Pacemaker Fishing Forum

Took Friday off to do a rare thing which was do a short kayak float with a friend from work and then hit another part of the river for quick solo trip.  It was really nice to finally get a day when the wind wasn't roaring.

Air temps were a little cool when we met at 9:30, loaded up gear and kayaks in my vehicle and drove up to the launch. Water levels were pretty good and color was the perfect green.  Overall the action was surprisingly slow considering what I had seen on this board and heard from George about the Susky.  Buddy struck first with a smallie about 13" on a red crank about an hour in.  About an hour later, the reliable green swimbait found a chunky 16.25 in the middle of a shallower eddy between 2 current chutes. That was after another one grabbed the swimbait a few minutes before that.


The swimbait got me another chunky one that went 16.5" a little later.  My buddy lost another one also.  And that was it for the float.   3 fish on 6 hits with pretty much overcast skies and a little bit of wind.

After grabbing some lunch, dropped the kayak at another spot for a paddle upstream and float back down to the launch.  Focused on current breaks where I found my fish earlier in the day with swimbait, flat sided crank, and old Winco cold water delight.  But nothing so I tied on a Lucky Craft pointer to work the deeper areas and eddies on the float back down.  Got to the pool where I launched and had something grab the jerkbait as I was reeling it back fast for another cast.  Then about 10 minutes later, saw a fish chase something on top.  Made a cast and started working the jerkbait as fast as I could with no pauses. Felt the fish load up on it and it was on. When the fish tried to jump,.saw how big it was. 

After a few anxious minutes, lipped this stud of a small mouth.  Just under 19" with the mouth fully closed.  A bonus was someone was walking by with his dog as I paddled to shore to get a measurement.