Pacemaker Fishing Forum

Got out for a solo trip on a tidal inlet.  Weather forecast was originally 68 and cloudy with moderate winds.  Reality was morning rain, wind, wind and later the sun came out with more wind!  I caught a big fish on my first cast, but it was a carp that tried to eat my Kinami Psycho-dad.  That was fun on 6lb test!  Of course I left my boga grip in the car, so I finally tired it out enough to grab it's fleshy lip and get the hook out, saving one of George's flutter jigs and the bait.  I had to anchor to fish at all and cold rain lasted maybe 45 minutes or so.

No more takers at the first stop, so I blew down a bit and tried the chatterbait.  A few casts in, I caught a chunky pre-spawn LM in the 2-3 lb range.

My confidence improved, having caught the targeted species in a known pre-spawn/spawning area.  I tried chatterbaits, tube and swim bait, but nothing bit.

Tide was coming it and I gradually blew around the shoreline, trying to coax a lunker, but just struggled trying to control the boat with the wind.  I finally moved to the only area out of the wind and took a break and ate my lunch.

I tried to fish the emerging milfoil flat with the chatterbait after lunch, but nada.  I moved back to the less windy shoreline and worked a tube while blowing/drifting.  I finally stuck a slightly larger LM about 3 lbs on the tube.

I worked that shore back up  and drifted back a bit, finally sticking a big slab crappie that was over 13", heavy and aggressive.


I only caught one more smaller LM and called it a day,  Not exactly relaxing, but caught 3 species and saw some cool birds, including 2 ospreys, a bald eagle and a king fisher.