Pacemaker Fishing Forum

George e-mailed me this week asked me if I wanted to fish today.  It was in the upper 90's with heat index over 100 since Tuesday and today was forecasted to be similar.  We met at the ramp at 5:30am and headed upriver.  Lots of wildlife out on the riverbanks.  George hooked a smallie on his first cast, but let it get off as he said it was bad luck.  The forecast changed a bit to 92 and mostly cloudy (better).  There was an intermittent breeze that felt good with the muggy air.  I tried topwaters (Whopper Plopper and Chug Bug), but was not getting bites.  George caught a few switching between a Little Dipper and chartreuse grub.  I switched to a Fat Albert grub with spiked tail and finally got a couple.  George lost a big girl at some point.

The action was slow to sporatic.  The sun came out and it got hot for a while.  I caught a couple on a modified Rebel Humpy crank, which was nice.  I kept trying my Whopper Plopper in the clear faster sections and got some hits and 3 came unbuttoned along the way.  I finally landed one about 15 inches.  We floated a slower section and it started to get brutal.  George was catching using the Little Dipper, white fluke and senko while we were floating. 

I caught a couple on a swim bait and lost a few more.  We were getting near the ramp and could see black clouds moving in.  We floated into a little deeper section and George hooked something and we could both tell it was a bigger fish.  Then it jumped.  He fought it and it jumped a total of 3 times before he netted it.  It was a nice 18"er.


It turned out I had a fish on also, when I turned my attention back to the Jack's Worm I was dragging.  I reeled it in and it was about 14".  The storm was blowing in fast and we headed to the ramp.  It pretty much hit us just as we were landing, making the trailering tricky.  It was just wind, blowing really hard at first.  We got the boat out and headed our separate ways.  A lady handed me a flyer about restricted access regulations.  George and I had just been talking about Trump closing that section due to Trump's golf course being on the river.  Yup, it's happening!  It turns out the section is south of where I usually fish, but still sucks.

We ended up with a pretty good tally, but I did not count.  I had maybe 12 (lost quite a few) and George had more, maybe 20+.  We survived the heat and had a good fish at that!  I got poured on just before I got the boat in the garage.

Last edited by drxfish (Jul-22-17 4:18PM)