12/26/2011 Report

Well some may think it's odd to go fishing the day after Christmas......but they probably aren't cat fisherman! Steve(Top Picture) is a local cat fisherman who wanted to take his son and his girlfriend out for a Christmas present. I think everyone but Steve ended up with their biggest catfish ever so that is always a great thing. The weather was pretty good except for the wind that showed up late morning. We cranked up the heater only once for a few minutes but that was all we needed.  The total for the day was a 12, 38 and 40 pound catfish.


38 Pounder - This fish fought it's butt off! You can see how calm the water is in this picture. This fish was caught at our first spot of the day.

Eater for the Table - Last fish of the day and notice the bumpy water and we were in a fairly protected area.

40 pounder - Mid day fish in heavy current. She fought this fish like a pro!

55 pound blue cat on skiff

 I needed to install new rod holders on the skiff and do some greasing of the steering today. After that I had to take it out and test it all out. I still need to make some adjustments to the rod holders but they worked OK. The river was a little muddy but not too bad. Water temp was about 49. The biggest issue for me today was the tide was slowing down when I got out there and the wind was blowing pretty hard. I tried a spot in the wind and didn't get any bites so I found a place out of wind and anchored to the bank. After setting up all the excitement I had for the spot went away and for whatever reason i lost confidence in the spot really quick. I stuck it out because I had a few smallish hits. A few minutes latter one of the rods doubled over and line peeled off the spool. This fish made 3 runs from the boat and since I was anchored in about 3 ft of water it made for an intense fight,especially since I was by myself. The only scale I had was a 50 pound spring scale and this fish bottomed that out easily and broke the handle. So I am guessing it was 55 pounds but that should be close.

55 pound blue cat on skiff

Later I met up with my dad and took Luke from him and we fished 1more spot together before calling it a day.



Total time out only about 3 hours.

The Sea Fox is for Sale

No I'm not quiting just making a boat change.

http://richmond.craigslist.org/boa/2738661718.html

Take a look and let me know if you are interested. Share this with your friends too!

$10,500

Blue Cat Mount

Today is Capt. Joe's Birthday and here is what we gave him...

For years we have been talking about getting a replica made so we can show people at our office and friends that dont fish what these monster really look like. The pictures never do them justice. It was supposed to be a 65 pound cat but I think it turned out to look more like a 78 which is fine cause we have caught those too!

The fish was done my American Fish Taxidermy and they did a great job!

More Government, less sense

Apparently someone high up thinks there is a shortage of herring on the rivers of Va. I don't know where they have been fishing but it obviously isn't the same place as us. This will not be good for some local businesses that benefit from the surge of people that fish the upper sections of the river mainly due to the herring that migrate up. I could have understood/dealt with a limit per person but a flat out ban is just DUMB!

http://www.mrc.virginia.gov/regulations/fr1260.shtm