Water Temp Falls, ‘Thickens’ Local Creeks

Clyde Evans, far right, was the only one aboard this skipjack’s first season who had ever sailed one before.

Message from the Cap’n is a compilation of fishing advice, waterman and weather insights, Chesapeake lore, and ordinary malarkey.

Or, as the Cap’n puts it: News from the folks who keep their feet wet in the Potomac and St. Mary’s rivers.

The Lower Potomac water temperature is 40.2 degrees F and salinity is 18.4 psu. Both indicators have gone down from last week’s 43.6 degrees F temp and 18.7 numbers. This week’s rain has made the Lower Potomac and St. Mary’s slightly less salty. It will be interesting to see what levels the 8 to 9 inches of snowfall brings. Ideal salinity for the Eastern Oyster can be found here. The Blue Crab also has a wide range of tolerance to salinity.

With the temperatures in the teens, brackish water (mixture of fresh and salt water) in the small creeks and coves in the area is beginning to “thicken,” as Cap’n Clyde Evans would say for “freezing.”

Most ice makes at daybreak. One time during a “cold snap” our dredge crew aboard the skipjack, Dee Of St. Mary’s, left the harbor in Annapolis with no ice in the Chesapeake Bay at 5 am and headed for the mouth of the Patapsco River outside of Baltimore. By daylight, so much ice was making we had to turn around return to port fearing we might get icebound before we got to Seven Foot Knoll.

The Blue Crabs are buried in the deep mud for the winter, having worked offshore as the water temperature decreased to 50 degrees. They will remain buried till the water temperature crosses that 50-degree threshold again normally in April. As the water warms, crabs start to crawl, feed themselves, and have their first seasonal molt(shedding) in the month of May. The month of June produces some fat crabs that have had 3 or 4 weeks to harden up with the water temperature in the 60s.

The 2017 Blue Crab Survey has started already with Tangier Sound and Honga River locations sampled. The survey boat, Madra Ann, is now in Tilghman’s Island frozen in and couldn’t work for a few days because of ice. The Lower Potomac and St. Mary’s River survey is scheduled for the late February/early March timeframe.

And another good piece of Clyde Evan’s insights, aka, Waterman’s Lore: A mass of clouds on the southeast horizon in the morning forecasts a very windy day.

Remember: “It’s Our Bay, Let’s Pass It On”

Till next time,

Capt. Jack

To learn about tours and trips into the Chesapeake, get more information on Fins + Claws’ Leader Member Page.