After learning where the pickerel are hanging out in two Severn tributaries over the past 6 weeks, I decided to explore some other tributaries in the same section of the river to see if the pickerel were reasonably abundant there too. Yesterday I reported about my outing in Weems Creek. I was pleased that between my fishing buddy and me, we caught 10 pickerel in 3 hours just by trial and error.

This morning I decided to try College Creek. I launched at Jonas Green park, and paddled across to College Creek. Most of the shoreline through the Naval Academy is concrete or rip rap. I bypassed that section and began fishing wooded shorelines over most of the middle and upper sections of the Creek. These are areas where I have caught white perch in the summer. The water level was very low this morning. That did not help fishing.

After two hours of constant casting throughout the creek, I had not had a single bite. I was about ready to give in to the skunk when I cast into an un-fishy look spot with trash and less than 1-ft depth. To my surprise, a spunky little pickerel hit the minnow. After getting him to boatside and removing the hook, I measured the fish. It was by far the smallest pickerel I have ever caught -- 9.25". That proved to be the only fish I could find in all of College Creek. That was disappointing.

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Before finishing for the day, I stopped off in another tributary that has held pickerel. I wanted to make sure that the weather or low water was not the only cause of the poor bite. Sure enough, the second tributary had a good bite. I hooked 5 pickerel in 30 minutes. That leads me to believe that College Creek does not hold many pickerel this year (or the past several years either). The first year the SRRKC held a winter pickerel derby, I routinely caught lots of pickerel in College Creek from the shore. After that banner year, the pickerel weren't there any more.