Pamunkey 1-14-12 Report

Today I decided to give the Pamunkey a try since it has been a while since I've been there. My wife's grandfather joined me for his first catfishing trip with me. I was worried it would be too windy and it was at first but the wind got more manageable as the day went on. We didn't get started untill around 1030 and spent the next 2 hours trying to get some fresh bait. I normally don't have any problems getting it but due to the extreme low tide today most of the places I usually get bait were inaccessible. I think the steady strong winds we have been having this week caused the water to be a little lower than normal. We eventually got 2 big shad and I figured at that point that if I spent any longer looking for bait we would waste our whole day. The first spot we went to ended up being or best and really turned the outcome of the day around. Within minutes of getting bait in the water we were hooked up with a 23 pound cat.

It was obviously a little chilly out there today. It was in the low 40's with a steady breeze. As long as we stayed out of the wind it really wasn't too bad. As soon as we got the 23 back in the water another pole went down with line peeling of the spool. This fish came in pretty easy at first but before it was over really put on a fight. He came in a 58 pounds and had a massive head on him. 

We moved to another spot after that just to see what else was biting before we ran out of bait. This spot produced a couple smaller fish and this 31 pounder. 

 After the 31 I wanted to see if anything was biting in a nearby deep hole. It took a few tries to get set up there due to the super strong current and the deep water but once set up we quickly realized this spot was not anywhere near as active as the first two spots. So after a brief sit we went back to a similar spot as the first two. Within 10 minutes I hooked into this awesome fighting 47 pound cat.

We decided to end the day on this fish and head in.

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

Capt Joe and Luke

Capt Joe and future First Mate Luke went out yesterday for their weekly fishing trip together and had a pretty decent day. They caught some smaller fish and a 21 and a 44 pounder. It was a little rainy and windy but not a bad day.

Another notable catch on the river yesterday was Capt. Hugh who caught a 100lb Blue Cat.

Stripers 10/27/11

The last two nights we have caught limits of stripers while casting on the James. We used to do a lot of this years ago but haven't tried too much lately. Here are a couple of the fish. They were ranging from 19-21 inches.

Half Day Trip

Today Capt. Joe took out a half day Charter for a couple that won a trip we gave away in a local bank fishing tournament. As you can see they did pretty well. There weren't a whole lot of fish caught but when you leave with a picture holding 50 pound catfish I would call it a success.

There was also a wounded warrior event today on the James and I know some really nice fish were caught by those guys. So hopefully things will continue to pick up through out the winter as usual.



p.s. Blogging a fishing report is kinda boring without any interaction from readers. If you enjoy reading this and I know there are a bunch of you, then feel free to post comments, questions or send us a message. It really keeps us motivated to keep posting reports.

FWD: