Pacemaker Fishing Forum

And I was able to score some ring baloney and some of PA finest breakfast meat

hookup wrote:

And had numerous days on the big river.  Beautiful weather, cool in the morning, warm during the day.  Water was low and clear.  Fish were very active.  Lost three picture fish.  One to a knot failure, the others to spitting the hook at the side of the boat.  No pix of the fish.  Them PA Boyz don't pull out camera's unless the fish is either super heavy or over 18" so when in Rome .....

Did have a bit of excitement. 

First one was we were fishing under the PA turnpike and I heard a god-awful sound and horns started blowing.  When I looked up I saw this black piece of something fluttering down.  Turned out someone lost their truck's bed liner.  It splashed a couple 100 feet from us.  Never seen that before.  Penn Dot showed up about 10 minutes later with three trucks and parked for about 10 minutes looking for the problem.  Guess it never occurred to them to look in the river below the bridge.

Next one was we were floating downriver in a jet, hit a rock, and all of a sudden I hear a splash and cussing.  I was in the back of the boat fishing, turned and saw him in the water and was like WTF?  Turned out my buddy lost his balance, grabbed ahold of his chair, and the swivel in the chair made him slip right into the water.  After a pretty easy rescue, he stripped down and set all his electronics and his Sig out to dry.  Everything still worked.  The only thing bruised was his ego.  When he stripped off his skivvies, I started joking about Burning Man on the river.  We both had a good laugh.  Good thing he had extra cloths on the boat and it was in the mid 60's and not freezing.

Got to see some awesome military craft fly over us.  C-5, C-17, and six Chinooks in formation.  You could hear and feel the thump thump thump of the dual rotors before we even were able to see them.  You could also tell that the C-5 and C-17 didn't follow any FAA noise restrictions.  Those planes are LOUD!

Ran across a bald eagle taking a bath at the point of an island.  Never seen that before.  We thought it was injured, but when it was done, it took off and flew away.  Majestic.

Next, it was about 0500 and I was trying to lock my hotel room (traditional lock and key).  The hall way was dark and I was fumbling with the lock and realize I had company.  A lady was next to me wanting to help with the lock and then fluff up my pillows.  I told her I was late to go fishing and literally ran down the stairs to my Jeep.  At my age, I don't need those problems. 

One of my buddies has had issues with his boat running for the past few months.  He's had multiple mechanics look at it or advise him about the problem and spent allot of money replacing many parts and still had the problem.  I started smelling gas and looked around and heard an air leak.  We didn't have the proper equipment to do an on river repair so we limped around and fished.    When my buddy got home, he started investigating, found the source gas, which lead him to the source of the air leak, fixed it by tightening a few bolts, took the boat out for a ride the next morning and problem is solved. 

Lastly on the drive home, there was a car that spun out facing the wrong way surrounded by police officers with their guns drawn.  As soon as I saw that, it was time to punch it and get the heck out of there before things got worse and it started raining lead.

All in all it was a good trip, had some excitement, caught fish, and was able to get some good karma with my buddies and have another invite to travel north at my earliest convenience.

Holy crap! Who needs to fish with all of this action!!

it sounds like you were up there for a month with all that activity!  Glad you enjoyed all that you could (less the pillow fluffer).  I have to ask though, where the heck were you that you were fishing under the turnpike?  Growing up in PA in the 80's it was mostly I81 for me.

hookup wrote:

Both Captains commented that it must be a full moon?

Nope...just the opposite...waxing crescent. Zero to 2% moon.

Yep, certainly excitement both on and off the water for you on this trip. Bummer about losing the big ones but I guess that happens every once in awhile.