Pacemaker Fishing Forum

I was due to take my boat back to the storage lot this morning but it dawned on me that I could sneak a Washington Channel trip in there and be home by lunch.

I also knew that Cirly has been chompin' at the bit to get out on the water so a quick email on Sunday morning took care of the deal.

We launched the boat at 0600 and by 0615 we were fishing...topwater! Curly got the 1st hit but no take. I then got a massive striper hit but he never took the hook. We threw topwater for an hour without any success. Before getting out the trolling gear, Curly watched a big LMB hit my lure twice (huge explosion in the water) but I could not get him. Oh well, we had fun trying.

So we switched over to trolling with light tackle gear. On the 2nd pass (in 20' of water) Curly fights a cat.....



......and brings in his 1st river fish in a long while.



I am at the ready when the next hit occurs and this nice 20.5" striper is boarded.....



....and released. This guy was caught outside our normal boundaries. We continued to troll and we were then joined in the WC by Bob B. and his fiance, Janet, in his luxurious fishing vessel.



The fishing slowed a bit but we had two major hits which we had no chance on because the fish cut the line. We believe that a couple of big blue cats took the Rebels and rolled, thus cutting the line. Speaking of nice hits, this one that Curly caught was nice.



On the way back to the ramp, we trolled on the other side of the Anacostia River channel. Curly was following a contour that looked good and just as it pinched in, two rods go down and we each landed a blue cat. Curly had the nicer one so he got the picture.



We figured to end it there and back to the ramp we went. The final tally was five blue cats and two stripers (both keepers)....home by 1230!

The best part of today was getting Curly back out where he belongs...on the water!!