James River Blue Catfish: Trophy Drifting Success

Darin and Nash joined us for a morning trip on the James River. We set our gill net to start the trip and pulled in a few gizzard shad. We scanned a channel ledge, which was holding fish, so we set the gill net and fished next to it for about 40 minutes. These fish were not very active, and we only saw a few small taps on the rods.

We deployed the Alphaboardz and started to drag baits in a mud flat. As soon as we hit water less than 5 ft deep, the rods starts to light up. A lot of short strikes but we quickly caught our first fish of the morning. It was a small eater size catfish and Nash's first ever blue catfish!

After getting the rods reorganized, we had one of the more interesting moments of the trip. Two rods were getting hit but not looking like they were hooking up. One of the rods finally had a convincing hit and Nash reeled it in. It came in all tangled up with another line, which also had a small fish on it. Pretty wild double up!

We carried on with our path and had a ton of small taps but no hook ups. We headed for deeper water and started to mark some bigger fish. For a little while, things were quiet and we were losing hope that the bigger marks were active. Out of nowhere, a rod folded over and started to pull drag. The fish did not want to cooperate so we had to be patient until it committed to one side of the boat. We shuffled the rods around and started to tire the fish out. After a couple of minutes, it deflated it's air bladder and camet to the surface. We were able to scoop it up and get some measurements. It was a skinny fish at 24 lbs but it was nearly a trophy fish, coming up just shy of the 38in mark. Congrats on an awesome 37.75 in blue catifsh! It'll be a trophy fish in no time!

We continued to drag until the end of the trip but the bite shut down with some wild weather surging overhead. Thanks for joining us on the water and congrats on an awesome catch!

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Goober Time Guide Service runs fishing charter trips for blue catfish, flathead catfish, smallmouth bass, crappie, striper, and a variety of other species on the James River and other bodies around central Virginia. We fish on our boat, kayaks, paddleboards, and rafts. We also have the option to run light-lining charter trips for guests looking to put their skills to the ultimate test and potentially break a world record!

Reach out to discuss your goals and we can design a fishing adventure to meet the needs of your group!

Captain Dan Szajta

USCG Master Charter Captain

www.goobertimeguideservice.com/book-online

804-592-0456