Pacemaker Fishing Forum

8/3
Went out Tuesday with my buddy/res tx partner to prefish. Had a good day. It was nice to see the water temps back to normal. Water line even looked a little higher as well. Water was very clear with temps around 84*. We had a bunch of keepers w/ our best six around 18 lbs. We also had a double hook up on a c-rig which was pretty damn tight. Hope our pattern holds for Sunday.











8/6

We were on the water by 11 or so, we launched out of Bull Run and the water was chocolate milk brown...We were still optimistic that the fish were holding tight to cover and shallower since water temps at Bull Run was 80*. We ran down and fished some shallow wood to see if they were in fact holding tight and willing to bite. I Caught the first fish of the day off a small stump right on the bank on a jig, sadly it wasn't a keeper, few cast later after Aaron finished picking apart an overhanging tree with a kiel weighted plastic with no luck I decided to be a pest and said there's one here... it's too good not to have one so I pitched my jig between two limbs and let it drop down knocking branches on the way then all of a sudden my line went sideways so I set the hook, she stayed down so we were thinking bigger fish but nope...just a feisty fish short of keeper...

Thats when we decided to motor up and head up river, as soon as we passed the splits the water cleared up exponentially! So up the Occ we went with hopes of flipping and pitching our way to a 20+lb limit! We stopped at one of Aarons spots to fish some emergent brush, we picked it apart with our jigs throwing in every pocket and isolated pieces we could see but nada, zilch, no fish to be caught! Further up we went and next stop were some laydowns in deeper water, few bluegill nibbles but still no bass.... Motored up again and headed further up....I saw the bank change from earth to rip rap so we stopped there, Aaron hooks up first on a jig and it's our first keeper of the day. I tie on a 10+ Crankbait and start hammering the rocks, first bite doesn't hook up but it felt like a good fish, second bite, same deal but no hook up.....This is when made my first parallel cast to the bank and cranked it down...first bump on bottom nothing, second bump...WHAM! We have a taker and it's big.....It pulled us out into the channel and the whole time im thinking/wishing big bass, big bass, big bass but there was no way this thing just kept taking line and every time I would recover some it would just take off again....So here I am fishing 12# on a rod so soft it just about bent over and touched itself wondering if I was ever going to get this thing in, what feels like 20 minutes go by with out making so much as progress in in actuality it was 5 minutes of constant reeling and pumping ever so softly as to not snap the line.. As soon as i feel it start to come up it makes another dive and tries to run circles around the boat..another minute or two and I feel it start to exhaust, it comes up and we see it's a gigantic flathead..Aaron nets the ugly fishing and we get it in the boat for a photo op, Aaron is surprised I put my hands anywhere near this things mouth and I just tell him it's only a fish...We forget to weigh it since I was tired of holding it up for pictures and just toss the thing overboard, but we guesstimate somewhere between 40 and 45lbs.

We motor up some more and start fishing more laydowns and nothing, Aaron gets a call and he is needed elsewhere for business so we make the best of out limited time left and both start to powerfish with cranks, nothing for awhile but eventually Aaron hooks up but it's a short fish then I get bit on the ascend but no hook up again... Time is nearing so I pick up my buzzbait for grins and gigs and actually get a taker in 12' of water! Our second and last keeper for the day, not the 20+lbs we had hoped for but a successful exploration in my book.