Pacemaker Fishing Forum

Today was the day for the annual Spring Tournament for the Potomac River Anglers Club. I had fished in this tournament 5 or 6 times in the past and had NEVER caught a fish!!

The original plan was for my crew to pre fish on my boat on Friday the 18th and then fish the tournament on Saturday. But it was not meant to be as the tow vehicle still had some unfinished business to be taken care of from the warranty work that was done a couple of weeks back. I was advised not to risk a long trip so I cancelled our participation in the tourney.

But somehow, I had to fish so I called my good friend, Captain Jeff Hammett of Rebecca E Charters and asked (more like begged) to see if I could be his mate for the day. He happily obliged since the only ones fishing was him and his wife. Man….did I luck out!!

I got to Cobb Island at 0600 and we were off to the fishing grounds…….



We had all our lines out by 0745 and 10 minutes later a deep line goes off, I take it (maybe grabbed is a better choice of words) and we land our 1st fish…..a 42”, 30 pound beauty!



Since I was mating and we had 16 lines out, here was no time for “action” shots today! We boated 4 fish in the 1st hour, throwing back a 33 and a 37 (inches)! Throwing back that 37 was a tough choice but we wanted something bigger for our 3rd keeper. These fish had just come up from the ocean as they still had sea lice.




Did I tell you it was opening day? There must have been 100 boats within our sight!




After our initial flurry of activity, the fishing came to a halt and we started second guessing ourselves on throwing back that 37 incher. But at 2 PM, we nailed a FAT 35 inch fish that more than made up for our almost poor choice. At this point we started to bring in our lines. E had 3 nice keepers in the boa and we had caught a total of six fish.

As we motored back, I took a nice shot of the captain and his wife……



…..as well as some of the arsenal.



Here is the wining fish which was 43 inches and 35 pounds!! It was caught by Captain Wayne Shuehart who was fishing alone. I told him to call me if he ever needed a crew as I am sure I could roust up 3-4 anglers to fish on his 46’ Markley bay built!



Finally, here are Capt. Jeff and I posing with our fish, which coupled with our fat 35 incher, got us 5th place in the tournament!




The weather was spectacular and the river was flat calm. What a day!

Ernie