Xavier reached out and told us he was looking to put some meat in the freezer and break his personal best of 6 lbs for a blue catfish. We invited him to the James river and got to work. We started the morning off catching bait with the cast net and had a large variety to feed the fish. We caught gizzard shad, threadfin shad, and mullet. We started off with chunks of gizzard shad and small threadfin shad. Rods started getting hit immediately and the fish keyed in on the threadfin shad. We collected some more of those while we reeled in a pile of eater size catfish.
At this point we were about 3 hours into a 4 hour trip and Xavier told us he was happy with the meat he haad for the fish fry and wanted to target some trophy fish even if it meant extending to 6 hours. We ran to a different section of river and marked a ton of bait. We tossed some rods out and waited for about 30 minutes with just a few taps on the rods and no hooks ups. We reeled everything up and started scanning for more promising looking returns on the sonar. Couple spots later and we weren’t really seeing what we were expecting so we punted and ran to a new section of river.
We started pulling the AlphaBoardz in a place where we had been finding some active fish. We had to work hard to keep the lines clear from debris in the river from recent flooding but soon found some clean water to get a nice spread on the boards. We also found a section of water that was much warmer than we had seen all day. We took the opportunity to clean the eater fish and package the filets up for the cooler.
Right when we finished cleaning up the fillets and the boat, we started marking a pile of fish and tricked one to bite. The planer board took off and submerged under water. Xavier reeled down on the rod and unfortunately the fish did not hook up. We reset the board and continued on our path. Another 15 minutes of passing over fish buried in the mud and a rod finally went down in a much more convincing fashion. Planer board skipped across the water then dipped down below the surface. Xavier jumped on the rod and did an awesome job battling the fish. We could tell from afar that this was going to be a big fish by the giant head shakes we could see at the planer board. The fish ran side to side but came through the lines without tangling up any other rods.
Xavier kept wearing the fish out and before we knew it, he was burying the rod tip at the side of the boat. We could tell he was fired up and not ready to come ove the rail yet. Xavier kept tension on the line until the fish tired. After a few more runs, the fish came to the surface and we were able to slip the net under it. We took a measurement on the fish and he was just over 38 inches, a trophy fish by Virginia standards. We got him in the net and weighed him at 31 lbs. Xavier was thrilled to take his personal best from 6lbs to a whopping 31 lbs!
We took some photos then released the fish. It swam off nice and healthy, ready for the next guest to catch! Xavier’s personal best didn’t last long as we reset the boards and 10 minutes later, a planer board was sucked under water and the rod bent over. This fish started pulling drag and Xavier was quick to grab ahold of the rod. He reeled down on it and the fight was on! We knew he had another great fish on the line and the longer the fight went on, the more convinced we were it was another trophy fish. It violently ran back and forth and put up a massive fight. Xavier was well practiced from his last fish and did a great job keeping the fish under control despite it’s thrashing. The fish surfaced and we knew it was a new personal best! A quick net job and the fish was being pulled over the rail. Congrats on the new personal best weighing 40 lbs with a length of 40.5 inches.
We grabbed photos and kept the fish in the livewell.
We continued to pass by the same area over and over but couldn’t entice any fish to come up out of the mud and grab a rod, with the exception of one. We put on a live mullet and he went untouched for a while but at one point he started running from a predator and something grabbed ahold of him but never hooked up. We continued to drag for an hour, with lots of promising marks, but the fish had lock jaw. We ran abc towards the ramp and spent about 45 minutes on anchor, with just a few more taps. We had marked a real big fish hiding behind some bridge pillars but he wasn’t interested in any of our baits.
Since Xavier had extended his trip to 8 hours and he had caught trophy fish, he was our first winner of our Hellcat giveaway. He chose a green rod and got to take it home with him.
We had an awesome day on the river and enjoyed some new PBs and some incredible February weather. Join us in welcoming Xavier to the trophy club! We have some more rods available so book those 8 hour trips and lets get on some trophy fish!
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)
Rod Holders from Smackdown Rod Holders
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