Pacemaker Fishing Forum

This question was asked on another board and the response from Fracis Zell is a classic. Francis is not yet 30 but fishes more than Curly! He is a very knowledgeable young man.

Here is his response:

I think this is a great question and I often wonder if I am doing the right thing.

March and April I fish the most. I keep my boat in the water and fish almost every day. I try to go before work and after it as well. Sometimes I can only do one or the other. They make for long days but when the big fish are so close and easy to get, you gotta get after them. I will have over 40 trips this year between March and April alone. I would have more but I missed a week when I blew my motor.

I pull my boat out of the water in April. Look at the damage to my credit card for fuel and regroup for a couple weeks.

Then the croaker start. Croaker fishing gets good the first few nights that it's warm enough where you can be comfortable in short sleeves all the time. I will leave Drury's around 6pm or so, and fish until 10pm. If I fish until midnight I'll drive straight to work to next day and sleep in the ol' truck for a few hours in a parking lot across the street.

During the weekends I might take one or two trips deep into the Eastern Shore to explore and look for specks. Because it normally means having a flat day, and running over 100 miles I'll keep it limited to good days with people I know who are willing to split expenses on the boat. Or, weekends directly after pay days.

Once the spot get here, I will go live lining a couple nights a week. There are a couple spots closer to Drury's marina that frequently provide a quick limit. I'll sneak out at 5, catch a limit on spot, and then look for some top water action. That lasts until September, right about the time where it is no longer comfortable to wear a short sleeved shirt all day.

October is a transitional month. There are either breakers everywhere and plenty of fish or it's the dead sea. It depends.

Then, it's CBBT time. This is when I hit it hard again and put another couple thousand on the old fishing credit card that I just paid off from last year. I bring the boat down and start fishing all weekend down there. Between all the weekends in Nov, Dev, and early Jan I probably miss one or two. I hate having my boat four hours away, so I sometimes go in what looks like bad weather just to make sure my boat is A-OK.

January is a little bit of power plant fishing depending on the weather, and some yellow perch fishing. February is a lot of yellow perch fishing and some more power plant fishing. Sometimes I can make a little progress on the fishing credit card during these months.

Then the boat goes back in the drink in March and it's every day again for another two months.