Severn River Catch

[J. Rentch]

Was with John Veil, Mark Bange, and Don Vance on some Severn River Creeks this morning. NW winds @10, Ebb tide and no humidity! The target today was White Perch or anything else. Was throwing a Chartreuse over white Clouser. Was able to get some small ones quickly.
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Later in the morning, when searching for some shady areas to throw, I found a small area with an overhanging tree. Threw the Clouser and had an immediate hit. Raised the rod tip and felt something tug hard, no head shake so I knew it wasn’t a Striper. It then began to tow my kayak in a circle. The tug was so hard it bent the rod until,I thought it would break. Finally got it to the surface and put my Lip Grips on it. Was a hugh Catfish.
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Guess this is the fishing for now, Catfish and Snakeheads.

[Mark]

Fantastic catch on the fly, John.

You're doing really well with the long rod.

Congratulations.

[J.A. Veil]

That was a memorable catch. Well done.

[bignose]

I teased John about not being able to get the fly I tied out of the catfish's mouth and snipping it off.....oops, bad karma!

I was able to motivate my lazy old butt to hit the Creek early today. I figured a couple of hours early to beat the heat monster.
When I got there, I found that I had managed to leave the trolling motor mount on the front porch. I usually fish with a trolling motor on my canoe, especially after shoulder surgery last year.

I decided that I couldn't MacGyver up a motor mount, so I decided to tough it out, and fish "the old fashioned " way.
It made me slow down, fish more thoroughly and deliberately. Basic, simple fishing.
Y'know, I made out O.K. I may not be able to lift my arm over my head tomorrow, but I rediscovered the joy of paddling.

The fishing wasn't great, 15 perch in a 3 hour period is pretty slow, especially when 5 of those fish came off of one dock on 5 successive casts in the las15 minutes that I fished.
The pattern was 6 feet of water, outside weed line, shady side of dock.
This same dock was productive two weeks ago, so there must be something going on, as it had never been much of a producer before. My usual reliable spots have been less so this year.

But then there was the 18" Channel Cat that I caught under a dock on the spinner jig. Karma being what it is, the darn hook broke off at the bend as I tied to remove it, a brand new jig at that.
It did give me a pretty good tussle on the ultra light perch tackle.

[J. Rentch]

Stu,
Catfish- they are everywhere, everywhere!

[DanMarino]

Getting Mr. Whiskers on a fly rod sounds pretty fun to me.

[J. Rentch]

It was!

[Mark]

Stu,

Congrats on the channel cat. I had one straighten my perch spinner in Weems last year. They're really strong.

Regarding perch, they are indeed very localized, more so than prior years, I believe. I caught only 14 on yesterday's outing and only once did I catch 2 on consecutive casts. Otherwise it was hunt and peck at various likely spots -- shade mostly. And hundreds of empty casts.

On the other hand I know at least one member of our crew caught nearly 40. So being in the right place at the right time is key this year to catching a lot of perch. It's almost like your perch success is predetermined by the path you choose to take on the water.