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Lessons at Jonas Green 6/18/2011

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  • Lessons at Jonas Green 6/18/2011

    Hi All,

    I'm a new participant in the forum - but have been a reader of it for a while now. I bought a used OK Prowler 13 back in February or so, and have since been doing a lot of reading up (some might call it "lurking") on the ins and outs of fishing from a kayak from this forum and from P&S.

    I had been a little nervous about taking my first trip out with the kayak, so I have only been fantasizing about it and got my excitement out of reading others' reports. I finally pulled the trigger this week and did 2 trips. One was to Centennial lake earlier this week as a trial, and today I went to Jonas Green State Park to get warmed up to kayak fishing in the bay. I've been to Jonas Green numerous times before to fish from shore, so I kind of had an idea of what to expect there, but the river sure is wider than it seems (more on that later).

    On one of my previous trips I had caught some white perch that I fileted and cooked for my wife, and she enjoyed it a lot. With all the reports lately about white perch in the Severn, I thought that fishing for white perch out of Jonas Green would be perfect. So I launched from the beach today around 9:30AM, and paddled around a little to get acclimated to the new environment. I first paddled without my rudder down, and later put it in action, and boy did it make a difference. I'm so grateful the previous owner had that rudder installed...it made paddling and maneuvering much easier.

    Now that I got the hang of paddling, it was time to look for some fish. I paddled westward toward the rte 50 bridge, and stopped here and there to toss a plastic grub near the piers that lined the shore. This didn't produce any fish....so I went on to check out the small cove or pond next to the huge white mansion (i think i read that it's some kind of assisted living place).

    The cove was nice - very quiet, calm water, and minnows were jumping out of the water all over the place. I thought this would be a great place, but got nothing again...I threw my grub toward areas of structure that looked like they would hold fish, and also threw my grub so that it would swim by the areas where I saw jumping bait fish. Nada.

    I remembered hearing about all the good reports about perching in Weems Creek, across the channel, so I thought I'd give it a try. On the way over, I tried casting out next to the wall in front of the white mansion, and I finally caught a perch! For about a half hour or so, I was catching perch every 4 or 5 casts. Finally! I can see what the fun is all about. I only kept 3 of the larger ones, since I didn't think it'd be worth cleaning and eating the smaller ones. One thing to note is that there were baitfish jumping out of the water here too. I don't know what was different between this location and the cove....except the moving water?

    When the action slowed down, I proceeded to make my way across the channel. This was a scary experience, this being my second time on the kayak - first time in open water. Boats kept passing by, and sending out big waves...and it took forever to paddle across. Once I finally crossed the channel, I was too tired to even try to venture into the creek...so I tried checking out the piers on this side of the river, while making my way back toward the rte 450 bridge. Nothing again...I didn't even see any jumping baitfish, so that probably should have clued me into the fact that there would be no action there.

    I decided to give up on trying to catch any more perch, and decided to check out an area that I saw on a nautical map where there is supposed to be an oyster bed. It's on the other side of the 450 bridge, kind of across from the broken down bridge (the public pier). I baited up some frozen shrimp and dropped my tob/bottom rig down where i thought the oyster bed should be. I have a fish finder, and read that oyster beds would show as an area with a thicker grayline...but I couldn't tell. It was 1:30 by this time, so I had some lunch while waiting for a tug on my rod. The waves were hitting pretty hard, so I had to paddle periodically to stay in one place. I did this for about an hour with no luck. I was pretty exhausted from all the paddling by now, so I decided to call it a day, and paddled back to the beach.

    Overall, it was a good day - I caught fish, I didn't fall in the water, and my kayak didn't fall off my foam blocks on the way to or from the river. Thanks to everyone on the board for the perching tips, and I hope I'll be able to fish with you guys some day.
    Sun Fishin'

  • #2
    Good job Sun and welcome. I fish Jonas and Weems from time to time. Maybe I will see you on the water or at one of our M&G. At least you caught fish, got excercise and enjoyed the beauty of the outdoors.

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    • #3
      Welcome Sun. i went to Weems yesterday and had a blast catching perch all morning. I will fish the Severn a lot this summer so maybe we could hook up one day.

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      • #4
        Thanks moc and foursteps.

        Man! I wish I had known that you'd be out there, foursteps, because you had invited me to go fishing you with you sometime on the P&S forum. I'll make sure next time to post my plans of going out on my kayak.

        [Edit] Oh wait, you were out on Friday. Sorry about that.
        Sun Fishin'

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        • #5
          Sun -

          It sounds like you got to experience the weekend Severn River experience. One of the drawbacks to launching at Jonas Green park is that you are immediately in the open river and have some paddling to do to find a more sheltered spot. Boat wakes of 1-2 feet can cause some concern for a novice paddler, but you will soon get used to them. A great place to practice is just across the river from Jonas Green along the Naval Academy seawall. Try paddling 50-200 ft out and parallel to the wall. You get incoming boat wakes, outgoing reflected wakes, and when the two wakes interact, you can get even larger standing waves. I feel like I am paddling whitewater when I do that on a weekend afternoon.

          The best perch bites during the hot weather will be in shaded areas (try casting beneath overhanging trees and docks if the sun is too high up to give good natural shade. As reported my Grady-Black last Friday, the perch were not biting on the 3" shad lures we had been using successfully the previous few trips. On Friday, they wanted a smaller profile lure, like a 1" to 2" twister tail grub. I certainly don't know why fish hit one lure rather than another, but if your first choice lures do not produce, try another size, shape, or color, or change something else like retrieve speed.

          Keep practicing and soon you will become a perch meister too. P.S., if you are out there after 10:00 am on a weekend, you will have better fishing and far less wake bouncing by tucking into a creek or cove as soon as you can get there.
          John Veil
          Annapolis
          Native Watercraft Manta Ray 11, Falcon 11

          Author - "Fishing in the Comfort Zone" , "Fishing Road Trip - 2019", "My Fishing Life: Two Years to Remember", and "The Way I Like to Fish -- A Kayak Angler's Guide to Shallow Water, Light Tackle Fishing"

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          • #6
            Good advice from Mr. Veil as always. I like to use gulp minnows in 1" or 3" depending on what they want that day as mentioned above. Lots of times I like to add a beetle spinner arm too to give it more flash. I've had good luck in the past in the small marina just upriver from jonas green and also the piers just down river of the severn inn. I will be out tomorro from Jonas green and plan to try weems creek and hopefully the other two areas that I mentioned.
            Ryan
            Blue 2016 Hobie Outback
            Chesapeake Bay Kayak Anglers, Inc

            Comment


            • #7
              Thanks for tips, J.A. Veil and shadyfisher. I'm wondering if the marina that shadyfisher mentioned is the same one that I went into and left. It did seem like a good place that would hold fish....I just didn't catch anything. The line-up you mentioned sounds good....I think I may try that next time.
              Sun Fishin'

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              • #8
                Sounds like a fun place to try out. I will add this to my list of new spots I have gained from this site. You all have me set for new spots for the next few years.

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                • #9
                  However, the main contours and drops of the main part of the Severn River is better fishing for stripers. Try trolling those deeper edges. Don't let that slip by you. In front of, or actually off to the side of what you refer to as the old mansion, Manressa, is where the old railroad trussel used to be. That is probably why you caught some perch there. If you line that up with where the bridge came out on the other side, there are still stumps from the pilings, where divers cut them off. You can see them on a depth finder. I don't know how much of the stuff is still left on the bottom, but it used to hold fish. I have not perch fished in years, but that area used to hold some really jumbo perch. Of course I used to use bloodworms near the bottom. I didn't do much of the jig thing except for stripers. Although, years ago, I used to catch a mess of perch on the Choptank with beetlespins and rooster tails.

                  After you have been kayaking for awhile you'll become used to the boat wake. I now fish alot on the South River, and it can be a ride at times with all the boats. Just let the kayak do the work. Just watch out for the waves that are still breaking, when very large boats go by very near. You do have to turn into those.

                  Good luck.

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