Past Few Days of Fishing

Type: Nontidal
Region:
Location:

Pickerel:

I fished Smithville Lake on Thursday of last week 12/10 and caught three pickerel. 18-22.75-23.5�s all fish on a paddle tail jig. I saw no other fish caught. The water was clear, low wind and sunny.

I fished the Patuxent River out of Waysons Corner, on Friday 12/11, and got a big fat zero. The tide was coming in so I thought I might catch a pickerel or two, but no luck. The water was clouded somewhat.

On Sunday 12/13, I fished Unicorn* and Urieville. Only three small pickerel on Unicorn and a bass over at Urieville. The water at both lakes was somewhat cloudy, I believe from the vegetation dying off, lots of algae too. There were no less than five other kayakers and a boat on Unicorn. Urieville had four other kayakers. I believe I saw eight or so pickerel caught on Unicorn, a crappie and a few bluegill (on minnows and small spinner bait). At Urieville I was told that 10 bass and a few pickerel were caught. Jerk baits, small plugs and plastics worm. But I didn�t witness any of those catches.

*note: while at Unicorn, I took a cast into shallow water and had a fish come up on it and out of the water. I had thought it was a snakehead, but second guessed and thought it was a pickerel. I asked a few locals when I got to the ramp and they said they catch snakehead in the creek at the base of the dam. There is a fish ladder at the dam. I also spoke to an angler (Mike) while on Unicorn. He said he had a banner day at Smithville Saturday catching fish on minnows.

I heard that the Magothy and Severn were slammed over the weekend. Two friends, one on the Magothy and one on the Severn, fished yesterday and today. Lot of boats fishing for pickerel. They each only caught smaller fish biggest on the magothy 21�. Yesterday I got up early to fish Smithville Lake. Once I got there I was disappointed to see the water was cloudy and high. I should have planned on those conditions, considering it rained on Monday, but I launched my kayak anyway and started casting beetle spin, hard baits and paddle tail jigs.

Even though I caught a crappie I couldn�t convince myself I�d get bit by pickerel. So after an hour and a half I drug up and headed to Weems creek. I launched at the Tucker Street launch. Once I was in the water, I turned left and went up the creek. I was cutting through the skim ice as I headed towards the bridges. Once I passed them I started casting along the shoreline. It wasn�t long and I caught a pickerel on a Keitech 1/4 jig head dressed with a Keitech 4� gray/blue colored paddle tail plastic. I continued to work the shoreline for two hours and ended up catching six pickerel, largest was 19.5�.

Rockfish and perch:

I spoke my friend, Julian, who on Saturday went down to 72, no birds and catching only 20 small rockfish, biggest 18�. They then fished for perch in the Patuxent River and ended up catching 21 perch suspended in the upper water column in 78� of water on small metal jigs.