS to keep track of where I had been and to see if any fish showed up on the screen. I saw very few fish marks on the FF. I decided to head back to the launch and go home for some lunch. The total length of the trip was three hours. I caught over 70 inches of rockfish today and got three hours of exercise. Not bad for a spur of the moment trip.
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After that I broke out three medium spinning rods and began trolling. Two of the rods had soft plastic paddletails that have been my go to lure recently. On the third rod, I tied on a Rapala swimming plug. I paddled along at about 2.5 to 3.0 mph. After about a mile, I moved close to shore to depth of about 10-15 ft (one cast length from shore). All of a sudden, the right hand rod behind my seat began a fast pulsation. I stopped paddling and wound it in. It was a 21" rockfish that had taken the Rapala. I grabbed the leader and was trying to figure out how I would lay a healthy fish across my thighs with the twin treble hooks flopping around. While I debated for a few seconds, the fish lunged, and the leader parted at the lure knot. There is a striper swimming around with a plug in its mouth -- if any of our members catch it, you can keep the lure, just tell me where you found it.
I tied a 6" Storm shad onto that rod and began paddling again. I made a U-turn and worked the same 200-yd stretch numerous times. The first 30 minutes were red hot.
004.JPG
On 8 consecutive passes, I caught two 21" and two 15" rockfish, and had strikes but not hookups on two more passes. After that short burst, the bite died or the fish moved off. All the fish came on the same rod -- one on the plug, and three on the Storm. All fish were gently returned to the river to swim again.
001.jpg 002.jpg
I took advantage of the split screen feature on my FF/GPS to keep track of where I had been and to see if any fish showed up on the screen. I saw very few fish marks on the FF. I decided to head back to the launch and go home for some lunch. The total length of the trip was three hours. I caught over 70 inches of rockfish today and got three hours of exercise. Not bad for a spur of the moment trip.
003.JPG
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