Excellent Gathering on the River!

[lfreed]

A big THANK YOU to John Page Williams for hosting our gathering last night. What a blast!

Myself, JP, Goose, Skip, Dave Kahler, Ralph, and John Veil spent the evening paddling around in canoes and kayaks checking out all kinds of cool stuff, including:

Scouted Ray's Pond and did a bit of fishing in there
Checked O2, salinity and temps at various locations (still not too good at lower depths or inside the shallow ponds)
Got an excellent lesson in natural hydrology and filtering featuring 2 dramatically different situations within a stones throw of each other
Identified various types of grasses around the area
Pulled a seine net a few times to see what we could find (many silversides, mummis, a few small rock, blue gill, several small spot that Skip was salivating over, and a couple grass shrimp that Goose promptly turned into perch bait)
Did a bit of fishing on the edges of the grass beds
And drank a frosty toast to the river at sunsetThat was a great time. If you ever get an opportunity to do this with JP I'd highly recommend you jump on it. The man truly knows his stuff (he's a pretty good fisherman, too :)) )

Thanks, again, John Page... an excellent outing. Thanks to all the guys who came out, as well.

FYI: The next gathering is Thursday, August 2. Weather permitting, this will be another on-the-water raft-up gathering. We also need to pick a date for the Summer Perch Tournament... we could do it on August 2nd or another time during the month. Opinions welcome.

Oh, and we didn't vote, but since there was only one entry for June, it looks like Skip's fish head wins Fisherman of the Month! Congratulations, Skip... next time try to take a picture of the entire fish!!! :pp

[27 sailfish]

That was a fun evening.Being in a canoe is differant.The amount of grass was a good surprise :thumbup: .


Thanks for the June "Fisherman of the month"-I figured with no one else entered-I only needed 1/2 a fish to win. :D Skip

[Big E]

Guys sorry I couldn't get out to be with you. I was thinking of fishing early on yesterday but with my AC unit on the outs I spent the afternoon trying to muster just another month out of it until my service policy kicks in. Anyone know anything bout A/C units? Anyway it sure did sound like ya'll had a great time and I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone again in Aug.

Cheers,
E

[goose70]

I second Larry's "thank you" to John Page.

A couple fo notes:

(1) Skip and I outcaught everyone and even had to back down on one Perch.

(2) A few semi-coordinated hauls of a thirty foot sein yeilded a surprising quantity and variety of fish, including silversides, an anchovy or two, baby Spot, White Perch, three species of mummichogs, a blue crab, and a number of young-of-the-year Stripers. JPW told us that the latter discovery at that location often fortells of a banner spawn in the upper Bay.

(3) Per usual, the water was remarkably clear in the grass beds....much more so than just a few hundred feet outside of the grass beds. It goes to show how well he beds filter out sediment.

(4) Widgeon grass was very thick (in addition to the usual Redhead grass). Widgeon favors saltier water.

(5) JPW showed us one side of the salt pond wetlands that contained about five species of marsh plants and had a fair amount of gravel mixed into the sediment. He then showed us wetelands on the opposite side of the pond that contained about two-dozen species of marsh plants and had several small streams of cool water flowing through it. He explained to us that the first side is near a community that was developed prior to the Critical Areas Act. The land was cleared and a road/sediment pond built just upstream of the marsh. The gravel we saw was from warm-water washouts after heavy rains. By contrast, the other side was near a neigborhood that was built in conformity with the critical areas laws. Additionally, the County obtained and preserved the mature woods all along the steep wooded slopes surrounding the marsh, thereby preserving the hydrology of the surrounding land. As a result, JPW told us that the cool, filtered streams feed the marsh and the pond even during a drought. The lesson is that land preservation and strict adherence to the critical areas laws does have a direct bearing on the Severn (and on our sport).

[lfreed]

Yeah... what Goose said. :D

[J.A. Veil]

I thoroughly enjoyed the chance to see a new part of the Severn. It was great to learn from a master naturalist. Thanks John Page!
:clapping2:

[rem1224]

Let me add my thanks to John Page as well. It was a great evening on the water and JP was a wealth of good information. I had never had the opportunity to explore the shallows up there before - its a really beautiful area.

Skip and Goose may have out caught us, but Larry and I did manage to keep the skunk off of our canoe ;-) . I think Skip was counting all the 1" spot he picked out of the seine net as part of their catch for the evening :pp

[J.P. Williams]

Gentlemen--

A great evewning indeed. As usual, I learned a bunch from you and from prowling the river. Mainstem grass beds, shell piles, & the railroad bridge get my vote till September's cold fronts.

One caution from Goose's post. Three little rockfish don't necessarily foretell a banner year, but they do tell us that the hatch was at least average. In 2003 (big year), the net held ten at a pull, plus 20 white perch). But remember that Rays Pond is hot & low in dissolved O2 right now. I'd be interested to pull the net around some grass beds on the river itself.

Best, JPW

[Megabyte]

Man... I'm sorry I missed the meeting... I had to work. :pinch:
I'm forced to retire in 3 years, so after that... watch out! I'll make every meeting! :))

I will be fishing Turtle Lake in Minnesota until August 7th, so hopefully the SRRKC perch tourney will be a little after that date. :D

http://homepage.mac.com/kevinfarrell/.Pictures/Photo%20Album%20Pictures/2007-07-08%2017.16.54%20-0700/Image-4C8B78482DB111DC.jpg

I am one with the perch. :thumbup:

[goose70]

Hey Kevin, Perch spawn in March! You're a few months late in that pic!:roflguy: