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 Fresh
Tidal Fishing
Corkers Creek & Pocomoke
River Bald Cypress Swamp
Snow Hill,
Worcester County Maryland
4/28/07
Mark
Burchick
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Dan and Amanda Betz, Mark
and I took a day trip to
fish the fresh tidal, bald
cypress swamps of the
Pocomoke (meaning blackwater,
tannic-stained) River. |  |
It was mostly overcast,
it spit rain a few
times, the sun broke
thru the clouds, and the
temperatures were in the
mid to uppers 60's.
We started on a low tide
around 11:00 am and
finished on the high
tide around 4:00 pm. |  |
Corkers Creek is deep
and narrow, having
extensive (littoral
fringe) spatterdock beds
that are just emerging,
overhanging vegetation
and submerged wood.
Mature bald cypress is
the dominant overstory
tree, with lots of knees
throughout the swamp.
My first fish of the day
was a largemouth bass. |  |
We all primarily used
long shank hooks, live
worms and bobbers (Mr.
Crappie Rattlin Pears).
We caught well over 60
fish on the day, keeping
13 large pan-fish in the
live well, to later
fillet. We caught
largemouth bass, black
crappie, bluegill,
pumpkinseed, yellow
perch, white perch and
shad. |  |
Most of the fish were
caught tight in on the
banks under overhanging
vegetation.
Dan Betz quickly
determined that
crappie were being
caught in downed tree
branches in the water,
where flotsam (pollen
and spring leaf drop)
accumulated.
Almost every time we
found such a condition
we caught one or two
crappie. The base
of cypress trees and the
outside river meanders
(deeper, thalweg
side) were also very
productive. |  |
We all lost four to five
lures, hooks and bobbers
to the depths of Davy
Jones locker. The
bobbers kept the bait in
the two to three foot
depth range, because
anything deeper usually
resulted in the hook
getting caught in
submerged woody debris. |  |
I'd say that within the
matter of a week or two,
the forest will be in
full bloom, with leaves
expanding, insects
flying, fish nesting,
forest interior birds
establishing territory
and spatterdock
encroaching toward the
deep water margins. |  |
Of all of the species
today, I'd say that
white perch fought the
strongest. They
were powerful runners. |  |
Mark dexterously
maneuvered and
negotiated many a downed
tree today to help get
us into great fishing
waters. |  |
A few of the shad and
perch were tiny, but we
were quite pleased at
the large size of
several of our black
crappie and sunfish. |
Mark Burchick
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