Pacemaker Fishing Forum

drxfish · Jun-27-25 4:33PM

After guessing on the weather, I finally confirmed an early morning trip with my brother-in-law Jimmy and his #2 grandson, Brent. I was a little surprised that they made it on time. I know how pre-teens and their sleep can be. It was a little misty and the water was stained, but not dirty. Only little issue was a persistent East wind 5-9 mph. The plan was to get on a topwater bite early and go from there. We got to our first spot. I had a Whopper Plopper on. I gave Brent a baby WP on a spinning rod and Jimmy was throwing jigs when he could fish. Brent was new to topwater and was still working on his casting. The smallies started busting, but we were a little too far away. I did get the first fish before we moved closer.

Next was Jimmy with a nice one.

I caught a few in that spot, but nothing too big. I put a 75 size WP on for Brent to throw and he got his first topwater fish!

With 2 phones, the timing of the pics is difficult. Brent caught another fish on one of the jigs.

Jimmy was playing net man for a bit. The Plopper was doing well for me.

He did catch a few.

And Brent caught a couple nice ones!

The bite cooled there and we had 14 before we moved to the next spot. It started slow and then I decided to try a crankbait. Wham! First cast hooked up and lost. Then, next cast...

I gave Jimmy the rod and on his second cast...

Then, Jimmy caught one on the wobble head.

Then I caught one on the crank.

And so on and so forth. The Flatworm caught quite a few today.

Then I noticed Brent was hooked up with a nice one.

That was the prettiest fish of the day. We all had some good fish escape during acrobatic leaps. Jimmy lost one big one.

Brent caught a catfish, but we did not get a good picture.

Another flatworm fish, I think.

Jimmy caught fish.

And Brent drove the boat!

The drizzle was picking up and we decided to call it. We saw Eagles, a water snake, Herons and an Egret. The water was very warm (started at 80 degrees) and the air temps were in the 70's. Off the water by 10am with a boat total of 26 smallies and 1 catfish.