We spent the Fourth of July holiday weekend fly casting for schoolies, crabbing for jimmies, and learning with each trip!
Quick fishing and crabbing report for those that endeavor in these summer pastimes—the fishing is getting trickier, while the crabbing has been very good. With the recent weather leading to Fourth of July weekend being insanely hot, we’re seeing water temperatures in the Severn River reach the high-80s. It’s jumped significantly in the past two weeks, making the fishing a bit more challenging and, honestly, unsafe for handling species like striped bass. But by dawn’s early light, we gave both a shot!
On July 3, I went fly casting for surface strikes at dawn and saw a lot of anglers on the Severn River as early as 5:30 a.m. Most were spincasting and spot-chasing, burning from one location to another. In fact, it’s amazing to me (but not unexpected) to see boaters roar into prime fishing habitat, outboard blazing, then rev down and make casts as if they didn’t spook every fish on site. Stealth is the key, especially when targeting the dawn bite.
I fished a sizable shallow point with significant grass beds, casting a small popper (black/purple) before sunrise, then switched to a chartreuse deceiver once the sun came up. No takes, but I’m still learning—oh, am I learning—the art of fly casting. I’m considering every recent trip—and there’s been four of them in the past week and change—as practice/testing/trying to get better. Fish on the line would just be a bonus.
Many crabbers on the river, too, trying to get their quarry for the weekend. Needless to say, activity on July 3 was very busy, even during the earliest hours.
I moved to a shaded area near a three-prong jetty with some water that transitioned from shallow to deep. I tied on a weighted clouser in chartreuse/white, which could sink to about 5 feet deep, despite my floating fly line. Casting into shallow shaded water and stripping back toward deeper water in short bursts, produced a good fish on the line. A schoolie striper of about 19–21”, which, when hooked, attracted the attention of the small school with it. I saw no less than six stripers excitedly swarm the hooked fish and, at this moment, I mistakenly let some fly line play out of my hand and…the fish shook off. It was a very teachable moment for myself—you must keep the line tight to the fish at all times.
Despite not landing this schoolie, I feel modestly successful that I’m on the right path with my fly casting. And given the very warm water, it was probably the safest “release” a fish could have had.
The next morning—Fourth of July—the missus and I loaded our crabbing gear into the boat to try our hands at hauling in some Severn blue crabs. With about 25 box traps ready, we motored into the same vicinity I was just fishing within, and selected an area with significant grass beds that extend from the shoreline to slightly deeper water. This weedline is where we chose to deploy the traps, each baited with razor clams. Twenty-five traps in a row, about 7–10’ feet deep.
The river was much more quiet this morning than the previous—just one other active boat at dawn where we were.
With the stealthy trolling motor, we crawled back to trap #1 and began pulling each up swiftly with intention as to not let any crab that may be feeding escape from the box trap’s open top. First run, we pulled up three large crabs, each a #1 size or slightly better. We made another pass through all the traps and had another three or so crabs. Good size, but not the numbers we were hoping for (note: this area was being heavily crabbed by others the previous morning). On this second run we boated each trap in order to move to another location. Crabbing is about locating where the crabs are running, as much as any other factor.
We motored into a small creek with plenty of shade from an elevated hillside and tall treeline and laid our traps in a parallel line to shore within the 8–10’ zone. First pass through all traps yielded about five nice-sized crabs. Another pass, another five or so. With the morning beginning to heat up (literally hot temps), we loaded our gear and made way to our home creek upriver, where we deployed one more run of traps—again, in 8–10’ of water. One pass, one very large crab, and we called it a day.
For a few hours spent crabbing during what is arguably the most gorgeous time of day (dawn) with my beautiful wife (who loves crabbing as much as I do), we had a dozen-and-a-half very good sized blue crabs. Perfect for our family of four to steam, pick, and celebrate the Fourth of July holiday.
See y’all on the water again, real soon!
