No love on the Severn today

[dsiekman]

I headed out around 6:30 this morning to hit my usual spots. Beautiful morning with limited boat traffic. After casting and trolling for about three hours all I had to show for my efforts was one small bluefish and several 1/2 soft plastics. The baitfish are plentiful but very small. Maybe 1-1.5". I have yet to see birds over breaking fish in the river this year.

I will say that the water looks pretty clear for this time of year. I'm not sure if that is really a good thing or not. I have also not seen a single crab. I know they are being caught, but I am used to seeing them swimming or hanging out on pilings.

It's a very strange day when you can't even get the WP to cooperate.

[TXfly16]

Hello dsiekman, I was also on the Severn today the green Cuda 12 that kept crossing the river. Sorry to hear about the luck today. I also didn't have any luck targeting stripers so I decided to fish for perch instead. I made out pretty well with perch but the boat traffic was too much for me by 1030 so I headed home after that. Better luck next time, tight lines!

[On the fly]

Hugo, where were you catching the work?

[TXfly16]

Harry, I was catching them off the rocks at the flag pole directly across from Jonas Green launch.

[On the fly]

Always a good spot, also catch schoolie stripers. There.

[rob-kayak]

No love on the Severn today

I guess it has/is an interesting year after the cold of last winter... as I am very new to the Chesapeake I can only read what all the veterans are broadcasting.
This morning on the Allen Ellis radio show he had the lady that works for the coastal and bays (DNR?) as a guest.
At the White Marlin Tournament it was a limited amount of(White Marlin) catch... she commented that it was because of the 'take' from southern waters... but please don't quote me on that.. you can hear the pod cast later in the week, as I was doing many things early this morning and don't know if I heard her correctly.
Interest though... because it was either last year or the year before, and, not just the tournament, but White Marlin were particularly plentiful.
My only thought to this year is the water temps have been cool.. but then I don't monitor offshore...

But back to more local stuff... I've been exploring (to me) new places.
Went to Romancoke last week and made it out to Bloody Point Light. It was slow going out with the wind against me (in my little tug boat)... but made it.
TONS of fish in the water... as I made my way out I would stop... anchor (least I drift back half a mile)... change trolling lures.. bottom fish for a while... pull anchor troll again for a while... repeat.
Oh... I did catch a cow nosed ray about 5 minutes from the launch... oh well, had to happen sometime and he was a biggie.
Got the usual chomped Gulps.... caught two small Blues while anchored amongst boiling baitfish surfacing...
But no Spot or Croakers bottom fishing along the way.
Got that "No Love On The...." feeling you are expressing....
Well anyway... paddled back with a really good wind and tide... which was nice...
Ten hours on the water... and only 10.5 miles logged...
I did bring home two 20inch'ish rocks that I got trolling on the way back.
And I had an extremely enjoyable day and met some of the locals which was great.

Went to Rose Haven yesterday... since I've already hi-jacked your thread enough.. I'll try to keep this shorter...
A new place again....
TONS of fish in the water but not the bait fish on the surface as Romancoke...
But no rock.. one dink Blue.. but did bring home a bunch nice 12inch'ish fat croakers and one fatty spot.
Really interesting place along the coast (headed north) with lots of possibilities of grassy shore lines...
A beautiful place for a paddle. Wind again against me heading north... went dead calm at high tide
near the apogee of my route... (oh no ! wind shift... and yes wind against me on the way back).
17.5 miles against the wind... oh well .... had a great time.

Sorry to hi-jack your thread... even though you didn't get the "love" you were looking for.
I hope you had an enjoyable day on the water.
Cheers !

Romancoke |||||| Rose Haven

[dsiekman]

Hello dsiekman, I was also on the Severn today the green Cuda 12 that kept crossing the river. Sorry to hear about the luck today. I also didn't have any luck targeting stripers so I decided to fish for perch instead. I made out pretty well with perch but the boat traffic was too much for me by 1030 so I headed home after that. Better luck next time, tight lines!

I was fishing north of Round Bay for the most part. I considered driving down to Jonas...looks like I should have!

[dsiekman]

Rob kayak,

This has been a really weird year on the river for me. During July and August I expect to see schools of breaking fish. Mostly 12-16" class but occasionally a larger one hanging below. I also expect to find resident fish in the 18-24" class hanging around docks and other structure in 5-10' of water. Typically, my WP spots produce 30+ fish an hour on a good day regardless of boat traffic. This year none of that is true. I'm not sure if it a result of temperature, rain/salinity,or some other factor. All I know is that I miss the fishing I had two summers ago. I seldom came home without a keeper rock, would quickly tire of taking fat WP off my lures, and even caught a few puppy drum all the way up the Severn. It was a great year!

[Shady]

Yep, weird year. Normally by this time, I have a nice stock of perch and striper in the freezer, but this year I've had to settle for big spot and croaker and only a couple striper. I also have fished severn a lot in the past but this year I had one good trip bottom fishing perch spot and croaker and several with only a few perch. So, I've shifted to fishing spsp more

[Bluegill]

Shady I have started fishing SPSP this year but with no luck could you give me a couple pointers for this time of year time of day bait and location if you could.

[J.A. Veil]

I trolled in shallow depth from Manresa to above the Rt 50 bridge this morning. Later I trolled on the oppposite side of the river from Rt 50 to Weems Creek, and inside of Weems. The water was calm. There was floating grass in the creeks but the main river was clear. Last summer and fall, I could consistently catch perch and stripers along that route by trolling small spinnners on two rods (perch) and paddletails on two rods (stripers). Today in 6 miles of trolling including both shorelines, I caught just one small perch. None of the other lures were touched.

I redeemed myself by casting a Bignose spinner to shorelines in two tributaries, catching more than dozen perch and one pickerel.

Just for fun, I experimented with trolling a fifth rod for a short time -- 4 in rod holders while holding a 5th rod. It did not matter -- the fish were not there or were not biting.

[dsiekman]

Sorry to hear that, John. I was hoping it was just me. Let's hope this fall makes up for it.