After spending the first few days of 2025 working on some projects, it was time to hit the review for my first fishing trip of the year. I did not have a trip planned so I decided to take the jon boat out and let the motor run some.
I did a quick workout and did not rush to the river. I knew bait would be easy to find and I’ve been on a good pattern of fish so I let the sun rise and start warming the world up. We hit the river, marked shad immediately and sunk the gill net into a group of bait. I was able to pull up enough bait for me and my buddy Stan to start fishing for the day. We were both headed to the same general location and we went separate ways, checking on a few things along the way. I was not marking fish in the first spot and anchored up on a pile of bait nearby. It didn’t take long before the first fish of the day came in, weighing 15 lbs. Not a bad way to get the skunk off the boat and start the year. I don’t get to catch many fish myself these days and it was fun to reel one in for a change.
This spot continued on with a lot of short strikes and one promising, slow takedown that never hooked up. After giving it some time, I made a slight adjustment and hooked into the first monster of the day. As it would turn out, forgetting my landing net in the big boat was going to have some consequences today. I had to wrest this beast into the boat but check out the size of this James River giant, tipping the scales at 62 lbs.
I wasn’t marking much in this spot and didn’t want to spend a ton of time at this location so I moved on to another spot. I started scanning well before I reached the spot I was headed to and had to pull up and toss out the anchor when I saw some nice fish in the area, chasing bait. I could tell these fish were active and it wouldn't take long for them to hit, if they decided to play along. I was right and within the first 20 minutes, we missed 1 fish and had another really nice fish hook up, weighing in at 38lbs.
The wind was starting to rip but I wanted to give this spot a little bit more time. The rods were constantly getting hit and I had two more really nice takes that never hooked up. One of the fish picked up a giant head piece and swam it under my anchor line. When I went to reel down on him, I couldn’t quite get the angle I wanted to and he let go of the bait after a solid 10 second fight.
The tide was almost slack, after going out the previous 5.5 hours, and I really wanted to stay in this area through the tide change but the wind was starting to spin the little boat around and tangle the lines up really bad. I decided to pull everything in and keep scanning up the river. The more I scanned, the more I liked it and I had to fish it. More bait, more big marks nearby. I just had to find a way to deal with the wind. I drove the boat right onto the bank, tossed an anchor out in the mud and got the lines out with fresh bait.
These fish were fired up and within 5 minutes of casting all 6 rods out, I had one of the more violent takedowns I’ve ever experienced. The fish ran down river, which meant he was pulling sideways on my rod rack to the point where my rod holder let loose and turned sideways. I jumped up and the battle was on. The fish came out of 20 ft of water but the back of the boat was floating over 2 feet of water, with the bow in mud. I knew this was going to be an interesting landing. My days of kayak fishing paid off and I was able to get a hand on the 100 lb Slime Line leader and wrestle the fish into the boat. I had just unhooked the fish when another rod went down the same way. Long, slow takedown that wouldn’t stop and turned another rod holder to the side. I left the first monster on the floor of the boat and started to battle the next fish. I had the fish about halfway to the boat when a third rod went down and the fish bolted for a downed tree. I held the second rod between my legs and reeled in enough line to get the 3rd fish out of the tree. I knew it wasn’t as nice as the second fish so I put it in a rod holder and decided to deal with it later.
Another interesting fight and I pulled in the twin to the first fish. I had a scale but didn’t want to hurt the fish so I knew I had to act fast. I reeled in the 3rd fish and before I knew it, the floor of the boat was covered in monsters.
I pulled all the rods in, grabbed the anchor, and pushed the boat off into the river. I called my buddy Stan and told him I was coming with some monsters and needed his sling. I raced about 2 miles down the river and we tied our boats off to each other. It was time to deal with these giants.
We weighed each fish in the sling, got some good photos and returned all 3 fish to the river to swim away for another day. The two biggest fish were twins, weighing in at 57.3 and 57.4 lbs. The “little” fish was almost a trophy fish itself and weighed 27.5 lbs.
I was exhausted after that chaos and decided to pack it in for the day. I knew I had a guide trip on the 5th and didn’t want to fish everything out. Not a bad way to start the year and a heck of a day for only spending 3 hours on the water! There aren't many places on earth where you can catch fish like this and days like these are the reason the James River gets the reputation it does. It doesn't happen every day but when it does, it's surely amazing and a heck of a lot of fun!
Gear We Trust:
Rods from Catch the Fever (Discount code GOOBER10 for 10% off)
Line from Slime Line (Discount code GOOBER10 for 10% off)
Terminal Tackle from Mid Atlantic Catfish Co (Discount code Goober15 for 15% off)
Planer Boards from AlphaBoardz (Discount code GOOBER10 for 10% off)
Reels from Shimano https://amzn.to/49Xxyq7
Anchors from Never Lost Anchors (Discount code GOOBER5 for 5% off)
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