Pacemaker Fishing Forum

Today was the 1st day to splash the Targa for this year.

I met up with Curly and Jeff and went on down the road with great anticipation of a yellow perch and/or crappie bite. We had heard that the water was muddy (it was up river) but when we got there, it was stained (down river) but very fishable. There were a few trailers in the lot at Occoquan but certainly less than what we expected.

We started at a favorite hole and and saw lots of bait so we were exited. Curly called out that they were mud shad. How does he know? But we got no bumps. We always pluck one or two out of this well known hole.

Right before we decided to go down river, Curly called out, "fish on" and our skunk was off.   





It was a fish....the type that he had called out earlier....a mud shad!

We began fishing the YP holes with only a bump or two. Twigs? We ran in to another YP boat and they had caught nothing so we decided to go back up river....where it was fast and muddy. That is the most water I had ever seen coming down the rocks from the reservoir.

While we did mark some fish, we believe they were all shad.

We had a nice day out on the water, a great way to kick off the fishing season....





....or not.

After a stop at the boys room (this will come in to play later) we went up the road and headed home....happy we were out on a glorious day but dejected that we zeroed out.

While on FX County Pkwy, we happened on an accident and I stopped to see if we could be of help. Everyone appeared to be OK but there were a few welts and sore necks (air bags deployed) so we stayed until the authorities arrived. 1st on the scene was an occupied tow truck (car on it) but the driver got out to get a sense of the scene. I was impressed by that.

So we get back on the road and a few minutes later a van start laying on the horn. Jeff opened the window and they guy yelled out, "tire". I looked back and smoke was coming out of the rear left trailer fender so we pulled over.

This is what my tire looked like!




This is what it should look like!





Curly took a quick look and made the assessment. Hub is busted....deep doodo! 

I have Boat US Towing so I called them and within a few minutes they called back and said the truck would be there in less than an hour. OK, we will wait and chill out!!









It did take a little longer than an hour but we were happy to see the tow truck. Once the driver looked at the width of my boat, I knew we were in trouble. It would not fit. We tried and the wheel almost fell off!





The joys of owning a boat!! 

So...another call to Boat US (I also gave them the name of a local comapny that could bring a wider truck) and within 30 minutes, we had another truck on the scene. And...it was the same fellow that we had seen at the accident. I knew we were in good shape.

Eric was an expert and how he got my trailer up on the truck is still puzzling but he was good. And he was careful...an safe. He put on quite a few straps....that boat was not going anywhere.

On to D & S Marine (Waldorf) he went!

Through all of this, I had been in contact with Jay, the owner of D & S Marine. He felt bad because they had installed the bearings last year. He was going to come out and fix it when he heard how much the tow bill was going to be. But we all though it was best that the boat get towed to D & S and get it fixed there.

Well, it was nice spending some nice roadside quality time with Curly and Jeff. They were very patient and understood that this stuff happens.....