Pacemaker Fishing Forum

I finally put my Hydroturf in my jon.  I did it Tuesday and Wednesday.  It came out well.





I decided to get out for a solo trip today.  I was conflicted as to go try for shad at the Occoquan or stay close.  I opted to stay close.  I took my time and got on the water around 8am.  Unfortunately, I did forget to put my net in the boat.  River has been slowly falling and the water temp dropped below 50 due to the cold overnight temps.  Air temp was in the mid 30's when I launched.  I did not run far and spot #1 was a bust.  I did see an Eagle pass over me with a fairly large fish.  Not sure what kind it was.

I made a move and tried my next spot for a while.  The NW winds were cold, making my hands cold through my wool gloves.  I tried my homemade jig, another jig with chunk (George's), tube, ned rig and Mini max Chatterbait.  After a while with no bites, I decided I needed to get out of the wind.  I saw an area that looked a little less windy, so I started to move.  I anchored again but got no bites.

Finally, I decided to drift.  I was casting my little homemade jig on a 7'1" light action Dobyns rod that I bought last Winter to replace the one I lost in Roaches Run.  After a few casts, I felt a hit and the fight was on.  It was a big fish and gave me a great fight on that lighter rod.  I was floating and the fish went on both sides of the boat and was dogging me under the boat.  I was finally able to get a hold on the fish and it was massive!  I was so excited.  I was trying to take pictures, and I could not get the whole fish in the picture while looking at the screen.  I was long arming and standing to try to take the pictures while floating, wind blowing and sun glare making it hard to see my phone screen.











After giving it a dunk, I weighed it at 5.77 pounds!  That is my heaviest smallie ever and it was 21 inches (21.25) before closing mouth.  I should have taken a tail shot to get the length better, but you can see the 21 in the one picture.

I was pumped.  I anchored to get myself together and ate my sandwich.  There was a hatch of thousands of these little light brown bugs and the wind was blowing them like snow all over me and the boat. 

I tried floating again and eventually caught one more 14.5" smallie on the same jig.



I tried for a while longer.  Floating, anchoring and getting pelted by little bugs.  I was getting a little sore and my eyes were shot from allergies, so I called it and was off the water just after 1pm.  Not one other boat out today and had a Blackhawk helicopter buzz over me at tree level.  So happy I went out.

Last edited by drxfish (Mar-28-25 12:34PM)