Welcome to the site Curt! I wish I could go out this weekend but I am tied up with family. Let us know how you do things have been kind of slow on the James recently due to the spawn, but they should be picking up any time now.

Oh yeah get some EEL!!!

Nothing like waiting till the last minute huh ?HI ya Curt, where you stationed ? Oceana ?





 My cat boat is ready and needs slimmed too Scott but you dont live in Va beach any more .....You chesapeaker....all the hopewell/richmond catters are coming here to fish saltwater(even Jim & Earl) so you know nothing is happening much up there,so yet the cat boat sets and lots of time on the big boat.....whoa is me....I am ready anyday you are tho !!

Welcome aboard Curt---I'm sure we'll be catching up with you on the James next month,  good luck today and give us a report

I launched out of the chick around noon and set up my gill net right by the bridge hoping to get some shad. I was right, unfortunately they were plentiful and I had about 200 in the gill net after just 15 minutes! (My nets 100ft long, 9 feet wide) After an hour of getting all the shad out I kept about 20 for the day. I headed upstream to the deep water bends in hopes of my dreams becoming a reality of catching the state record. I set up in a 70 foot channel than dropped into a 91 foot hole.  I fan-casted my lines to cover different depths and set one pole aside for baitwalking. I was using 9/0 owner circle hooks, and 16 oz sinkers to keep the bait down in the deep water. The tide was running with brute force. Afer all the lines were in, I put on a smaller strip of shad, about 2 inches wide and dropped it with 12 oz down behind the boat until it hit the bottom. I would let it sit there for a few seconds and lift my rod up about a foot and drop it back down while feeding out a little line to let it bouce the bottom. About 15 bounces laterI almost had the rod taken out of my hands. Something big hit it and ran. Hit it so hard it backlashed the reel! ( I keep the reel in freespool while bait walking and just thumb the line) I didnt hook up and when I reeled up I found out why. The bait had turned on the hook and was basically weedless. Needless to say its really intense to feel the power of a big blue when they hit like that. Anyways, I managed to catch 3 about 12 pounds there. Nothing I was hoping for.  I moved a few times in the same general area but with no luck. As night came close I needed to get some fresh shad so I set up the gill net again. Stretched it out from 2 1/2 feet of water to 20 feet. As I was waiting, I was getting the boat ready for some night fishing. I looked back over at my gill net and it was gone! I tried to catch it with a rod but it just disseapeared. Thats never happened to me before and I was to see my precious net gone in an instant! I lost the net and 2 10 pound anchors. Oh well, perhaps it was time for a new it. It had seen better days. I ended up getting a few in the cast net luckily and looked at the topo map and headed to the first spot. After about 30 minutes my rod doubled down and I gave it a scond or two before picking it up to ensure the hook would do its job. Oddly enough, what I thought was a nice fish turned out to be a log floating down stream. After that I ended up dozing off  for a bit with the bait clickers on. I was hoping to be rudely awakened to the sound of a screaming reel. I always turn the click on and loosen the drag instead of freespool. Around 2 a.m. I nailed a 56 pounder with an outgoing tide fishing the outside bend on the slope. It hit the shallow rod. I didnt notice any spawn marks though. So to make this story short, thats all I caught for the next 8 hours. I tried various spots and no luck. I ended up leaving around 10 a.m. this morning. Oh well, one big one is better than nothing and during spawning time, its hard to really expect much consistancy in catch rates on this river. I havent learned much about what big blues do when they spawn. I know how channel cats are in Iowa where I am from. We just float leeches under a bobber next to a rocky shoreline. Anyone have any good info about blues and spawning? I didnt catch the monster last night, but theres always next weekend!
-Catfishcurt

Thanks for the report.  A few reports of bigger fish have been trickling in.  Might be time to hit the water.

Thanks for the great report Curt.  Looking forward to meeting up with you.  

Pete

Glad you landed something decent. We managed a 48 and a 60 saturday night, and a bunch of dinks. Sure am saddened to hear of the loss of a gill net. Worst part is it will probably continue to catch shad and small cats. Must have had a log drift into it, or the weights slid down the slope into deeper water. I usually set mine on a flat in around 7-12 ft, or remove the weights and let it freefloat behind the boat with one end tied to the boat.