Pacemaker Fishing Forum

On Friday, it was misting rain on the way down. I assured everyone that it would quit by the time we reached the NC line. As we approached the line, the sun came out and it was beautiful the rest of the day. We launched about 11:00 and started searching for fish.

I assumed that the fish would be spawning and started looking for nests in the back ends of coves. In the first cove, we were fishing a dock in the back of the cove when I felt the familiar tap and set the hook. Landed a 6-10 bass on a 7" Senko. We continued to fish this pattern and got two more quality fish.

At that point, we knew we had a pattern and went looking for another pattern. Headed into a creek and started fishing the deep dropping banks in the back of the creek and caught a bunch more fish. I was culling fish by 3:00 and had a solid 15-16 pound limit. More importantly, we had two good patterns for the following day.

We retired to the Motel and starting putting the cover on the boat. As we were fastening the straps, it started to rain. We took cover under the eaves of the office and waited it out. Sure enough, the shower passed over in approximately 5 minutes. We finished putting the cover on the boat and headed for the restaurant. After a good dinner at Lone Star, the seven of us left to go back to our rooms when we noted a rainbow in the sky. I figured that this was a sign that our weekend would be rain free........and it was. Absolutely gorgeous weather, except for quite a bit of wind. Winds of 15-25 were noted on Saturday and again on Sunday.

The Corps of Engineers turned the tables on us on Saturday and changed the water release times and amounts, rendering our Friday patterns almost useless. However, we came up with other patterns that produced fish. We Carolina Rigged the same creek that we fished on Friday and then hit windblown points with Zoom Super Flukes and Senkos. Just before weigh-in, I told my partner that we needed to go back to the dock where I caught the big female on Friday and get the male. He was very skeptical, but went along and sure enough, I caught another fish from the same spot. It was not, however, a male, but another female. Sam brought in a 6-9, caught on a crankbait on a main lake point and Mark had a 4-2 lunker, caught on a crankbait on a main lake point.

Sunday, the Corps changed the water schedule and levels again. This screwed up everyone again, as we had to go find new patterns. Saturday's patterns did not work. This time, we opted to fish crankbaits on stumpy, graveled, windblown shorelines and points. My partner filled his limit, while I constantly had fish get off. Once again, I reminded him of the male on the bed off the dock. We headed back there and I found a bed exactly where I caught the other two fish. This bed had a good solid 4-5# fish in the middle of the nest. The wind blew the boat up on the bank and in attempting to get it off the bank and back in position to work the fish, I managed to muddy the water. We waited a few minutes for the water to settle, during which time, my partner caught and culled his smallest fish. After the water cleared a little, I went back to the nest and started working the fish. Just as I was getting her frustrated enough to start nosing the bait, he announced that it was 12:54. With weigh-in at 1:00, I could not wait any longer. Another 10 minutes and I would have had that fish.

What a super lake and a super weekend. Good company, good fishing, good catching and good weather (except for the wind).

Charlie NHBA