Pacemaker Fishing Forum

Finally got to splash the boat in 2024!!

There's a story but as I like to say, don't cry for me Argentina.

When John D. and I went out on 10-3-23, it was such a PIA dealing with the low water and the grass that I stayed off the UP for the balance of the year. I did get out to the confluence of the 'doah with Bob and it was a nice outing.

December, January and February brought wacky weather, some missed windows of opportunity and some family stuff that kept me off the water except the 1 day fishing in FL. Then I took my wife on well deserved mini vacation and that was when the temps hit 70dF for 3 days. We had a great time but I did not fish. Mid March brought more wacky temps (too cold and windy for me) and I canceled a couple of times.

Oh, and I forgot a bunch of stuff today: my camera, sunscreen, my shad bag (brought white perch bag instead). Luckily Bob had a ton of back up tackle.



Finally, every thing aligned pretty well for today so I told Bob we would have an 8:30a start because I was not going to deal with the low 30's temps of early morning. Bob will tell you that I was well dressed today and I NEVER bitched about the cold!

Today was also kinda special because Bob is 60+ days past his knee replacement and this would be his 1st time testing it. It is solid! If anyone needs a good knee doctor, his name is Dr. Thomas Kline. He's in Reston. He did both of my knees and now Bob's.



The water was a bit murky and that water temp was 48dF when we started. It hit 51dF when we finished.

Of course, I always want to go up high when we go but it was slow for the 1st 40 minutes or so. But...the 1st shad of the year for us was landed!



Then he started catching some too.






This next one went 17.5"!



We caught about 10 up above but Bob was itching to go down low so we went.

We kept catching.







We were tied at 11-11 at one point. Most of the fish were like the pics. Very few small ones.

This is when Bob started to get hot. He caught 9 more to make it 20-11. A spanking! I'll take 31 shad this early any time!

As he was schooling me, John Odenkirk and the VA DRW boys came up river. We chatted a bit and then about 30-40 minutes later, they came back. John was really exited as they shocked up a lot of bass. Well, they always do but not like theses. As we got closer to him, they were working on measuring, weighing and tagging.



Then he said, "look up"!



They had a dozen like this!

We quit at that point and went to Brickmaker's, which did not disappoint.



It was good to get back on the water. I'm kinda glad that I didn't catch as many as Bob because my hands were starting to cramp up!

Another observation from today is that the bites were very subtle. We had many fish on that only stayed on for a couple of seconds.

All in all...a great day out!