Pacemaker Fishing Forum

This report is long overdue but better late then never!

My buddy Mepps (Kevin) asked me to go with him on an upper potomac float and I jumped at the opportunity! After many delays and schedule conflicts, we finally found a date that we could both manage and with decent weather.

I woke up sunday morning (or was it saturday night?) at 245AM to get my day started. Drove over to Kevin's house to pick him up and we both then drove to Brunswick, MD to meet up our guide.  Our guide, Butch Murphy, was a long time customer/friend of Kevins and guides for Mark Kovach Fishing Services. He met us up at the boat ramp and shuttled us up to Harpers Ferry where we launched his gorgeous boat!

This was by far, the earliest I've ever been up to fish but it was all worth it when we got on the water. The sun just started coming up.





Yes, those are oars in his hand. no motor here kids. all muscle. We started the morning throwing buzzbaits and quickly had many hits and misses! Kevin quickly hooked up with the first fish of the day but we didn't take a picture :( The buzzbait was modified by Butch in a way i've never seen before and it continued to produce strikes and fish throughout the day (not just the morning).  I was amazed at how we were getting top water strikes in mid day!

The benefit of Butch's boat was that it allowed us to fish these types of water:


The boat was made to be fished on and had special, for lack of a better word, holders which allowed an angler to remain standing even in rapids! It was amazing!







here's a video to give you an idea of some of the rapids we went through (please let me know if it requires a pw)

http://s19.photobucket.com/albums/b181/ … eme242.mp4

We promised a friend that we'd start taking pictures of the fish we caught after lunch so we took a picture of the very next fish we hooked.



here's Butch and Kevin respooling a reel as we took a dip to cool off. 





We were VERY comfortable despite the forecast for 100* temps! It did not feel like it was 100*s and we have long periods of cloud cover and cool breezes! I was so comfortable, I could have fished all day. We didn't have to take this dip until 2pm. If you're wondering about my hat at home and there were slim pickins at 7-11.

During the break, I took more pix of the boat!




few fish later



Throughout the day we had many fish come off and good ones at that. I had one that came clear out of the water and throw my buzzbait back at me. It was a gorgeous stripped smallie at least 18" that I hooked up right behind a rapid. Despite both of us losing a few quality fish, we had a blast! Butch has got to be one of the best guides i've ever fished with and I HIGHLY recommend anyone to book a trip with him. I don't believe they usually do this float, harpers to brunswick, but I would definitely book Butch again. I believe the other guys on the guide service use rafts so if you were to book a trip with these guys, ask for Butch!

This guy means business! He knows this body of water and constantly put us on fish! I believe we fished from 530-6AM till  6PM with Butch at the oars almost the whole time! Truly and amazing fishing experience.

http://www.mkfs.com/