via Tight Lined Tales of a Fly Fisherman: Pickerel in the Severn

Here is Morgan's report from our pickerel trip last week.

Tight Lined Tales of a Fly Fisherman: Pickerel in the Severn:
So the Chain Pickerel move into the rivers of the Bay every year at some point in between Thanksgiving and Christmas, becoming most active around the first or second week of December. I had the privilege of fishing with one of my good buddies Matt, author of The Hobie Life, on the back of his Hobie Pro Angler last week.

Not only was the wind strong (too strong to attempt to toss a fly), but the bite was too. After the last three fishing trips ending in a big old skunk, I was pretty discouraged and really wasn't ready to cast a line again. Fortunately, Matt got to talking about the Pickerel and got me pretty stoked.

With the air temp sitting around 45F, the water temp around 48F, and the wind gusts up to 35 mph, I threw on my neoprene waders and met Matt at one of the local boat ramps on Weems Creek where he had his beautiful and fully rigged Pro Angler in the water, ready to go. I had stopped at Angler's and picked up a pint of minnows and I brought along a few fly rods but decided to leave them in the car when the gusts became continuous. I grabbed my 6' Daiwa bass pole (fortunately the wind blew all the dust off it for me), and Matt supplied the 1/8 Jig Heads to hook the minnows on.

I hopped on the back of the 14' 'yak and we were off, minnows in the water right away. At the first shoreline, I rigged up and tossed my line and within the first 5 casts had hooked up on a fish. Unfortunately, the first 3 hookups turned into lost fish. I've caught many-a-pickerel in my day but never understood why they are so easily lost. The way Matt explained it to me, is that, due to their softer jaws, they need to be able to run a bit so the hook set is solid enough to allow you to bring the fish to hand. After working the shoreline for a bit and me losing about half a dozen of Matts jig heads on snags, we finally started to bring in fish. I was able to catch some footage on the GoPro before it broke (its being sent back this week for an exchange) and for those of you who follow us on Instagram andFacebook, you were able to see the photos I snapped of a few fish.

The largest of the day was about 21" and the smallest measured out at around 17.5". The Maryland citation size is 24" and one of the fish Matt lost by the boat was definitely going to be close to that two foot mark. With over a dozen fish brought in between the two of us, it made for an awesome outing and a great break of the huge skunk run I had going for me.

If you don't already follow Matt over at The Hobie Life, you should be, even if your not a 'yak kinda person, the man catches fish, there's no doubt about that.

Boom...Morgan

Show them some love and you can also follow me on instagram @thehobielife

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Thank you to all the readers out there and I wish you a happy holiday season.

If you need any pointers on how to make a stellar Gingerbread House let me know....

Even has a kayak and paddle in the front yard!!!

And here are some of my awesome Christmas gifts from Elaina, check out Skinny Water Culture

Boredome leads to Fish Art

Here are some sketches I did last week during some downtime. I modeled most of my work after the artist Eric Estrada at I am Wase One Fly Fishing Art. ~ Enjoy

DIY Recipe - Buffalo Rockfish Dip

My good fishing buddy Ryan had made this recipe above so I asked him for it so I could make it to have during some of the Football games last week. So Elaina and I went to work to make some tasty snacks.

Cooked the rockfish until it was white and flakey. Then broke into pieces in order to add to the mix.

All mixed up and added tomatoes. Then baked on 450 degrees for about 20-25 minutes.

It was really tasty and I would suggest for anyone to give it a try if you have some rockfish still in the freezer.

Foggy pickerel

2013 Kayak Wars Comes to a Close

Overall, the 2013 season was a very successful one for me and kayak fishing. Not only was I able to get out and fish a lot but I was very fortunate to gain a number of relationships and partnerships with many individuals and companies in the kayak fishing community.

Our team for 2013 was called Snaggedline.com Snaggers. We had a very successful year and I was very fortunate to be ona team with some other passionate kayak fisherman. Ryan (Shadyfisher85) and Wayne (Chimo) were able to catch a lot of species this year! Our other team members ended up having busy years so they weren't able to fish as much, which is fine as we put together our team just to have a good time and hopefully help us work to catch a few more fish.

I was very happy with how we finished. I would have liked to have been able to catch a few more species myself, I didn't even get a striper over 20" which was disappointing, but oh well.

As a team we finshed in 9th in the Northeast Region for Total Inches combined for freshwater and saltwater species!!!! We also finished 18th Nationally in the Freshwater Division!!!

Individually I finished 8th in the Northeast for Freshwater species and finished with a combined 1300 points for both freshwater and saltwater.

Some of my other fishing buddies also had a great year. Jack's (Pinch), Mike (grilled), and Michael's (redfish12) team finshed a very solid 6th in the Northeast saltwater division. And each of them got over 1300 in points!!

I'm really looking forward to next year and hopefully many more fish to come!!!! Thanks for being on my team guys!!

Follow me on instagram @thehobielife

DIY - Rockfish Tacos Recipe

Slice fish into small pieces to make it easier to cook.

Use beer of choice to wet the fish pieces

Use fish fry batter of your choice, I used natural light and shorty's mild breading.

Cook on medium in frying pan in olive oil until gold and crispy.

Pick you favorite sides and mix for amazing fish tacos. I like corn, cheese, sour cream and taco sauce on soft tacos.

Enjoy and get out there and catch em before the season closes in Maryland.

2nd Place in the Eastport Yacht Club Rockfish Tournament

I got another call from Capt. Luke Thatcher looking for some crew to fish a single day tournament this past Saturday. We would be fishing on Luke's newest addition to his fleet, a Regulator 32. During the MSSA Tournament I had backed out on fishing one day so I owed it to him to get out there and help him catch some winning fish... and that's just what we did.

 

We launched out of Solomon's Island and headed south in a dense fog. The radar on the boat made driving in the fog quite managable but it was still somewhat stressful and erie.

We made it south near Point Lookout and started setting out the planer boards and all the rods, 24 in total.

 

 

We caught fish through the morning until about 11am, with the original goal of catching a fish before we even got all the rods out.

Our team included Capt. Luke, his dad, myself, and Lukes Chesapeake Bay retriever Marlin. We had the teamwork down perfectly.. Mr. Thatcher and I took turns reeling and fighting the fish, Luke would grab the leader and whoever didn't reel manned the net.

We were 9 for 9 and didn't lose a fish all day. All 9 of the fish were over 36" with our largest officially measuring in a 39.75", which happened to be .75" shorter than the 1st place fish. So we finished 2nd and we won all the calcuttas, so overall it was a great day for fishing checking in 3 fish.

We tried to to keep our fish alive all day in the livewell so we could release them after checking them in, but unfortunately the fish just didn't have enough kick to swim off on their own. It was a little upsetting but we tried our best to release them.

Yesterday's trip preview

We caught 9 stripers over 36"

More Great News for MAKBF

We now have 3 companies on board for 3 of the 4 events. Each company will sponsor one event and provide a prize for the BIG BASS. We also hope the companies will be able to attend the events, show off and sell some of their products and hopefully be able to fish the event as most are avid kayak anglers as well.

Also, I have chosen the dates for the 2013 series, so mark your calenders!!!

April 20th, May 25th, June 22nd, and July 27th


Here are the companies below. I would like to thank all of them for their support and what is really shaping up to be an awesome series.

Premier Sponsor:

www.kayakbassfishing.com

Official Media Sponsor

Event Sponsor:

Event #1 - April 20th

www.docirvcustombaits.com

Event #2 - May 25th

www.powerteamlures.com

Event #3 - June 22nd

TBD

Event #4 - July 27th

www.bustembaits.com

Lonely Rods

Work, weather, and everything else......

MAKBF Update

Just heard back from Chad Hoover at Kayak Bass Fishing and they will be the premier sponsor for the
series!!!

They will be donating a free entry to the 2014 KBF Invitational for the winner of Angler of the Year. This is an entry to the premier bass fishing events for kayaks with over $10,000 in prizes.



The tournament is really shaping up, so get ready for for a fun and exciting series. We have contacted other event sponsors to sponsor the BIG BASS division, so we look back to hearing from them and updating your with more great news.

Video Treat - Double hookup on bull reds at night

Here is Brandon's video from the night I fished with him and we had a double hook up on topwater with bull reds. You can hear us yelling back and forth about seeing all the fish and the excitement.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I'm very thankful for a lot this year.

My awesome family and girlfriend of course.

My new house and my roommates.

For being able to fish a lot this year and for the great companies that have supported me and the tournament I help organize for our great charities.

For starting school again in January that will lead to a job that I will hopefully be able to keep the same schedule I have now of working only 3 days a week.

And last but not least.... thank you to everyone that follows along at my blog here!!

Crappie Fishing turned into Amazing Fishing!!

Like I mentioned in my last entry yesterday I planned to go crappie fishing today to catch some more points for KW, maybe even the 42 more crappie our team can catch for the month, but I knew that would be a little outrageous.

Welp I hit the water about 10:30am today and it was chilly with the water team already below 50 degrees. Headed the area where I left the crappie the afternoon before and caught 2 quickly while casting a 1/8 oz jig with a smoke clear curly tail grub on my Overboard Ultra lite rod.

 

 

But the bite slowed down as the fish were moving around so I started to troll for them, using my fish finder to mark suspended fish in about 9-12ft of water.

 

Then, a soft bite and tug.... fish on and it felt good, much tougher to bring up the water column than a standard crappie.... I start thinking is this the 15" crappie citation I have been chasing in this lake my whole life?..... a few short drag burning runs and I can see a FAT largemouth come to the surface.... Holy cow I was not expecting that... I was trying to catch crappie and I've never caught big bass this late in the year and in this cold of water.

 

21" 5.2lb Largemouth Bass (MD Citation #6)

 

 

 

Release the LMB and went back to trolling... BAM while going in the opposite direction on the same area of the lake.... Another chunky bass...

 

19.5" Largemouth bass

 

 

Sure enough I kept slow trolling around an got another, snapped a two quick pics and tossed here back, didn't even realize this one was a citation too until I uploaded it.

 

21.25" Largemouth Bass (MD citation #7)

 

Ended the day with 4 bass over 17.75" and 4 crappie over 12". I was not exactly what I was expecting, but I'm not complaining by any means.

On the other hand, I'm very concerned about my favorite fishery. While fishing the last two days I spotted a new critter in our ecosystem. We now have two Otters that are residing at our lake. I'm not surprised that they found the lake as the creek system that connect to the lake dam runs all the way to Fishing Creek in Chesapeake Beach and out to the bay. Their food source where they were living must have depleted and not they have found our lake which has an abundance of crappie, bluegill, golden shiners, and of course largemouth bass. I'm especially worried because it is the cold season and the fish become extremely sluggish which would allow the otters to ravage through what has become in my opinion the most consistent small water trophy bass ecosystem in our southern Maryland region.

Hopefully these otters won't deplete this trophy fishery and I will be able to catch great fish there for years to come.