Second Spa Creek Pickerel trip 11/23

Launched at Truxton Park at 3:00 this afternoon. Tide was very low for the second week in a row (does it ever come in). Caught a nice pickerel on the 5th cast, estimate her to be 20", almost derby worthy. Unfortunately, my little hog trough tiedown failed and she launched back into the creek before I could settle her down for a pic. Saw a few decent white perch follow ups, but no more than a tap from them. After another half hour I hooked up with my second pickerel, a twin to last week's fish at 18.75". Was off the water at 4:15, not bad for a short trip. Today's lure was what John V. reported catching on yesterday, small jighead with chartreuse twister tail. Best news, leaves were not a problem today. Looking forward to next week.

[groundhog]

Was checking out the ramp, (first time there) and met Capt C-Hawk. The first forum member I've talked to. Newbie here. He had a couple good tips for me. Thanks for the post C-Hawk. For as much water there is around AA county they sure are lacking in the number of boat ramps available. Will keep on looking around.

[Mark]

C-Hawk,

Congrats on the catches.

I was in Weems yesterday using the same lure in your photo. I struck out again. Not even a bump.

The "high" tide remains very low and I have to wonder if that is impacting the pickerel catch.

[J.A. Veil]

Bob -

Nice going on getting a few pickerel yesterday. Mark and I fished Weems Creek during the morning. I threw a variety of small lures with yellow, white, and chartreuse colors. Neither of us had a bite in 2.5 hours of fishing in my typical pickerel spots.

Another guy in the SRRKC fished much farther up river yesterday and caught several pickerel over 21" as well as a yellow and a white perch.

Regarding the water level, the "average" water level has been on the low side this week (lower than normal highs and lows). High tides in the Severn were roughly 8:00 am and 8:30 pm yesterday. We started about 9:00 am and found already low water. If you were out at 3:00, you were not far off the low tide point.

It is interesting to look at how tides vary over the course of a week or two. Here is a projection of tides for the Severn River (courtesy of windfinder.com).

severn tides.jpg

Each 24-hour (closer to 24.5 hour) cycle shows two highs and two lows. Typically one of the highs is higher than the other, and one of the lows is lower than the other. The highs and lows are not very extreme now, but looking ahead to Nov 30 and Dec 1, we could experience very high water followed by very low water.

If you assume that fishing will be better when tidal current is moving, it would be advantageous to fish between the higher high tide and the lower low tide because more water will need to move back and forth to reach those elevations. These are the predicted tidal heights. As HJS showed in a recent post, the actual tidal heights can vary, When the wind is blowing hard for a sustained period, it can completely override the tidal effect.

Back to your fishing report, I am intrigued by the use of a cord to hold the fish to the measuring board. Although it did not work well for you yesterday, the basic concept has merit. Keep experimenting with other techniques and materials and report back on what works for you. If I have a larger than normal fish, I use my small boga grip clone to keep more control of the fish during the measuring process.