Catfishing America with Onionhead and Poppycock

Invited buddy Travis along for a two day trip to the James.  He had fished the James once before with a guide and had a decent day.  Unfortunately, this trip wouldn't be on par with our expectations on the fish catching side at least.  We did have a blast out there though reciting the corny tune to Catfishing America, discussing our buddy Onionhead, all the while munching down on some Poppycock!  Man was it tight quarters on my little boat this trip.  I'm 6'3 275, and Travis is easy 6'6.  It's a wonder we didn't sink the boat.

For those that don't know, Travis is an esteemed fishing guide on Smith Mountain Lake.  The man can catch some stripers and catfish, and knows the lake like the back of his hand.  Give him a yell if you ever want to get out on SML and catch some nice fish:  Cats 'n Stripers Guide Service

28#-37":

Dracula's Hiding in Them Woods

Hit the river with Muzkrat hoping to cash in on the success of my previous trip, but no go this day.  Fought a gusty wind all day long and only ended up with a 20# fish to show for it.  One key point that got hammered home that day was the need for fresh bait.  I'm always harping on the importance of fresh bait, but this day we had trouble netting shad and once we ran through our fresh bait, turned to some day old bait given to us that morning from a buddy we ran into at the gas station.  When the shad don't bleed when you cut 'em (we called it vampire bait), then it's not even worth putting on your hook.  We should have cut into our fishing time and tried to find more fresh bait, but we took the lazy way out and I think we paid for it.  Never again.

Back in The Game...

With my boat finally fixed and water tested, there was nothing else to do but GO FISHING! So off to the river for a 4-day trip.  It was the first time my boat has been on the river since Nov '09.

Friday:
Fishing was pretty tough.  Didn't start catching anything until late afternoon, but I did hook into one citation to close the day out:

38.8# - 39":

Saturday:

I woke up super early to a steady rain. I might have been the first boat on the river. I made my way through the fog to get bait.  I made the mistake of putting my entire 100' gill net out, even though it was collecting shad as soon as I began letting it into the water.  I ended up having to pull the entire net aboard to keep it from collecting more shad, and spent the better part of the next hour picking all the shad out of it.

I fished between 895 and Windmill Point, hitting alot of good spots in-between. All I had to show for my efforts was one 18# fish. It was cold, wet, and otherwise miserable out there...and that is only multiplied when you're not catching anything.

Sunday:
Sunday was a completely different day.  I slept in Sunday and made no rush to get on the water. In fact, I didn't have my first line in the water until almost noon. The days where you're not too set on sticking to a strict schedule and just go with the flow are the days I seem to do better.  I boated a citation blue at the first spot, and missed another due to my line snapping from an apparent abrasion.  (*I discarded the Hi-Seas Quattro camo line after this trip, it doesn't have the strength of other lines)  Moved downriver a little and boated two more citation sized fish.  At the last spot of the day, as evening was beginning to settle in, I caught a nice fish to end what turned out to be a great day.

53.9# - 44":

38.7# - 39.5":

37.6# - 39":

37.4# - 39.5":

Monday:
This was a day that took a turn for the better rather quickly.  I had fished most of the day with only a 17# to show for it.  I was trying deep, shallow, channels, flats, pits...nothing seemed to be working.  It was nearing the end of the day, and on a whim I pulled up to a spot on the way back to the ramp.  About 10 minutes later, my Ugly Stik Tiger Lite slams down and drag is peeling off my Abu 6500 TCCF.  What a great fight, the lighter gear held up well and gave me more confidence in it.  I get the fish into the boat and onto the scales, and it turns out to be the second largest fish I've ever caught.

64.1# - 44":



Look at the mouth on this fat S.O.B.!

What a great footnote to a great trip.  It was nice to get away from it all, forget about my worries, and just do some fishing for a change.  The boat ran great the entire time, bait was easy to gather every morning, and just enough fish cooperated to make some lasting memories.  I'm sitting here writing this and already planning my next trip!

Where'd the Shad Go?

Came down to fish again with James (Muzkrat).  We got on the river at dark, and began to set the gill net and throw the cast net in the usual spots.  We came up empty so we moved to a different part of the river and tried for bait again.  Nothing. 

Hours began to creep by, and we were still without a single shad so we had nothing to fish with.  At about noon, six hours after we got on the water, we got a call from Dicky (Fokromix) who was also having bait troubles earlier but finally lucked into some shad.  We met up with him and his crew and he gave us a couple shad.  James and I decided to go ahead and fish and quit looking for bait since we had already lost so much time.

We  managed three fish on the day, a 23# being the largest.

23#:



Neat story on this fish.  We had it out of the water for less than a minute, but when we released the fish, it turned on its side and had trouble going back under.  We pulled the fish out of 10' of water, so burping was not an issue as far as we could tell.    We watched the fish drift away, just laying on its side on top of the water.  A few minutes later, we noticed a seagull circling the fish, and after a couple passes it landed right next to the fish.  It looked around a bit then began pecking the hell out of the catfish's belly.  Like magic, the catfish suddenly roared back to life, splashed its tail, and disappeared below to avoid being disemboweled.

Did I mention it was brutally cold that day?  You can make out an ice line on the water in the picture below:

A Bighead and a Convict

Fished the weekend with James (Muzkrat) aboard his boat.  Fishing was slow for this time of year.  But as always, it's great to be out on the water fishing.

Saturday:
I managed to land a couple citation fish, and James hooked a 17# and a 5#.

40.5# - 41":

22# - 38":

Sunday:
We managed one fish, a convict bass, that James took home and gave a hot oil bath to.

4.5# - 23":



ECTT Tournament - Part Deux II

Jeff and I fished the ECTT tournament out of Osborne Landing on Sunday in the hopes of reprising our second place finish back in July.  It wasn't in the cards for us, and ended up being one tough weekend of fishing for me.  I don't recall the exact number of boats in the tournament that day, but we finished second to last with a grand total of about 14 lbs.  Someone took some photos, but needless to say, I haven't put much effort into tracking them down.

Who Got Sprayed?

Fished the river hard all day with James (Muzkrat).  We covered a ton of water and tried alot of different things, but were unable to land a single fish.  I seem to have a trip like this every year.  On the bright side, James and I scouted some awesome new locations that I'm sure will produce for us in the future.

Waiting for a bite at sunset: