The Catfish Spawn is On

Johnathan came out for his first ever trip on the James River. An avid fisherman with a lot of catfish experience, this was his first time fishing tidal water. We started the trip off by catching a boatload of white perch for bait.

The first spot we pulled up to we were marking bait and fish however, we could not get the boat to sit still. We moved on down river and found a nice calm area to fish. We marked a lot of fish, including two nice big fish. Rods were getting hit as soon as we cast them out but we missed the first couple takedowns. Finally, a rod doubled over and when Johnathan picked up on it, he was met with a couple big head shakes. This fish was running up and down the shallows but eventually we brought him to the boat and got him in the net. His first James River blue catfish was a dandy weigh in a 28 1/2 pounds. Awesome catch.

We caught a few more small fish in this area before trying some other sections of the river. Once again we were met with a couple small fish however we did have a double up which was almost a triple up to sparks some excitement.

We spent a little bit of time drifting down the river ledges, and in about 45 minutes we only had one takedown which did not hook up.

We busted out the AlphaBoardz and started to pull planer boards in a shallow water area, but that resulted in no fish.

We moved back up river and quickly started to get takedowns again, but they were not the big fish we were looking for or marking.

The most special catch of the day came while fishing structure along the bank. A line started to swim away and Johnathan reeled down on it. A short fight later and we had a nice little flathead in the boat.

The rest of the trip had a similar pattern of marking big fish near bait, but none of them would bite. Only the small fish were feeding.

With water temperature steadily over 70° it’s safe to say that the catfish spawn is on. We landed a bunch of fish, but we still wish we could’ve found a few more big ones. Thanks for joining us on the water. We hope you enjoyed your trip on the James river.