Pacemaker Fishing Forum

Headed to Solomons Very early saturday  - met up with George at 4:30 in Fairfax - made good time - left the dock at 6:25 all rigged - ready to go with High Hopes  -

Arrived at CPR rocks prior to sunrise and worked some magnificent drifts with a great outbound tide  - I mean this place was looking MIGHTY fishy - but not even a hit -



Talked to buddy Chris Moe (goes by paxfish on Tidal board) who was anchored up - and he had zippy as well -



also saw a popular Mid bay captain WP- and talked to him - zippy at the rip - so we headed to Honga Bridge - my Grady's first trip over there - now I know the proper route to take as it does get to 4-5 feet for a long period of time prior to reaching bridge - with several unmarked rock piles....

Water temp had dropped to 51 and although things looked Fishy - no bait = no fish -

So .... what to do - George suggested we cruise up to Little Choptank - and I agreed - the bay was pretty flat - and i was hopeful to run into breakers along the way -

We hugged the drop off all the way until past James Island - marked a lot of bait - but no action... until.... we took a wide right turn into the Little Choptank - we saw birds picking away - and saw Swirls - I like Swirls - and we began to cast and hook up with 18 - 22 inch Fat stripers  - not an all out blitz but the skunk was now off the boat  -

It slowed down - so we ate some lunch and chilled out a bit

We decided to head into the river and found more bait and fish but nothing was concentrated - 

At some moments we saw lots of swirls and the fishfinder lit up - and my favorite moment was watching Stripers actually chase peanut bunker right out of the water - it was very clear so we were able top bear witness to natures food chain - I felt sorry for those Bunker as they had no chance..

At some point we were actually sight casting to individual swirls - and we watched our lures being hit -

All in all we landed about 40 fish - all healthy, fat, and willing to hit our lures - from 17 - 23" - mostly 19's

Hot Lure for me was 3/8 Little Jimmy Bucktail - Bunker pattern -



George was trying them all, including Lil Jimmy, Lil Bunker and his new creation, Shaggy Shad - all were effective -

At about 1:30 we decided to head west to the Power plant - a lot of boats - not a lot of fish -

Then went back to CPR - marked a lot of bait - no bites -

Then we headed in - got fuel - cleaned fish and boat - and headed up the road for some barbeque at Adams Ribs - Had their wings for the first time - impressive -I will order them again -

Once the pictures get downloaded -I will post -

Good fish pics as well as Sunrise, James Island, and a uniquely caught Striper - He lodged the Lil Bunker spoon in his mouth sideways - and was landed without being hooked - we have a pic of that - it brought us a few laughs -



he was our biggest fish of the day.



Hope to cram in a few more trips before shutting it down -

The trollers are out in force now - but if the temps stay up  -and they are hoping for the larger sea run striper to enter and fill up on the Bunker -  I see the Mouth of rivers still producing for a few more weeks - If it gets colder - then most of the bait will get out into the bay - just my opinion.....

Rob