Pacemaker Fishing Forum

Earlier in the week, I thought about the huge crowds that could have been on the river this weekend and it really discouraged me from wanting to get out there. On my way to drop off my boat at the marina to get some work done, I looked down at the river from I-95 and saw very few boats, so i was like screw it! LETS GO FISHING! With Bruces' advice in mind, I got my gear ready.



Grabbed my yak and headed down to the Occoquan around 9AM. I was on the water by 10AM and wanted to try my luck for some bass before going for the "guaranteed" shad.  I headed down to the 95 bridge and fished there for a bit. I jigged and threw some plastics but nothing was biting. I saw a bunch of fish on my graph but they weren't interested in what i had to offer. I talked to another kayaker for a bit and he wasn't having much luck targeting crappie.

Under the bridge, i wasn't getting the warmth of the sun and it was windy....so I decided to head upstream to warm up. I'd never gone upstream from the launch before but it was a beautiful peddle up. Beautiful homes and gardens and lots of people out. It felt great being out on the kayak again. I forgot how relaxing it is.

Anyways, back to fishing.  While i peddled up, i decided to troll a swimbait and was rewarded quickly with a big kitty. I hooked on to this 15lber a few yards north of the 95 Bridge. It took drag pretty hard and I knew it was a catfish instantly by the way it was pulling. It might actually be the biggest catfish I've ever caught. I know there are bigger, but I never target them.



it looks small in the picture...but that thing was a brute.

Released him and I was off for some shad.



I saw this but damn! I just bought my house....haha. wasn't meant to be.

I've never really fished for shad before. All I had were fragments of advice from my friend Simon and the stuff Bruce gave me. I thought my rigs were set up properly but I was getting my butt kicked out there. There were about a 6-12 boats coming and going in that stretch between the waterfall and the 123 bridge the whole time i was there. I was anchored up in the middle of the pack. Everyone around me was catching shad....but not me.

haha. I tried different color darts and spoons but nothing for the longest time. I went to a chartruese dart with a green tip with a white dart with a red tip and finally got a bit! My first shad ever! woohoo



I stuck with it for awhile but it was really discouraging watching everyone else around me absolutely crushing the shad. I watched this father/daughter fishing and noticed that the distance between his two darts was much shorter than mine.  I didn't think it mattered when i put the rig together but seeing all the luck they were having, i decided to adjust. I shortened the distance from 24"ish to 12-16" and wow.....chart/red tip dart ->12" line ->chart/green tip was the ticket. I started hammering them. The retrieve was also important! I slowed it down to the speed at which I'd work a road runner. I noticed I was getting a lot of strikes but not a lot of hookups so the bass angler in me told me to slow it down.

I continued to have lots of luck and eventually, hunger made me call it a day. All the BBQ smells from the park didn't help.

I saw a father with his two sons on a bass tracker trying to catch shad but they were using grubs....it was hard watching them struggle so i peddled over and offered my rigs and lures but the father decided it was time to move on to catfish.

All in all a great day! Beautiful weather and I got to wet a line to respark my fishing fire. I'm definitely going to fish the shad every year. The fight, the acrobatics, the consistent bite. Very addictive!

Andrew