Pacemaker Fishing Forum

I love fishing the bay but it has been a hard place this year....

Today I had the pleasure to fish with Capt. Carl Brown and Jeff Palmer on Carl's beautiful 254' Everglades with a 300hp Yammie on the back. What a machine!



We headed out as all the charters were getting ready to do some bottom fishing....



One of the objectives for today was to show Carl and Jeff some fishing spots on the other side of the bay. We started by working the south end of Poplar but the tide was wrong and there was no current. Still, they got to see some possible future targets.

We then moved to the western side of the island and by coincidence started fishing an area with 2 other boats who happened to be Capt. Gary Neitsey in his 21' Everglades  and Capt. Richie Gaines in his 23' Parker. I called them both to tell them we were next to them. They were marking fish but not doing much catching. We stuck with this drift pattern for a while but the fish would not bite.

So we made a move and finally found some fish which we started catching...they were all small.

We had this guy hit my Specialized Baits L'il Bunker....where is his momma?



We moved to where we say some birds and proceeded to catch dozens of yearling stripers. I was even fishing under them to see if I could get a big boy but all I managed was a 15 incher.

Carl then got a nice fish on and upon further inspection, I noticed it was a hound-fish....I kinda messed up the picture.



We continued to catch smallie stripers....

Then Carl said that we should go, at least to the other side (closer to port).





You can't see it but this storm spawned a water spout. The guys down at Solomon's got better pictures of the spout. This one was taken by Capt. Lee Tippett....



So off we went....about 50mph! 



...that boat cuts through waves like a hot knife through butter.

Since we were now in no danger of the storm, I showed the guys a few more areas that fish like to hang out and we picked off a few more juvies plus 3-4 small corkers.

I am confident that we fished the right areas but birds are scarce as is the big balls of baits. We did see one blue fish....

The guides say that they do find fish (keepers) some of the times but it has been hard. I agree. Especially for guys like us that only go once a week or two...

Time to head in....always see a nice boat at Deale.



It was a great day out with a great crew and boat. If I had to do it again, I would. What a fun day......when are we going again Capt. Carl?

On the way out of Deale I stopped at Big Dave's BBQ. This is my 2nd time there. When you order, they pick the meat off the bone. No pre-pulling for them. Outstanding pork and sauce. Plus their shakes are great too!

Then...a quick stop at the local veggie stand and all is right with the world again.