Jonas Green Park Fishing Report

My son, his friend, and I decided to go fishing on Memorial Day.  We went to Jonas Green Park in Annapolis.  It's across the Severn River from the Naval Academy, so we could see members of our military in training.  There's also a World War II Memorial right at the intersection where we turn to go into the park.  So in our own subtle way, we were thinking about those that have served our country that day.

We got to the park at 6:50 am and there wasn't too much of a crowd.  It was chilly.  When we left our house at 5:50 am, it was 41°.  When we arrived in Annapolis, it was up to 51°.  There were a bunch of people fishing off of the bridge, so we decided to settle by the rocks on the northeast side of the bridge.  Unfortunately, there was someone else who was already fishing on the corner spot that we really like.

My son is an A.D.D. fisherman.  He can't stand still.  This is fine for bass fishing, but it doesn't work too well for bottom fishing.  He moved all around the park from the beach to the rocks to the bridge, back to the rocks, back to the beach.

I pretty much stayed at the rocks until the guy at the corner moved.  But as quickly as I set up my two rods, another guy and his son were right there with me.  Within in a hour or two, there was a big Hispanic family on the right of me and another on to the left of the guy and son next to me.  It was a tight squeeze.  I'd say that within 50 feet there were 12 fishing rods.

We were using razor clams, 20 lb test line, and Hurricane rigs with 2 snelled #4 hooks.  And we fished for several hours and caught.......nothing.  The guys next to us were using blood worms and they were consistently bringing in spot.  One guy caught a really small white perch.  Finally I caught a spot.  Near the end of the day I caught a cow nose stingray.  Actually, the guy to the right of me also snagged it by chance (or the cow nose stingray snagged us).  We both landed it and were able to remove one of the hooks, but cut the line on the second before we allowed him to flop back to the water and swim away.

And that was it.  The fishing is still fairly slow.  We saw no striped bass, no blues, no drum, no flounder.  The water was cold.  Is Memorial Day the unofficial first day of summer or spring?  Or winter?  I'm ready for the warmer water and the fish to start running again.  Anyway, we packed up about 4pm and drove home.  Between the three of us we caught 12 fish - 1 cow nose ray, 1 croaker, and 10 spot.  For 9 hours worth of fishing.

How has your fishing been this year?