Pacemaker Fishing Forum

Once again, Bob and I went chasin' hicks! We met at the ramp at 7:45a.

As we were launching, Bob aid that we would have 35 shad by 11a. I said nothing.

It was in the mid 40's when we launched but we were well prepared with our lined pants and many layers. You see, when the wind blows down the river, like it did today, it's like a runaway A/C hitting you since the water temps today were still at 50-51.8dF.

When we got there, there was only one boat and it was Don and Dave, two seasoned "O" shad slayers.

By 8:15a, we both had our skunks off!





These were roe hicks. They were fat and feisty.

The pace was good and we were having a blast!



So were Dave and Don who ended up with 50 shad for the morning.



By 8:45a, Bob had a 9-6 lead.

By 9:17a, we hit Bob's goal of 35 shad with Bob up 19-16. Yes, it was a great hour!! So great that I only took those 3 pics.

But by now, the wind started to pick up so I decided to go up top, where I prefer to fish.

We spent about an hour up there and only caught 2 shad. Very disappointing and the wind was still a PIA.

Bob threw a rig in a tree and we were able to retrieve it. It did break the line so Bob just tied on his silver spoon. Remember this.

So we headed back down to our spot. By now, there was a guy on a paddle board fly fishing, he caught a few. Another guy was in a yak and when he came by he said, "slim pickins' today". I didn't have the heart to tell him where we stood. And there were two other small boats, neither were catching many. But they kept looking at us and fishing close by.

On the way down, Bob caught 2 shad on the single spoon.

Then we spot locked in an area where I was able to block Bob from casting under the wires. I really didn't do it on purpose (the wind was taking the back end sideways) but it was effective because I started catch a few here and there and was able to take a 30-29 lead. Then his son called and Bob had to let him know that Ernie was ahead. Bob got yelled at and was told to pick it up!

I really believe that the difference was the extra (normal) lure on the rig. While Bob caught most of his shad on his spoon, I was able to gain with my secret weapon (above the spoon).



George made this on a slightly bigger hook and it was deadly!



We kept fishing and catching and finally called it shortly before 1p as we were both starving.

I was fortunate to eek out a 44-39 victory today (will be short lived) but it was a great battle. Bob had the biggest at slightly under 18"...and fat!

Bob mentioned that if we hadn't moved up to, and stayed where we were catching them, that we certainly would have caught near 100. Oh well...

Lunch was great as always. Bob had the brat and I had a fried chicken sammie with bacon that was really good. We ate outside since it was 60dF.

This was a very satisfying day as we are still in March but we caught April numbers.

Retrieves had to vary to catch some today. If you stayed with one style, it would get slow.