Pacemaker Fishing Forum

It had been way too long since I got a float in on the river and that changed on Monday as I got in about a 6 and 1/2 mile float with two friends from work. We met at the end of the float, loaded three kayaks up on my vehicle, dropped one guy's vehicle about 3/4 of the way down the float cuz he had a little bit more of a time frame and then drove to the starting point.  Water was at a great level from the recent rains but a bit more stained than I was expecting. And weather ended up being absolutely perfect with clouds starting for the first hour and a half and then the last couple hours of the day.

One of my friends struck early with one or two fish on the old school 3-in silver and gray rapala minnow. Last time we fished together he was throwing that and I think outfish me, so I guess sometimes it still pays to go old school. I picked up one about 13 in on a fluke about a mile in for my first fiush.  I was throwing the old brown and orange crankbait I throw during summer without any takers, so I switched it to a darker brown and red flake with the dirtier water. About three casts and, had something grab a hold of it. My drag was a little loose so it was a give and take for a couple seconds but I knew it was big. It stayed down so I wasn't sure if it was a catfish or a bass at first and then when it came by the kayak close to the top I saw I had a big old smallmouth on. After a few anxious minutes with some drag pulling and one of my friends telling me to hurry up and stop messing around, I got the net underneath of it. That's when I realized I could be potentially looking at another 20 in small mouth. Put it on the board and with a slight pinch of the tail. I had a 20-in smallmouth for the second year in a row. These pics won't do it justice but it was probably the thickest smallmouth I've ever caught so I decided to get a weight quickly. Instead of snapping a picture of it on the board. It went 4 lb. 4 oz and was an absolute tank





I did not care if I did not catch another fish after that. It stayed cloudy for about another 45 minutes an hour and each of my friends managed to pick up a few more fish on swim bait and The rapala minnow. The sun came out and it did end up getting a little warmer and for the most part really slow the bite down. Each of those guys picked up a few more fish here there on the same lures. I managed to pick up a few more small ones on the swim baits, although it took me a couple different tries at a color to figure out which one was going to catch them when we reach the 3/4 Mark of the flow, that's when Jacob had to leave so Josh and I kept fishing for about the last mile and a half. The cloud covers started to come back out and he caught 3 or 4 real quick on the Paula and I caught a few more on the swim bait. However, I did have a couple instances where I made a cast set the rod down to adjust my position in the kayak, and when I picked it the rod back up I had a fish on but because I didn't get a good hook set on it, it popped off after a couple seconds. One felt decent but that's the way it goes.

We had one cool anything happen, as Josh was slightly ahead of me. I Saw a bass Go after some minnows on the upstream side of a ledge Rock. So I told him to cast to his 11:00 and he did and had about a 13-in smallmouth hit it right away.  We almost had one more big fish as we were towards the end and I saw that he had a fish on so I asked if he did. He said yeah it's not that big and right after he said that it cleared the water about a foot and realized it was potentially about a 17-in smallmouth. He was taking his time with a lighter rod and all the sudden it made a turn and started swimming towards him and the hook popped out. That was heartbreak.

Overall, Josh caught 17 smallmouth, I caught six or seven, and Jacob caught eight or nine. I believe. Believe. Aside from one on the flute, I tried a few different top water with the cloud cover and got nothing. We were catching them all on moving baits like the swim baits, palomino, and my single big fish on a crankbaits.

It was an excellent day in the water with friends and definitely needed. I still can't believe I caught another 20-in smallmouth for the second year in a row