TWIF (This Week in Fishing) May 28th - June 3rd

Saturday, May 28th:

Whether it's the official or unofficial start of summer Memorial Day weekend is here, and I got a chance to spend it on the Eastern Shore. I woke up early this morning and drove over to Powellville. I had been on Adkins Mill Pond once before and I thought I'd give it another try. At first I paddled into the upper reaches, back among the cypress trees. I didn't have much luck there but it really was a pretty location. So I turned around and headed towards the the main part of the pond. I made my casts just outside of the lily pads and got a couple of nibbles. The first fish I caught was an 8 inch golden shiner. From there I continued along the pads and caught a few crappie. My last cast of the morning got nailed and pulled towards the bottom with at a quick pace. I thought I had hooked up on a nice pickerel until I got it to the kayak. I had actually caught a 13 inch bullhead catfish. Eight fish total spread between four species all one a silver speckled Arkie tube.

My day at Adkins Mill wasn't over. Saturday evening my sister asked if I was able to help with an issue at her house in Ocean Pines. Adkins Mill is about half way between Salisbury and Ocean Pines so I left a little earlier than I needed. I spent about an hour and a half paddling around and caught another dozen fish split between bluegill and black crappie. Upon leaving I was greeted with a terrific sunset.

Sunday, May 29th: The weekend continued into Sunday of course and I spent two hours back on Leonard's Mill. I switched baits to a green nymph soft plastic bait by Johnson's. It was suspended under a float and it paid off with a nice handful of bluegill. But once in a while I'd give it a really nice twitch, or even drag it through the water. It was those quick drags that attracted hard hits from some really nice chain pickerels.

I ended the morning with 4 pickerel and 8 bluegills. All totaled I ended up catching just over 40 fish while down in the Salisbury area.

Monday, May 30: The weekend continued into Monday this week giving that it's Memorial Day. A day from school and a few things to do around the house and then a chance to try another spot. I drove over to Nan's Cove on the Patuxent River since it was pretty close to the time for high tide. Looking back on it I wish I could have been a little earlier or a little later since the water wasn't moving very much and there was much wind to create a current. Nevertheless I tied on a small silver Arkie spinner and added a bluish and green tube on a 1/32 oz jig head. Making casts along the shoreline I was able to catch a good number of white perch. All of them were no bigger than 7 or 8 inches so I let them go to swim again. The same bait was pretty effective on Tuesday after school despite I was fishing low tide and needed to stay towards deeper water in the small channels in each part of the creeks I tried.

Thursday, June 2nd: Graduation Day - well for the seniors at the school where I teach it was Graduation Day. But for me it meant a little extra time on the water at Lake Lariat. I paddled out from the launch a little before 1 pm and spent about two and a half hours trying to catch a couple of fish. Middle of the day, with not much of a breeze - fishing was very slow. In fact I just managed to six total and none of them terribly big. I decided to try a different bait on the small Arkie jig. Instead of a tube I used a small one and a half inch bright green nymph under a float. Again nothing on the larger side but I did catch the nice 13 inch bass in the photo. This coming weekend my family has been invited to a couple of graduation parties so I'm not sure how much I'll be on the water. I'll let you know next week. Until then … Tight Lines!