Pacemaker Fishing Forum

Well, another year at Dragon Run. What a place!  My partner, Carl Brown, and I headed down at O'dark thirty on Friday morning, launched the boat and ran down to the dock at Starrett's Pointe. There, we unloaded our gear, took it up to the "Big House" and claimed our accomodations. Since nobody was home, we correctly assumed that they were all up in the Dragon Run Swamp fishing.

Back to the dock, into the boat and up the Piankatank River to the Dragon Run.  All the time, I was hoping that I remembered the route to get into the Run. I did remember the route to the entrance bay, but could not remember how the channel ran across the flat. Being high tide, I correctly assumed that there would be enough water in front of the docks lining the bay to run a course along the front of them.

Upon entering the Dragon Run, we immediately started fishing the marsh grass banks on the right, hoping for a few puppy drum, along with the bass that we knew would be there. I tied on a 1/4 ounce, tandem, gold bladed spinnerbait and started slinging it next to the marsh grass banks. It did not take long before I had my first fish, a chunky largemouth bass. Carl was casting a Mann's Baby One Minus to the same targets and he hooked up as well. We continued on up the bank and I hooked up again. This time the "bass" fought just a little harder. After a decent fight, we landed our first red drum (redfish, puppy drum). As Capt. Mike as requested, into the livewell it went, to become part of our Sunday dinner.

Thus began our annual Labor weekend trip to the Dragon Run. A combination of the full moon, a weather front, hot weather and resulting higher water temperatures are a few of the excuses for the poor fishing success experienced by most anglers everywhere in the area this weekend. The Dragon Run was no exception. What is normally a phenomal outing, where everyone catches dozens of large fish of all species, turned into a good, pleasant weekend of socializing and catching 15-20 fish per day. Even then, our success was the exception rather than the rule. Most people, even the locals, had a difficult time catching five fish during a full day's fishing.

Carl and I started taking pictures of the fish we caught after catching the red drum. Each fish was duly photographed until the picture taking started interfering with the catching. We also took frequent breaks to just admire the scenery of the Dragon Run. What a natural wonder. From the marsh grass fields to the cypress forests to the little meandering feeder creeks and guts, choked with grass, the whole area is just plain beautiful.

In years past, there was one area of the Dragon Run that had about a 3/4 acre of submerged grass that held huge numbers of largemouth bass that would explode on anything dragged across the top of the grass. I was astonished to find that the grass was completely gone. Capt. Mike informed me that the pair of mute swans that we have admired for a few years, have eaten all the grass. With some doubt, I checked the area thoroughly on Saturday and found not a single sprout of grass in the entire flat. Every time we went past the flat, the swans were there, busily ducking for grass. This was enough evidence for me that Capt. Mike was correct.

Carl and I were exploring every small feeder gut that we came upon and found one that opened up into an area that looked like a lake. It had solid grass throughout the entire "lake". On Saturday, we worked the outside edges with plastic worms and caught a bunch of fish in a very short period of time. We elected to go back on Sunday and caught another bunch of fish on spinnerbaits. The "lake" drained into a feeder creek that led us back to the main creek, by following the outgoing tide. We had stayed in the "lake" a considerable length of time on Saturday and the tide was almost dead low. In order to get out of this area, we were forced to "jump" a couple of logs and when we reached the mouth, we were confronted with a large log that was out of the water. This required raising the outboard, putting the throttle down and sliding up the log. As the middle of the boat reached the top of the log, we trimmed the outboard up, turned it off, and we slid down the other side. As we exited, a couple of anglers in a Jon Boat stood and clapped. Of course, Carl had to tell them about the chicks in bikinis up in the creek.

The fishing, for us, was very good, having caught seven different species, with multiples of most. We caught Largemouth Bass, Red Drum, Catfish, White and Yellow Perch, Bowfin and Chain Pickerel. Most of the fish were fat and healthy, giving us maximum enjoyment fighting them to the boat. Amazingly enough, we only had two breakoffs all weekend, although we had a bunch of fish come unbuttoned. I originally attributed that to the fact that my spinnerbait had caught so many fish that the point of the hook was dull. However, we had fish come unbuttoned on crankbaits and worms as well. This led to the conclusion that the fish just were not as aggressive as we have come to expect.

All in all, even without the saltwater fishing in the evening, the distinct lack of stripers and croaker from the dock, it was another great experience. Thanks again the Capt. Mike for being a supurb host and his daughter Heather, for doing the cooking. Excellent Trip!!!!

Since I still have not figured out how to post pictures on this site, the pictures may be seen at:

http://www.webhosting-123.com/nhbaphoto … ragon+run\

Last edited by Charlie NHBA (Sep-07-09 3:20PM)