Pacemaker Fishing Forum

I get the privilege of writing this report even though Jeff English was the Captain of the jet boat.

Jeff and I left Ashburn at 0515 so we could get on the Upper Potomac in time for the early top water bite. On the way to the river, we deliberated on whether to put in at Lander or at White’s Ferry. We decided on White’s Ferry since it was closer. When we got to the ramp, we could see that the ferry was on the other side so it would be a few minutes before it would come get us. Ten minutes went by and no movement so I got my rod and started throwing a small jig at the fast moving water. It did not take long for the 1st smallie to hit!



Skunk is off and it’s 0545!! This went on for another 10 minutes and the ferry still was not coming over so Jeff finally joined me and started wailing away!



We must have caught 18-20 fish in less than 30 minutes…what a morning of fishing! One of the nicer ones that I landed gave us the aerial show of shows. This smallie jumped like a guided missile coming out of a Trident sub! I have never seen a smallie jump that high…neither had Jeff.

It was obvious that the ferry was not coming so on to plan B which was putting in at Point of Rocks.



At first, we headed up river but there were a few boats up there so we started drifting down river. It did not take long for Jeff and me to take the skunk off the boat. This one had nice markings!



Jeff caught a zillion of these!



We were switching baits all day but mostly we used tubes, white grubs, and jigs w/grubs. We never did get one on top water.

At one point, Jeff put on a wacky worm and this wacky sunnie nailed it…



…..that is a big bream! Around 10:30, I got my thrill of the year when I landed this football….



….the fish was not long (<14 inches) but he was fat and healthy…..a great sign!! Jeff looked over and said…..watch this! And he landed a beautiful 16.75” smallie that pulled like a freight train! He fought this with light tackle and the fish made several runs....it was great to watch!



Two minutes later, I get a huge hit in the same shaded area and this guy gets boated!



He was just over 16.5 inches….an  1/8 of an inch smaller than Jeff’s! We were slapping five like 2 little kids.

We did not catch any more big ones but we caught a bunch that were 12-14 inches…..feisty fish too!



We ended the day catching a few more throwing at this…..



What a day! I bet we caught 65 fish….no, maybe 80! Frankly, we lost count but we had steady action all day.

I have NEVER had such a great day on the Upper Potomac! Wow!

Thanks Jeff for taking me along!

Ernie

PS- Two cool things happened:

1. We saw an eagle fly 40 feet above us....we were both mesmerized.

2. We were stopped by MD DNR. The officer was extremely nice and courteous and told us that Jeff's boat was the only one he had stopped today that was fully compliant with the regs (life jackets, extinguisher, whistle etc). Kudos to Jeff!