Pacemaker Fishing Forum

Tyler and I  took 2 of his friends (Ryan and Eric) out on a float trip down the Shanandoah near Andy Guest State Park on Wednesday.  It was SUPPOSED to be partly cloudy most of the day with a chance of rain in the afternoon.  Weathermen suck!!!  It was raining by 6:30am and rained on us about 75% of the time.  But it wasn't too cold and the rain was not too cold either.  So we went for it.  Luckily Tyler and I had rain jackets.  Tyler looked like a black shadow floating around all day.





Tyler started catching fish right away (big surprise /sarc). And Ryan and Eric figured it out pretty quick.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pics of Tyler with fish, but did get this nice 15.5 incher that Ryan caught.


I was getting pretty frustrated because I hadn't caught a fish the first half of the trip.  I think the key for me was that I wasn't getting ahead of the rest of the group to new water.  I guess it made a difference to me mentally more than anything.  So, I happened to get ahead of them and found a nice rock to anchor up against in the middle of some very fishy rapids with a perfect hole along the side.  I threw topwater for a while and caught several 8-14 inchers.  I also caught my first Fall Fish (I think).


Then I switched to a spinnerbait with a trailer hook and was able to get it to run into that hole.  WHAM!  I got hit hard and had the best fight I've had all summer.  First, it was a big, chunky 16.5 inch Smallie!!! Second, I had to get him through a few rapids and over a few rocks and around my kayak.  It was so much fun.  Finally got him to the boat and asked Tyler to come over to take the pic.  That trailer hook was key because that was the only hook he was caught on!!


It was a really fun day.  Tyler has great friends.  I think Tyler caught about 20 fish with the biggest about 15 (he will correct me when he reads this).  Ryan and Eric had about 10-12 each with Ryan's 15.5 being the biggest.  And I ended up with about 10-12 with the 16.5 incher being my personal best River Smallie ever.

On the water at about 7:30am, off about 2pm and a BIG burger at Spelunkers to finish it all off.  Tons of fun.  Can't wait to do it again.  Great day!!!