Late Notice -- Jonas Green, Wednesday, 21 September

[Mark]

A good portion of the Old Guys Who Like to Fish are convening at Jonas Green tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. to chase stripers, white perch, pickerels and evidently even speckled trout.

If your reputation can withstand our company, you are welcome to join us.

For those who arrive late, we’ll be chattering on channel 68.

We hope to see you there.

[J. Rentch]

Tight lines. To you guys, wish I could join you! Lunch at Canton later?

[J.A. Veil]

Lunch at Canton later?

I'm in for lunch. We can call you when we leave the park and head over there.

[Mark]

I'm in for lunch.

Me too.

[bunnielab]

My yak is on my car and my alarm is set. I have been meaning to hit the Severn again to get in on the perch frenzy.

[Mark]

My yak is on my car and my alarm is set. I have been meaning to hit the Severn again to get in on the perch frenzy.

Excellent.

See you there.

[Capt.Richie]

How far do you usually travel from the ramp?

[bunnielab]

Perch frenzy delivered more then expected. If there were any more in there you could walk across the water on their backs.
This guy is a good representative of the size class I found the most of:

Once school was so thick I managed 7 catches in 7 casts, a new record for me. I even ended up snagging two of them out of another school I found. I caught a few small pickerel as well, one of which jumped free and ended up under my seat, which was just as fun as it sounded. Sticking my hand under there to feel around for him was not awesome. Today I tested a homemade inline spinner and it worked well, until a pickerel bit it off. Even the smallest perch seem to be able to get their mouth around a #6 single hook.

[J.A. Veil]

How far do you usually travel from the ramp?

Some of the group stayed near Jonas Green and fished some tidal creeks. Others traveled farther. I covered 8.5 miles and fished from Jonas Green to the river mouth. I ended with about 30 stripers (only two of keeper size), one ray, one bluefish, and one spec (for the second day in a row I got a Severn trout).

[Mark]

When I arrived at Jonas Green this morning at 0630 I thought I'd be early but already several members of our group were on the water. A wonderful thing about the Severn is that it provides opportunities for multiple forms of fishing. You can troll. You can bottom fish. You can cast. And each of those fishing styles can be accomplished relatively close to the launch site at Jonas Green.

I wasn't surprised when I heard on the radio that most of our fleet this morning was trolling. It's clear from recent reports on the Severn and the successes of our group today that lots of stripers are within striking distance of Jonas. Keepers too!

Here's Harry trolling:

P1020127.jpg

He and Drew (bunnielab) were the only two guys in our group that I actually saw on the water today. But I heard the others on channel 68 and I knew they were into fish.

I had other plans. My goal today was a Severn Slam and I accomplished that. I really wanted to do it solely on a flyrod. I did not accomplish that. However, my fist fish of the day was this nice white perch that gave a good tug on a 4 wt. flyrod:

P1020129.jpg

I caught it on the far shoreline near the USNA bridge. It hit a blue over white Clouser Minnow, which has typically been a good pattern for me for Severn white perch.

My next stop was a tidal pond that I know holds pickerels. In fact, Drew was in the same pond with me and I saw him catch pickerels on a spinner. I threw flyrod poppers for 45 minutes with not even a swirl. No rises at all. That was quite perplexing because the conditions for top-water were ideal with significant cloud cover and low wind creating a smooth water surface. For some reason the pickerels stayed down. Maybe there are still too many perch in their neighborhood or maybe the water was too stained from recent rains. Whatever the reason, I could not get one to rise today.

I put down the flyrod and picked up a spinning rod with a jig spinner on it. I immediately caught a 12 inch striper. So I had two of the three slam fish, albeit not the way I wanted. Unfortunately, I didn't photograph the striper so you'll have to take my word for it.

I also caught several more white perch with the Clouser and a spinner, good sized ones like Drew showed.

At that point Drew and I left for another tidal pond.

I reverted to the flyrod in the new pond and again was skunked. But after working one shoreline with the fly with no hits I switched to a jig spinner and the action was suddenly fast. I caught a lot of white perch in short order. Again, these were good sized white perch:

P1020131.jpg P1020133.jpg

I also got a pickerel on the spinner:

P1020132 (2).jpg

I wasn't too keen on seeing those sores on the pickerel.

And then I augmented my Severn Slam with a spotted globe trout. I've now caught three of these in the Severn, including two this season. I note they are prevalent after heavy rainfall and the only way to catch them is via top-water. See here:

P1020130.jpg

They're always identical in size and color too. Amazing.

I left the second pond and went out to the river and caught a few white perch in the shallows on jig spinners. Then I heard from John V. on the radio that the trollers were back at the launch and planning for lunch. I headed back.

And this was the first time I saw most of the members of our group together:

P1020134.jpg

Unfortunately, Harry, Bruce and Keith could not join us for lunch but we jointly covered for them in the serious damage we did to the Chinese buffet. We also each had a good days on the water and good stories to share at lunch.

So...the stripers are definitely back in those areas of the Severn accessible from Jonas. And as always the Severn provided ample catching opportunities for those who didn't want to troll today.

It was a very good trip!

[J.A. Veil]

Mark continues to hobnob with Hollywood celebrities. That is Wilson from the Tom Hanks movie "Castaway".

[J. Rentch]

Great seeing everyone at lunch today, sorry I couldn't get on the water with everyone.

[Yak67]

Great outing today! a "Mini M&G" Great weather and everyone caught fish. No slam for me, but I will be on it next time out.
Lunch was great too- those ladies really treat the OGWLF like "Royalty"
WILSON(Tom hanks Voice)
Yak67
2016 Hobie Outback LE#217

[On the fly]

Yes, it was a good morning. I caught my first schoolie striper soon after launch. I fished the area between the bridges for a little while then proceeded east. I ended up with about 8 schoolie's, 2-16", 1-17",1-19", and 1-22". Only caught stripers but did have a cow nose ray come up about 20' off my starboard side. Glad I did not catch him, but I beleive John was not so lucky as he caught one.

[Big Mike]

Great day all around it sounds like. Good job gents. Plenty of fish down south but hard to find them in the size you caught today.