Through a heavy layer of fog, we drove down Route 4 through Anne Arundel County and into Calvert County. I haven't been this way in a while and this area is definitely losing it's Southern charm. Farmer fields are being replaced with track housing and Dunkin Donuts, and even worse....McDonald's. Going or gone are the mom and pop shops. Coming are the franchised outlets of the mega corporations where no one gets ahead in life.
So, as I was saying, we stopped at a little boat ramp off of the highway just under the Governor Thomas Johnson Bridge. Do you know who Governor Thomas Johnson was? He was the first Governor of Maryland. Legend has it that someone asked him about taxing the rain and he died laughing.
There was a modest fishing pier jutting out into the Patuxant River. We set up camp and cast our lines and waited. Then we waited. After that, we waited some more. No fish. Actually, my son caught an emerald shiner, but that's nothing to put in the record book. After about an hour we were ready to throw in the towel and head to another destination.
My son and his friend wanted to go to Calvert Cliffs and fish, but I thought if we went there first, we'd never get to St. Mary's County, so I decided to go to Greenwell State Park on the other side of the river and a few miles upstream.
Greenwell State Park isn't much of a park. It's more of a historic farm with some shoreline. We took a short hike down the hill to this spot and parked ourselves. Well, actually, I parked myself in a chair and continued reading Truman by David McCulloch while the boys fished. My snagged a bunker and his friend caught some small white perch.
After an hour and a half there, we decided to leave and get some lunch, then head to....Calvert Cliffs.
Calvert Cliffs State Park was $5 to get in (I think). The parking lot was right off of Route 4. The park ranger asked if we were salt water fishing or fresh water fishing. Unsure where she was going with that, I said we had hoped to go salt water fishing. She said that the pond is fresh water and pointed to the pond next to the parking lot and informed us the salt water fishing was at the end of the trail, which was 1.8 miles long. Good grief! Pack light, boys!
The boys wanted to fish in the pond for a little bit. There was a decent sized large mouth bass within reach, but it was not interested in anything. They had more fun antagonizing a northern water snake in the water.
Finally we began our trek down the trail. 1.8 miles. It was an easy walk along a meandering creek that dumped into swamp land. We found this creative use of a felled tree and we each took a turn getting our picture taken in it.
Once at the end, I quickly thought that it had an amazing similarity to Westmoreland Park in Virginia.
These are the fabled cliffs with fossils and sharks' teeth. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any.
This is looking north.
Oh, the fishing. A guy that we befriended on the beach had caught 5 blue fish, 3 of which were over 14 inches. We caught several spot and white perch. Nothing amazing, but enough fish to keep us satisfied. My son actually said he wants to go back there and spend the whole day fishing at Calvert Cliffs. When my son says he likes something, it's a victory.
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