Jonas Green 8/12

Mark, Raptor, Strummerfan, and myself launched from Jonas Green around 6:15 this morning. We saw a couple other kayakers and later in the morning Medicyaker came out with a friend for a little bit.

Thought the morning was going to be another Ray day, saw one Cownose Ray but Raptor missed it and it was the only one I saw thank goodness. We did see a few jelly fish so kept my feet in the kayak.

The water was flat and started catching fish right away. I caught a couple small flounder, which was a first in the Severn for me. I then picked up a lot of croakers, WP, and a lone Blue Fish. I know Mark and Raptor caught a few stripers, croakers, and WP. Strummer fan was picking up WP and croakers, not sure if he got into any stripers.

I got off the water around 11:30. Another great day out on the water.

[Fishinfool]

It's very exciting to see even small flounder in the Severn. That is a good sign! Let's hope they grow, go forth and multiply!

Now, if we can only get the yellow perch back in.

[Strummerfan]

It was a beautiful day on the Severn. I found a small mountain of perch and several croaker, but only one striper. One of these days I'll land a keeper striper from the yak. Something hit my rattle trap like a ton of bricks but came unbuttoned pretty fast.

[Mark]

It was a day of quantity not quality. No large fish of any kind for me but lots of catches to reel in and a few misses on an exceptionally nice water day. Smooth as glass as the saying goes.

First, I didn’t know flounders lived in the Severn. Congrats to ON the Fly for finding two of them.

My catches were 2 dozen white perch, five schoolie stripers and 1 croaker. No pictures because my camera bit the dust last week at Mattawoman. None of my catches today were worthy of pixels anyway.

I trolled more than normal on this trip but I’m a lighthearted troller. I only put one line out at a time. About a quarter of my catches came from trolling. The others were from casting. I just cannot forego my bass fishing ways. I even brought a bait cast rod this trip and caught my first two stripers on it.

I worked both the east and west shorelines between the bridges and the eastern shoreline by far was the best producer today. Also of note were the many tailess soft baits I retrieved today. The little nippers were out in force underneath and I’m glad I didn’t boat one. Raptor did and paid the price.

I caught fish on a silver Rat L Trap, a black and silver X Rap, chartreuse and white curly tail grubs and white paddle tails.

It was another good Jonas Green day. I just wish we had found some larger stripers.

[sparky1423]

Never knew flounders were present. Maybe we can slip them some Viagra and a little Marvin Gaye! I think Harry is the only person that could catch flounder on a fly rod.

[mytmouse]

That is crazy about the Flounder. I doubt that a little bitty like that would migrate so far North... Mama and Papa gotta be around somewhere! LOL Great report, looked like a great day to be on the water.

[J.A. Veil]

Flounder are not common in the Severn, but they are there some times. Last summer, I caught a small Flounder upstream by Maynadier Creek (Round Bay area). Later in the day I rode three miles upstream to the headwater shallows and caught carp. How often can you fish in the same river on the same day three miles apart and catch those two species?

I suspect that very few anglers are specifically targetting flounder in the Severn using optimal baits/rigs. It would be interesting if someone put in a serious effort to find flounder in the Severn to get a sense of how common they really are.

[DanMarino]

That sounds like a perfect job for you John since you already figured out the pickerel

[Shady]

Wow, cool to see the flatties in the Severn, where are the drum this year?

[Fishinfool]

That sounds like a perfect job for you John since you already figured out the pickerel

Right Dan, along with "Pickerel Whisperer", John can add "Flounder Daddy" to his list of aliases.

[J.A. Veil]

Sorry guys -- flounder do not capture my imagination the way pickerel do. I don't overly enjoy eating flounder -- they are too bland unless they are prepared with a really good technique. I caught 1 or 2 flounder each of the last 4 days in Cape May -- all were undersized, but even if they had been larger, they would have gone back in the water.

Regarding redfish in the Severn, I had a strike and three-second fight on a fish that pulled differently than the perch I had been catching all afternoon. I got a quick flash of color near the surface before the barbless hook came free. The scale pattern seemed different than a perch and there were no stripes. It may have been a puppy drum, but I have no confirmation. Of course, it could have been wishful thinking. I will not tell you exactly where it was, but can say that it was inside a tributary very near the shoreline on a dropoff from 2 ft to 7 ft. I caught a redfish in the same spot last summer. It hit a Gulp swimming mullet on a small jighead. I intend to fish that spot again to see if I can catch the same fish again.

[dsiekman]

John - the two puppy drum I caught last summer in the Severn were caught off of points in less than 5' of water. Both were on small jig heads with white grubs.

[Mark]

Do puppy drum jump?

I hooked and lost a sizable fish along rip rap yesterday that came out of the water like a smallmouth. I was in the midst of a perch feeding frenzy catching them on a jig head with a curly tail grub. The fish was not a striper, I'm certain because I saw no stripes. I assumed it was a perch but I have never had one jump like that.

[dsiekman]

Do puppy drum jump?

I hooked and lost a sizable fish along rip rap yesterday that came out of the water like a smallmouth. I was in the midst of a perch feeding frenzy catching them on a jig head with a curly tail grub. The fish was not a striper, I'm certain because I saw no stripes. I assumed it was a perch but I have never had one jump like that.

I don't remember if they jumped or not. What I do remember is that it was a totally different kind of fight. I would describe the fish's movements as "smooth and determined". I was convinced it was a keeper rock simply based on the amount of pull. Turned out to be about a 14" red.

Are you sure it wasn't a smallmouth? I've personally seen large mouth come out of the Severn within a quarter mile of where I caught one of those reds. As John mentioned, I've also seen large carp a couple miles north.

[Mark]

I'm positive it wasn't a smallmouth. It had a silver flash, not bronze.