Pacemaker Fishing Forum

I headed down after work on Friday night, checked into my hotel, launched my yak, and was fishing by about 10:15.

I had my first bite within 5 minutes, it was a 20" speckled trout on a Mud Mino paddletail. I stayed in that vicinity for the next 90 minutes and caught 9 more trout from 15-21". Everything was on the paddletail, I couldn't get a bite on a Mirrolure or a jerkbait.

I was on strict orders to bring back some fish for a couple of co-workers, so I kept my limit. I brought them back to the truck to throw them in the cooler and then headed out to look for some blues and puppy drum.

Limit of trout.


Strangely enough I was only able to find one bluefish the whole night. I also C&R'd a couple of small pups, another trout or two, and a flounder 1/2" under the minimum. I also had a mystery fish break me off, I think it was a slightly larger red. I was off the water just before 4am.

4/27

I was up by 8 and went to Rudee inlet for some shore fishing soon after. Over the course of 2 hours all I caught was one short flounder on a Gulp shrimp. I also saw a few small flounder and pups caught by other anglers. Bluefish were still nowhere to be found.

I got a little more sleep, hung out with some friends, visited a couple stores, and was back at the boat launch with my yak at 9:45 that night.

The plan was to do some C&R with the trout and then look for pups. I found the trout in the same place as the night before, but this time I used a 5" swimbait on a weighted hook, and they loved it. I quickly caught 5 or 6 in the 18-21" range before a fish ripped it off.

After that, I pulled out my ultralight spinning setup spooled with 4lb test. I spent the next hour or so casting 3" paddletails and catching a bunch of trout on that gear. It was a ton of fun!

Here's a poorly executed self pic of a 20" trout caught on the ultralight.



So I finally pulled myself away from the trout and  went on a pup search, but I was not successful. No blues or flounder either. So I threw out a line and trolled my way back to the ramp. C&R'd 3 more trout to 19", one pup, and a surprise oyster toad before calling it a night.





4/28/13

I had to get on the road by 8:30am on Sunday, so I got up at 7 so I would have some time to fish Rudee from shore once more. Not much to report on that front...the weather was beautiful but the fishing was reeeaallly slow. I saw one angler land a couple small flounder, but I caught nothing.

It's tough to leave on a morning like this.



That was it. I left VB 8:30am with a smile on my face.