Pacemaker Fishing Forum

Jimmy just got cleared to fish, so we met at the ramp at 5:15am.  Launch was uneventful and off we went.  Made a couple stops to check for a topwater bite.  Water was stained but still green.  Level around 2 feet with a little bump predicted and temps 73-75 degrees. 



Jimmy had a tiny one on a torpedo for a bit.  Smallies would not hit the torpedo or whopper plopper.  I gave Jimmy some different offerings to try.  There was some surface activity behind us.  I tried a wake bait and got the skunk out.





I was able to get 4 at that spot, including this guy that swallowed my wake bait.



After that flurry dies down we struggled for a little while before making a move.  Jimmy did get his skunk out with this catfish.



It was still slow there until Jimmy tied a little jig with part of a senko on his baitcaster and hooked this.





It put up a heck of a fight and it weighed 16.7 pounds!  Jimmy was pushing his 20 pound restriction for sure.  Biggest fish caught out of my boat so far.

We got a couple bites but it slowed some.  Weather was very comfortable and we had the river to ourselves.  I will try to stick to highlights.  Jimmy tied a crankbait I gave him on his baitcaster.  It was a bait I think given to me by George and made by a Craig DeFronzo, who was a longtime River Smallies contributor and lure maker.  I had put hooks on it and never used it.  He had made maybe 10 casts with it and he had a big fish on.  I saw it before I could net it and it looked like a smallie but way too long.  I finally got it in the net and we were dumbfounded.





27 inches and 7.8 pound walleye!  Biggest one I have ever seen and another record for the boat.  There is more to the story, but not for this post.

I was up 8 to 7 and had just caught a big catfish that Jimmy put on a stringer.  Then caught this.





He then caught 2 more smallies on the crankbait.  Including this biggest of the day.





That was the finishing touch on a great day!

Last edited by drxfish (Jun-10-26 11:57AM)