Pacemaker Fishing Forum

Today was a day of over planning and lack of execution.  I was excited for hitting the pre-spawn bite before the super muddy water came down.  I got the tide and weather right.  I started on a flat I like to work with chatterbaits.  About the third cast, I got a mega backlash on one of the two baicasters I had in the canoe.  The other one had a spinnerbait on.  I tried messing with the backlash but then threw the spinnerbait a few times.  I almost backlashed that one.  I was anchored, but decided to pull up so I could work on the line of the big backlash.  Opportunity 1 aborted.

The next spot looked good and there were a lot of shad/herring/baitfish in an outflow.  I worked it over pretty good with a tube and ned rig, but just wasn't getting bit.  I threw a chatterbait (after I fixed the backlash) and the spinnerbait, but no bites.  I was not feeling it there so I moved to a deeper (not deep) area that bass spawn in.  I threw a red and orange crankbait, red and then chartreuse white chatterbait, tube and ned rig.  No bites, so I kept moving around the cove.  After I got no bites on the other side.  High tide was at 7:38am and the bite gets tough after the tide goes out. 

I decided to go back to the inflow and finally got a bite on the tube at about 9:35. It was a chunky 17+ incher that had a bright red mouth.





That was the only bite I got there, so I moved back around the spawning area.  I got no more bites, but I got a Lucky Craft crank into a tree, was able to get it out and then threw it into another tree higher up.  All before lunch.  I enjoed the nice weather and tried a different spinnerbait and a few cranks. 

After lunch, the tide was really dropping.  I finally anchored and just worked one area with the tube and ned rig.  I finally got one on the ned, when I noticed my line swimming off sideways.  It was a smaller fish, 14 inches
.  It had the red mouth too. 





I tried a different color tube and a jig and craw along with cranks and the spinnerbait, but no bites.  I made my way back to the ramp by about 2:30pm.  Nice day to be out, just wasn't the hot bite I got excited for.