Pacemaker Fishing Forum

I started off the evening fishing Ashburn back by the second island.  Met a guy there who knows a lot about the history of the ponds as he was around when the neighborhood was first being developed.  I told him about the forum so hopefully he joins.  Neither of us caught anything so I decided to move to the front along Ashburn Village Blvd.  Worked my way down the rip-rap and didn't have a bite.  Decided to head over to Alder even though my luck has been so-so there.  Since it was getting close to dark, I went directly to the back near the deep underwater culvert (the end closest to Beech).  I stood in one corner and cast my Lake Fork Craw Tube to the culvert on the oposite corner.  I slowly drug it across the bottom and about half way back (about where the underwater culvert is) I felt a thump and saw my line moving off.  I reeled down and gave it everything I had.  Game on!  The head shakes and thrashes were intense!  The fight probably lasted less than a minute, but it felt like an eternity.  As it got close to shore, I immediately knew it was a good 5lb+ fish but had no idea it would be my new PB until I lifted it out of the water.  This fish was very fat and heavy.  I knew it was close to my previous PB of 6-8 so I immediately ran back to where I parked next to Ashburn lake, put the fish back in the water with the hook still in its mouth, left my reel on freespool and got my scale out of my tackle bag.  I came back put her on the scale and it settled on 7lb 0oz.  To say I was excited is an understatment, however, I very quickly started to panic. 

I didn't have a camera.  I can't remeber how long I've had a phone with a camera on it, but unfortunately when I was laid off from job in November, I had to turn that phone in.  I purchased a temporary phone until I found another job.  With my future employment status uncertain, I didn't want to spend a lot of money so I got the cheapest Virgin Mobile phone Best Buy carried.  I didn't know they still made phones without cameras, but I've got one.  I immediately called Thai who called Dan who called Ernie to see if someone could come up to take a pic.  Dan called me back and said he tried getting Ernie but he was busy.  I asked a couple people walking by if they had cameras, but no luck.  Even though I would have loved to have a pic of my new PB, I wasn't going to subject the fish to any more stress than I had alread put it through.  As painful as it was for me to put her back without a pic, I did it.  She swam off just fine.  As soon as I got home, I took our old digital camera out of the closet and put it in my truck.

The fish had some very distinct markings so if someone else catches her and takes pics, I will recognize it.  She had black spot pigmentation all over her back and tail and had two distinct black marks on her side (left side I believe).  I don't expect to be recognized for a new record on Alder since I don't have pics, but that's not really important to me.  I just wanted to share my new PB story with everyone.

Thanks,
-Rob