Pacemaker Fishing Forum

Got out today with Jimmy and his grandson, James.  I saw lots of deer on my way in and near the ramp. They met me at the ramp at 5:30am and we were off.  The river had risen to almost 5 feet after the recent rains.  The water was stained to dirty depending on where you were. 

We tried a couple areas where we hoped fish would be feeding, but no fish.  We made a long run and ended up working shoreline eddies on a big island.  It was very slow and frustrating, considering how good the bite has been recently.  I finally decided to tie on a Keitech swimbait in the Sungill color.  A few casts in, I felt a bite and got the skunk out of the boat.





There were a couple bites in that area, but no other fish.  We decided to float out of that area.  As we were working the shoreline, I said it looked like spinnerbait territory.  I tossed behind a logjam and as it was coming out I got slammed.  It turned out to be the big fish of the day.  It did have a sore on the other side.





We worked around and up the other side of the island.  There were several other boats out on the river.  We got no bites until I hooked a little smallie on a gold Johnson weedless spoon when I was adjusting the boat position and then reeled in my line to feel I had a fish on.

We tried a lot of different spots.  Mid-river was the clearest water.  We floated that area a long stretch.  A couple possible missed bites later, Jimmy caught a little smallie.  The good news was the weather was not too hot and we enjoyed the wildlife on the river.

It was just after 1pm and we decided to hit one more spot.  A few casts with a flatworm later, James got his skunk off.





We called it after a couple more casts.  We got off the water by 1:30pm.  Total was 3 smallies for me and 1 each for Jimmy and James.

Last edited by drxfish (Jul-18-25 10:45PM)