Weather is often what separates the average fisherman from the hardcore. Last week my good fishing buddies Vic Higdon, Leon Higdon and David Ashby, owner of Bottom Dwellers Tackle, and I traveled to the James River in Virginia to do a couple of days of fishing and a one-day catfish tournament. The weather forecast was pretty dire. Cold, high winds with a good chance of rain. Who could ask for more?
Early Friday morning we got on the river. Winds were 10 to 20 mph, the air temp was 39 degrees, and the water temp was 48 degrees. We could have stayed in the warm cozy hotel and hung out, but we had traveled all the way to Virginia to fish, and fish is what we were going to do.
First, we had to secure some bait. We set two drift nets, and, after three sets, we had enough large gizzard shad to make a go of it. The James is like any river in many ways; the weather can shut off the bite like a switch or turn it on bright. The one big difference is this area of the river produces many 70-, 80-, 90- and even 100-pound blue catfish. This is why we were there. We headed out to one of Davidâs favorite spots.
All of the gear we were using was Davidâs. He owns a great tackle shop, and many of his products are designed specifically for trophy catfishermen. Today we were using Penn Fathom 25 level winds and Abu Garcia Alphamars. We were using Bottom Dwellers Tackleâs âKnock Outâ and âTake Downâ rods. Some of the rigs were spooled with mono and some were braid. The terminal tackle was rigged Carolina style, a sinker slider with 8 to 12-ounce no-roll sinkers depending on the current, one rubber bead, one glow bead, a large swivel and a snelled 10/0 Charlie Brown hook. If you donât know what a Charlie Brown hook is, it is a cross between a circle hook and a kahle hook. The neat feature these hooks have is you can set the hook traditionally or reel down circle-hook style.
We arrived, checked the current, checked the tide times, scanned the area for structure and fish. Marking some really good fish, we anchored up, deployed the drift socks and cast out our lines. The wind was steady with strong occasional gusts, but we were determined. We readied in anticipation!
On the first hole we had a few tentative pulls on the baits but no real pull downs, so we headed for spot No. 2, went through the same routine and readied for action. Again the fish were not biting with any commitment. They were in a soft-bite mood. Our only hope now was that they would turn on.
The next spot we marked several good fish, and all of a sudden the rod on the channel side of the boat pulled down hard. Vic grabbed it, and reeling down he hooked the fish. Leon and David cleared lines and readied the net while I got the video recording. Several minutes later we saw our first glimpse. It was a good blue catfish. He had a bucket head. When we finally netted him and got him on the scales, he weighed 56 pounds. He was short and really round. We took several pics and Vic released it back into the river to grow bigger. We fished several more spots and found an 18 pounder who was also hungry.
It was windy and cold on tournament day. We launched at 7 a.m. A few miles out, we cut a large wake and splashed water in the boat, soaking me and David. Vic, who was sitting in the front seat facing us, said he has never seen anyoneâs eyes open that wide. Wow, I was awake now!
We fished all kinds of holes, ledges, seams and wrecks. These fish just were not giving us any love. We managed to find two volunteers that were 6 and 9 pounds. What we were looking for was one more like 69 pounds. We were marking fish all over the place, but they had lockjaw. We persevered. As most of you know, these fish can turn on a feeding frenzy and turn it off again just like a light switch. The key is finding either fish that are feeding or tons of fish and hope the bite turns on. We didnât get that lucky. We headed to the weigh- in to see how the others had done. Several had no fish or only one fish. Then there was Allen Conner and his partner Mike Heffinger. They had two really nice fish, an 83-pounder and a 67-pounder. WOW! They had made a run downriver and found some biting fish.
Congrats to them.
The next day, we post-fished for fun and found several biters, including 36- and 28-pound blue cats at the first hole. Where were they the day before? We ended up catching 7 fish the last day. We fished 35 hours in three days, and it was time to get some sleep for the drive home. If you ever get the chance to fish the James River, I recommend you take it. It is quite an experience!
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