Pacemaker Fishing Forum

My initial thought was to be up super early and hit an area of the river but those plans stayed in bed with me this morning 🤣🤣. So after sleeping in a little bit, taking a couple of our younger dogs to the dog park to burn off some energy, decided to hit the river early in afternoon.  Bright sun, low and clear water were going to make things interesting but it would be better than items off the to do list.

My first hit should have been an indication of what was in store for me later.  Felt a potential decent one grab the craw and upon setting the hook, leader broke at the jighead.  Rookie mistake of not checking the line for nicks.  Tied back on a jig head and craw and started working my way. Upstream. I pulled in a few short ones on the small profile swim bait. I worked over some nice shallower fast areas with a little depth and really didn't get anything so decided to paddle up through the next deep hole and work some faster water with a little more current that I don't usually go up to.

I didn't get quite as far as I wanted to till I needed to turn around, a story for later in person, and tied on the good old fluke for the drift back. Got almost back to the deep hole and there was a stretch of riverbank with a lot of shade to it that looked too good to pass up. I picked up another one on a slightly bigger swimbaits and then the emotional damage that will take me a few days to get over happened. I made a cast with the fluke closer to the bank in the shade. And the water literally exploded. And I saw the fish. Almost clear the water and come back down on the fluke. It felt the weight and apparently I was still a little shook by the violence of the hits, that I didn't set the hook hard enough. Enough. After about 5 or 6 seconds, it was off. I would be willing to bet $100 right now that it was probably a 19 in fish minimum. I got a look at it when it cleared the water and it was thick also.  It had some weight when it grab the hold of that fluke. I also missed a couple more on the fluke in one on the choppo in that short stretch of shade. 

I did in the day by catching a couple more about 13 inches on the fluke as I was heading back. But that one is going to haunt me for a while. At least I know where it was at so I can go back and even the score later