Chris, Sam, and Dieter joined us on the James River with the goal of taking some fish home to eat while chasing monster catfish. Leading up to the trip, we noticed a large wind front moving in before a cold snap. We decided to move the trip up to a 6am launch so we could enjoy a bit more fishing before the wind kicked up toward 20 mph. It was a cold morning but we showed the guys how to catch gizzard shad while they were deep in the water column. Our first few sinking gill net sets gave us enough bait to get fishing and we headed out to the main river.
We sunk the gill net before anchoring up at our first fishing spot, so we could catch a bit more bait while we fished. We sat on anchor for a little over an hour with the rods getting tapped and a few fish coming off the shallower side of our rod spread. Included in our first few fish was Sam’s new PB blue cat, weighing in a little under 10 lbs.
We decided it was time to try to target some bigger fish in water under 20 feet deep. We pulled the rods in, got set up to drag baits, and fetched the gill net. To our surprise we had a mixed bag in the net including all the bait we needed for the rest of the trip.
We started marking fish and deployed the dragging rigs. It was frustrating to mark fish all over the graph without any rods going down. We saw some monster catfish marks mixed in with plenty of bati and gar. The wind started to pick up after about 40 minutes of unsuccessful dragging and we knew it was time to hide from the wind and anchor up again.
We moved to another stretch of river and marked a bunch of fish hanging out behind a rock pile. We anchored up, tossed some rods into the channel, and carefully placed a few rods right near where the fish were schooled up. This particular section of river was loaded with bait and our hopes were high that our trophy fish would come in this location. We caught a few fish out of the group but they were not the class of fish we were looking for.
They were in the 10 lb range and feisty but we still wanted to find some trophy fish. We decided to pack the rods up and start scanning a few locations for giants.
We headed up river and checked out a few locations that have been holding fish recently and to our surprise, it was radio silence. We made a big run up river and had a bunch of places we wanted to fish but there was nothing on the graph convincing us to cast the rods out. Credit to our guests as they remained patient and could see we were hard at work looking to turn their trip into a memory. We made the tough decision to abandon this section of river after scanning for over an hour. The more we scanned, the more we started to lose the bait.
Captain Dan racked his brain and decided to switch up tactics. We headed for a part of the river where we knew bait was holding and water depths didn’t exceed 25 feet. It was about time for lunch so we started scanning, eager to get anchored up and break out the grill for lunch. We didn’t have to scan long when we saw a few nice marks lurking around giant schools of bait. We stopped the boat right there and got the rods into the water.
We fired up the grill and first mate, Stan asked the group if they thought we could grill lunch faster than we could catch a fish at this spot. Dieter was quick to answer that he knew we were going to catch a fish first. He was awfully convincing as the meat wasn’t on the grill long before a rod doubled over.
This fish went screaming for deeper water and Sam was quick to jump on the rod and start the battle of this life. The fish swam up river towards the boat and we knew it was a good fish. Once the fish got under the boat and we saw how tough he was fighting against a heavy action Hellcat rod, we knew it was going to be a great fish. As Sam started to lift the fish up towards the boat, the fish kicked it into another gear and became very aggressive. He took Sam across the rod rack and we had to clear rods out of the water to keep everything clear. We didn’t want to take any chances with this fish. Other rods were getting tapped during this chaos but luckily nothing hooked up because this fish was angry and it was a team effort to wear him out. Sam handled the fish like a pro. The fish came up to the surface and we didn’t get a great glimpse at it but we saw a giant tail fan the surface of the water and peel drag back towards the bottom. The next time Sam pulled the fish up, we snuck a net under it and pulled the fish over the rail.
This was a true river monster, measuring 46.5 inches and 66.4 lbs. Everybody was amped up and Captain Dan thanked everybody for being patient as we searched for something worth fishing. That fish certainly made us work for it but it took the trip to the next level. We were sure to give Sam his trophy chip as a token to remember the battle with that amazing fish.
Welcome to the trophy club!
We were 7 hours into an 8 hour trip at this point and still had a livewell full of fish to clean. We were getting hammered by the wind and snuck into a more protected section of the river. We tossed out a few rods while we filleted fish. The first spot didn’t provide any action so we scanned and found one last spot. We missed a big takedown and had another smaller fish fail to hook up as the trip came to a close.
We sent the guys home with a bag of fillets and memories to last a lifetime. Dieter expressed how awesome it was to watch his grandson catch such an amazing fish and it was a good reminder of why we do what we do here at Goober Time Guide Service. Thanks for braving the wind and joining us for an awesome day on the James River! It sure is one amazing fishery!
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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