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We launched at low tide from Selby's Landing at Jug Bay, which located in Croom,
Maryland. Jug Bay is know for it's expansive
fresh tidal marshes. loaded with native wild rice. |
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We left Jug Bay and followed Western Branch as far as we could
take it, and were ultimately stopped by fallen timber. |
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This beaver curiously watched as we frequently got our lures hung
up on overhanging bank vegetation and sunken tree debris. |
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We got lots of strikes, but only took four fish in the day. |
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Of all the baits we tried, the Blakemore Roadrunner with a chartreuse skirt
worked the best. |
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I think if we had dropped our hook size, we would have taken
numerous bluegill. |
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A couple of times we had to lift our engine, move weight toward the front of the
boat and use the electric motor, to get thru a few shallow areas and sunken log
debris. The afternoon trip back down river was
on the high tide and we had no problems what so ever. |
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We only saw one other boater all day, and the air temperature was about 48 to
50-degrees on the day. We pulled into the landing for Mount Calvert, a
county-owned historical and archeological park, located in Upper Marlboro,
Maryland, at the confluence of the
Patuxent River and Western Branch. |
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This federal period plantation house was built in 1789, and was part
of a large tobacco farm. During the 1850's the farm had 51 black
slaves working the farmstead. |
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Because the house site is located on a high terraced point on the
river, it has nearly 8000-years of human activity. Two archeologists were
working in an active pit, and they enjoyed our surprise visit
from the water. The pit is a cellar of a small brick home that
pre-dated Mount Calvert, and shows evidence of several vertical
posts that were wall corners.
|
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In the active 'slice' of ground that they were working, they found a
piece of a clay pipe stem from the mid 1700's, but more importantly a broken
section of arrowhead and clay chard, estimated at 4000 years old (archaic period
7500 to 1000 BC, and pre-woodland era, 1000 BC to 1600 AD). They said that this
home site and grounds immediately surrounding it has yielded a treasure trove of
cultural antiquities, all coming from within a foot down in the soil. The site
was historically
the location of a small community/town, known as Charles Town, established in
1684, and was the County seat for Prince George's County from 1710 until 1721. |
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Fishing was weak, but cultural and natural sight-seeing was great. |
Fishing Jug Bay Estuarine Research and Western Branch
PHOTO GALLERY PREVIEWS
