Pacemaker Fishing Forum

I got out early and was hoping for a good topwater bite.  It was a beautiful morning, with some clouds to keep the sun off for a bit.  I had modified my Whopper Plopper and the mod was a bust as it killed the action a bit.  I switched to a Chug Bug, which is my other go to and the smaller bass were just slurping it down.  Caught a couple and then had a little mishap.  The little bass was going crazy and while trying to get it under control, the tail hook went through my long sleeve shirt and skin hooked my arm near the sleeve.  I had the bass in my right had, but could not move it or let go, as it would drive the hook deeper in my arm.  There were 3 guys in a boat about 75 yards away and I tried to get their attention.   They did not hear me at first or thought I was just excited about a fish.  I then called help a few times louder so they could hear and they motored over.  They helped me so I could unhook the fish and luckily, the hook came right out after I cut the line from the pole.  It was an impossible situation, because I could not move either hand and there was tension on the line.  I thanked them and really appreciate those good Samaritans! 

The sun was coming up and I ended catching one more on the Chug Bug.  I switched to swim baits and caught a few, including this strong, chunky 15"er.


The bite was sporadic and I ended up moving around a lot.  I caught a few here and there, mostly with swim baits on different jig heads and George's swim jig.  I caught 2 or 3 on a firetiger Big O crankbait.  The wind picked up and I was way up river, so I just drifted with the wind pushing me after a while.  I had caught at least 15 smallies and one LM, then switched to a green pumpkin fat albert grub when the bite shut down and I caught about 5-6 decent smallies in a row.  That finally shut down and I caught another smallie on the Big O. 

The bite really got slow and I was getting tired (it was afternoon).  The wind was pushing pretty good and I decided to just drag a bigger swim bait (Yum) with one of George's jigs.  That resulted in 4, 13-14" strong smallies as I was drifting along.  I was able to rest a bit from all the casting.  After that bite died down (lost a couple smaller ones), I decided to head in.  It was a long day in the sun and I got off the water at 4:00pm.  Lots of boats out and water did not rise as much as predicted.  Water was clearer than I thought it would be as well.