Cookout Tourney - 3 for 3!

James (Muzkrat) and I entered the latest ODCC Cookout Tournament.  We came away with the victory, with a boat total of 97.24# on 4 fish.

We got bait really easy at DB on two sets of the gill net, netting 7 shad and zero catfish on each set!  We then made the run downriver below the Benjamin Harrison.  It was a windy night, and when we made the turn at Presquille it got choppy as hell, but we kept on.  Setup on the channel edge down there and rode waves for an hour and a half with no bites.  We debated over heading back upriver or finding a spot out of the wind where we were at, and we decided to stay downriver. 

The wind was from the South, so any spot along the South bank was calm enough to fish.  We got three of our fish there, and moved upriver before daybreak and boated our last fish.

37.24#, big fish of the night:

 23.62#:

26.74#: 

 9.64# dink - eat your heart out Darian!:

What a perfect day to be out fishing!

Thanks to James for inviting me aboard to fish with you!  I wonder how long before one of the homeowners calls the cops on us? ;-)  Don't ever forget that bucket!

Final tally for the night:

Josh - 26.7#, 9.6#

James - 37.2#, 23.6#

From Worse, to Bad

Left Lynchburg at around 2am Saturday to meetup with James (Muzkrat) for some Labor Day weekend fishing.  On my way up, I marveled at how smooth a trip it had been so far and what great time I was making.  Coming through the 'wonderful' town of Hopewell, I hit one of those 55 down to 45 zones and next thing I know I have blinking lights behind me.  Cop tells me I was speeding in the 45 zone.  If that wasn't bad enough, he writes me another ticket for illegal tint.  It's never been an issue the entire time I've had the car and been stopped, but I guess he needed something to do at 4am.

So that was the "worse" part of the trip....now onto the "bad".  James and I launch while it's still dark out, get bait easily, head down to Presquille and boat three fish between 16-20# within the first 30 minutes.  I'm thinking it's gonna be a good day....WRONG.  We spent the next 18 hours, yes I said that, 18 hours to catch two more 5# fish!  It was still a little early in the season to do daytime trips yet, and the non-stop back and forth recreational boat traffic didn't help matters.  Then boy did it get cold that night, so we headed in at about 2 AM Sunday.

Can't say it was all bad though.  I got to go fishing, and that's always a good thing.



Final tally for the day:

Josh:  18#, 16#, 5#

James:  20#, 5#