Pacemaker Fishing Forum

My dad, brother and I got out Friday morning to Slavin's, we got there around 7:30AM and were in the water and fishing by 8AM, right as the tide was starting to come in. First stop was not far from the dock, right where the first set of pads and hydrilla meet. As I was rigging my brother's rods up, my dad casted first with a super fluke and scored the first fish of the day, a nice 2lber...but it would be his only fish.


My brother and I threw topwater along the edge, and I got one swirl but not bite, and my brother threw a toad into the sparse pads and spooked a double digit SH and it torpedoed out of the air. Good to know we were in the right spot but with the bright sun and the hydrilla still pretty sparse, I think they were very tight to cover and we just couldn't get them to come out and play on this stretch.

Next up, we took a ride up into Horseman's Creek. I switched up to a chatterbait and my brother threw a swimmie. No hits on the right side of the creek but knew the little cuts on the left would have fish with the incoming tide. On the way back down, I scored two nice LMB, right where they were supposed to be, along with a 12lb blue cat on the chatterbait (no pic due to no slime rule in my new boat!)


It was about 10:30AM and there was enough water to go into the pads so off we went. On the way I saw a MLF boat coming into the creek. It was Robert Nakatomi. We chatted a little and first thing he said was he couldn't get any tips or intel on the water...stand up guy to play by the rules. I said if he saw us on any water he wanted to fish, just to let me know and I'd move for him...he appreciated that. Super nice guy, I was hoping he'd make the cut but he didn't limit out. We saw a dozen MLF pros out there, and it was just cool to see their rigs and how they fished...none of them spent time in the pads, but did work the barge, and laydowns on the main creek and lots of flipping into the pads on the edges.


Into the big pads we went, water was nice and clean and the hydrilla mats were coming up...the pads will be choked in a month I think. We didn't get any action on the swimmies and just as we were about to leave, I got a small tug tug tug, and thought it was a bluegill, I stopped reeling and it finally tugged back and I set the hook into a small guy.


The water in the first set of pads had died a little and decided to zoom to the Ponds way up the creek to get some moving water. I went around the back side to hit those back edge pockets and it paid off.


My brother finally got his skunk off with a nice LMB back here too. He also missed two SH bites throwing way back into the deep pad pockets.


The three of us haven't fished together without family, friends, or guides in about 30 years. It was awesome to be out with my dad and brother like we were 14 years old again.

Last edited by Junger (Jun-19-21 10:53AM)