Pacemaker Fishing Forum

Day 1-----I was fortunate enough to be invited to a Pitney Bowes (where I work) conference from June 11-13 at the Chesapeake Hyatt in Cambridge MD. It's right in the Choptank River, about 13 miles up from the Chesapeake Bay.



We first fished on the afternoon of the 12th and since I didn't know much about the river, I decided to run down to the mouth of the Choptank where I did know a spot that held stripers. Sure enough, it wasn't but a few minutes into the fishing (after a 40 minute boat ride) that John Campo got a hit and brought  the 1st striper on board.



John then caught another keeper (maybe 19-20") and I was bringing it in to the boat when it slipped out of my hands and splashed back into the water. Bad move! John did manage to catch a total of three stripies.

I was fishing for my favorite white perchies and managed a nice one.....almost a 10 incher....good sign. Then I got a real hard hit with an ensuing equally hard fight and I said "striper on!” but it wasn't a striper, it was the biggest baddest white perch I have ever seen! I have no clue how big it would have measured because it slipped out of my hands too! Payback was had! John did get a visual and he was equally impressed by the size of the fish.

All the while we were fishing we kept hearing radio reports about storms north and south of us. I started to get nervous and told the guys that we should start heading back and perhaps try to find another nice spot closer to home base. But a few minutes into the return trip I knew that it was going to be a race to beat the storms. I cranked up the motor to 4400 RPMs and started to get back as the clouds were quickly moving I. Then....the NOAA issued a Severe Warning for Dorchester County....that's right where we were headed back to! Why didn't they say that before?? Anyway, once I heard the warning, I went to 5200 RPM's (35-37 MPH) and the race was REALLY on!  I am soooooo glad that Jim (previous owner) had the boat in Tip Top shape! It was getting windy, dark, and rough and we still had several miles to goso I told the guys to hang on for dear life.

As we entered the ramp area, I motored to the dock and Steve Barnes jumped out while the boat was still moving. He ran to the car and in less than a minute, I had the boat on the trailer. Great teamwork! By the way, he owns a boat just like mine so he knew the program

We managed to get the gear out of the boat and put the cover on before the rain and hail came. Here is what we were staring at:



We were safe and sound but had lots of stories to tell at dinner including the fact that Steve, who is an accomplished fisherman, got skunked!

Day 2 ----So we had a mission for the 13th, to get the skunk off Steve! And that we did within 2 minutes of getting to our 1st spot. Steve latched into his 1st white perch ever! I can't believe that he had never caught one with as much as he fishes (around CT and RI).



In the meantime, I was using a regular beetle spin (our choice for perch) but I had a dropper fly about 16 inches up the line. I had just mentioned to Steve that I had not caught a perch on the dropper fly, much less a double. In a minute, I had the double!



Very cool and remember that were are casting and retrieving in 2-4 feet of water, bumping the bottom to imitate a grass shrimp. By the way, this was a very nice class of white perch!

It was a couple of great days on the water as we explored yet another new area. I will be back!!

Ernie