Pacemaker Fishing Forum

I got out super early hoping to get into a good topwater bite.  I was on the water about 5:15am and had a full moon as well as the sunrise.


I threw the whpooer plopper for a while and got one smallie between 14 and 16 inches that got off at the boat as I was getting the net.  No more on top and so I ran upriver.  I tried an island and the water was low and clear and after about 30 minutes, I decided to run up more.  I was trying different lures in the middle of the river and the shore.  I put on a crankbait and finally hooked a decent smallie that jumped several times before I was able to net it.  It t-boned the crank and measured a little over 16.5".


There was a good amount of animal activity and I saw this family of deer on the shore.  The buck moved down the bank before I got this picture.  It is a little blurry because I had the zoom all the way.


I worked the middle of the  river most of the day.  I found a couple of small pods of what I call marauders of juvenile smallies.  These pods were prevalent when we used to get grass, but they are few and far between now.  You can pretty much cast any small lure into them and hook at least one.  I did this sporadically to get my number of fish landed to 5.  These fish were actively feeding and chunky 10-12"ers.  The fishing was tough overall and it got pretty hot.  I got off the water a little after 1:00pm.  Water was clear to green cloudy and in the low 70's.