Pacemaker Fishing Forum

I don't know what it is about white perch fishing with light tackle (4 & 6 lb line on 5 to 5 1/2' sticks) that keeps three grown men so focused on catching fish that are less than 10" long. Is it the way they hit? The way they fight? The hope of catching a monster more than 12"? All I know is that today, Bev Carroll, Gene Lyons and I had a blast catching 106 white perch and only one (1) was over 10" long! We did manage to keep ten of them (bigger than 8") for a fish fry.

We actually brought tackle to go striper fishing and only used it for 20 minutes…..go figure!!

I have been doing this kind of fishing since the early 80’s when Carl Johnson took me o the Wicomico River for the 1st time. Since then, I have fished there a couple of times a year! I have yet to catch a Citation which is 13” (and neither have anyone else with me). We have boated quite a few 12 inchers but not lucky 13!!

Today was Gene’s 1st time white perching and here is 1st one and it was the 1st fish of the day!



A few minutes later I hear…."fish on! BIG fish on"! Bev is fighting a nice fish! Check it out….Gene and I almost died laughing when Bev reeled this one in!



The wind was really blowing at Swan Pt on the Potomac, where we started. We were moving so fast that it was almost like trolling out there. Finally we had to move and we went to the mouth of the Wicomico and headed over to St. Margaret’s Island where we found some fish and some respite from the wind. This is a keeper that I caught.



Around 2 PM, Gene says, “are we getting a crab cake at Quade’s?” He had been prepped and over to Bushwood we headed.  It was nice to the Quade family (Mrs. Quade is 92) and we each ordered the famous crab cake. Once again….UNREAL!



Our last stop was Wolf’s Cove where I proceeded to ground the boat. I found out that I can float in about 15 inches of water. Any less and it’s bottom out time! The cove fishing was slow until we say some small bait in the water and we started to catch them rapid fire….just like the old days. We had a triple and then Bev caught the BIG fish of the day!



At the end, the score was as follows:

1st fish- Gene
Biggest fish- Bev
Most fish- Bev with 36 (I had 35 and Gene had 34).

It was one of the clearest days I have ever seen. Just Perfect!

Ernie