Pacemaker Fishing Forum

Scheduled a 4 hour outing with Captain Dennis Fleming for March 30. The weather forecast was iffy, but Ernie assured me that Dennis wouldn't go if it wasn't safe. While driving to the marina yesterday, it was raining...then snowing pretty hard...then sleeting and the wind was blowing at about 15mph. Needless to say, I was worried that the trip was going to be a disaster. Wow...was I wrong.

Departed the marina at about 6:30 a.m. and took a short run to the area near Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant. By the time we got there, the precipitation had mostly stopped (except for one more stint of large snowflakes); and although it was only 37 degrees, we were dressed warm enough that the cold breeze didn't bother us. Since my two partners for the day (my son Jeff and my friend Roney), hadn't done Light Tackle Jigging ala Captain Dennis, he did the first cast to demonstrate the proper jigging technique to use. About 5 seconds later, he strikes and immediately handed the rod off to my son. As Dennis yelled "that's a huge fish", my son began the retrieve which lasted about 10 minutes. Unfortunately, that's when the fish came unbuttoned. Dennis estimated the fish at 30+ lbs so we were disappointed to say the least.

So we all quickly cast out, and within a few minutes, I landed my first fish of the day.


After that, it was non-stop fishing and catching for 4 hours. Here are some of the pictures from the day:

Jeff's first fish he boated


Soon thereafter, Roney landed a huge fish that had a tag on it. When he calls in the tag number, I'll share the info back with you


Jeff's biggest one



Another one of mine



Roney strikes again



Father and son on the last drift of the day, certainly happy that we decided to take the trip



Many more pics, but I think you get the message. We each caught about 25-35 fish, and most of them were over 20". The largest fish came in at 38". One guy on Walleye Pete's boat, which was near to us most of the morning, boated a 47.5" monster.

Overall, a great day fishing with a great Captain. If you get a chance to take this trip in future years, I highly recommend you go out with Captain Dennis. He is not only skilled at putting you on the fish, but his instructive counsel is very helpful in this unique method of catching monsters on light tackle.

Bruce