02/20/2012 Catfish Cadillac Report

Big Cat Guide Service was in action again yesterday .Captain Joe Cannon along with 1st mate BOB THE MAILMAN had a semi-productive day with 4 men from the Fredricksburg area of which 2 were retired FBI agents. Can you imagine 1 disgruntled postal worker(BOB) and 2 retired FBI agents on the same boat. We all came back safe. We were totally excited fishing as we put Danny, the youngest of the 4 and Kevin's son, on a 37 pound personal best big blue cat.

So many guests we take out are rather hesitant on handling a big slimy fish but Danny was totally into it. He was slimed and wore his battle scar( one majorly slimed sweatshirt)proudly the rest of the day. Danny was a special person to us all and it was totally gratifying to see his face and smile after his catch. Priceless. We followed with a couple of fish in the teens later in the day. We missed several nice pull downs,more than normal actually. So we had a good bite all day but very few takers. Having a good crew is half the trip and these guys were very appreciative of our efforts even though we know we Could have done more - mother nature said different. In summary a great first mate, awesome captain and 4 avid and excited fishermen made for a beautiful day on the water.

PS - My Mister Heater did an awesome job again on the Catfish Cadillac where it's always 72 degrees !

Tight Lines Captain JOE Cannon

Waiting for summer? What's a croaker?

Every year the fishing is good in the winter but the phone never rings like it does in the summer. Almost every trip I take out someone will ask me "What is the best time of year to go?" I always tell them Fall, Winter and Spring, more specifically October through April. I always feel bad when we are on a summer trip and their reaction is "Oh Really?" Well here I am officially notifying everyone that if your are planning to take a trip out catfishing you should try and book it for any time between October and the end of April. I'm not saying you can't or wont catch fish in the summer. I'm just saying it's better now. I know a lot of people relate warm weather with fishing but just take a look at our pictures and you will notice that most of the bigger fish we tend to catch during the day(not summer nighttime trips.) I must acknowledge though that our biggest fish was caught in the summer though. The 81 Pounder that is at the top of the page was caught at night in the summer.


Also beginning this summer we will be offering some Saltwater Croaker trips running out of West Point and Croaker on the York River. These are great trips for kids and great for people who want to catch fish for the freezer. We will catch eater size catfish and croakers and you can keep all you catch within the laws of the state. Trips are for up to 6 people and will cost $250 for a 6 hour trip. Trips for 2 people will cost $150 and will be for 4 hours. This will be an introductory price and will most likely increase once this trip is established. So feel free to book your summer trip now and lock in this rate. Also because this is a saltwater trip I am able to provide fishing licences for you and that is already included in the cost of the trip.

Also I will provide a cooler with ice on the boat to keep your fish in
 and a cooler with water to drink and snacks for the day.

These trips will start in May and continue until the fish move back down river sometime in August.

This is going to be a very fun trip and should produce a good amount of meat for the freezer.

We still have T-Shirts for Sale

We still have a few shirts for sale and I have set it up so that you can purchase them from here. They are $25 each. If you are already scheduled for a trip and want us to bring a certain size and color for you just let us know and we can bring it then. These are nice T-Shirts with a front pocket and the logo on the pocket.


Big Cat Guide Service T-Shirt -Orange

Sizes

XL XXL

Big Cat Guide Service T-Shirt -Smoke

Sizes

Small Large XL

Big Cat Guide Service T-Shirt -Brown

Sizes

Large

Big Cat Guide Service T-Shirt -White

Sizes

Medium

Big Cat Guide Service T-Shirt -Blue

Sizes

Large

Catfish Cadillac 12/15/2011 Live Report

Captain Joe is on the water today fishing with First Mate Luke and "Q." I will post updates to this post as he sends them to me. Hopefully they have a great day. It's about 60 degrees out there today so no matter what I'm sure it beats sitting in the office.

After spending some time to find bait on the high tide they landed their first fish of the day. This is a nice looking 40lb fish.

Here is the second fish of the day. 48 pounds for First Mate Luke!

Q with another awesome fish 49 Pounds...


(He says they are getting tired...)

Another great Winter Trip!!!

 

02-04-2012 Report

Today we hit the Pamunkey again but this time I came ready with a cooler of fresh caught bait. Of course when you have plenty of bait the fish aren't as cooperative, but it never fails if you can't find bait they wont stop biting.   Either way it was still a great day. The weather was perfect and everyone seemed to have a good time. Our first spot of the day produced a 20 pound cat



Then we caught some some smaller one's a 15 pounder

and the big fish for the day was this nice 36 pound cat.

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the total for the day was 5 8 10 15 20 36

Capt Joe 1-31-2012 Report

Here is another great day on the James for Capt. Joe. This is Mr. Clary's Personal Best.

They had fish of 10,16,28 and 48 pounds.

1-28-12 James Report

Here is another report from the James with Capt. Joe. Today they caught fish of 18,24,34,41 and 50 pounds.

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.