The James River has fully come to life for the Spring. Robert and Mark came out for a half day trip in the morning with their sights set on catching a trophy fish. We had bait in the cooler and got straight to fishing once we picked the gentleman up.
We started our morning with cut Hickory shad, drifting channel ledges down the river. We had a couple small taps that didn’t hook up but we promised our guest those were just little fish and not the ones they were looking for. Shortly after two rods went down at nearly the same time and we brought in twin 10 pound blue catfish. It was really fun watching Robert and Mark real the fish in together. While not trophy fish these fish fought well above their weight class.
About 45 minutes into our drift a rod doubled over and Mark grabbed the rod. The fish was pinned to the line and the fight was on. Mark learned how to use the rod to lift the fish and the real to recover some line. The fish fought hard, but Mark won the battle, and the fish was soon in our net. We hauled the giant blue catfish over the side of the boat and the look on Mark‘s face was priceless. The trip was just beginning and he was already in the trophy club. Congratulations on your 30 pound blue catfish and welcome to the trophy club
We continued to drift and caught a couple small fish before deciding to change tactics.
The sun was rising quickly, and we started targeting some structure and shallow water. We kept the boat on the move, not stopping in any one spot for longer than about 20 minutes. We caught a second blue catfish that was just under the trophy size coming in at 37 inches long.
As the mud flats heated up our day turned absolutely incredible. Rods were bouncing left and right and we had to drop down to six rods so we could manage them effectively. We had thrown a gut pocket of Hickory shad up on a mud flat and it didn’t sit for five minutes when all of a sudden it started to swim out towards the channel ledge and Mark reeled down on it. The fish was acting like it didn’t know it was hooked until it was right under the boat and then it started to fight. Based on the way, the fish took the bait and the way the fight had gone so far we predicted it would be a flathead catfish. Once the line was underneath the boat, we could really tell how ferocious this fish was. Mark got to experience big head shakes and strong, drag peeling, runs. We finally pulled the fish up to the top of the water and snuck a net under it confirming our suspicion this was a really nice 23 pound flathead. Congratulations on another fish bordering on trophy size.
About 20 minutes later, we were reveling in our catch when Mark said how cool it would be to catch another flathead. We told him anything was possible, but not to get his hopes up as these fish are somewhat rare in the stretcher river. As if the fish heard Mark‘s wishes, a giant hickory shad head piece started swimming off a channel ledge. Mark reeled down on the rod and we could tell this was an even bigger fish which, we suspected to be another flathead.
The fight was very similar to the last one somewhat casual at first turning ferocious as the fish swam underneath the boat. By this point, Mark was a pro at handling these large fish, which was good because this fish was running around like crazy. It took him across the rod rack, underneath the boat, and near the motor but he handled it all like a champ. A couple minutes later and we are face-to-face with a trophy 30 pound flathead, catfish. Welcome back to the trophy club with a memorable catch of back to back flatheads. That doesn’t happen every day.
Although this trip was action packed, it was only a half day of fishing and our time was soon coming to a close. We caught a couple more small fish up in the mud flats, and then it was time to pack up the rods and head back to the ramp
Congratulations on your awesome day of fishing. We hope to see you back on the water again soon.