Trophy Blue Catfish for the Birthday Boy!

Gibson, Harrison, and Ezra joined us on the river to celebrate Harrison's birthday. They wanted to try their hand at trophy catfishing. We pulled the gill net and started the morning off with fresh gizzard shad for bait. We started our trip in the dark and made it to our first fishing location as the sun was coming up.

We had a rainy morning and the bite was not fired up to start the trip. We pulled planer boards through schools of bait and marked plenty of big fish but none were interested. We were just about done covering water in our first location when a rod finally went down and we had our first fish of the morning in the boat. It was an eater size catfish that we tossed in the livewell.

We moved to a new section of the river and marked a pile of fish on the bottom of the channel ledge. We set the boat up and cast all six rods around the fish. We caught one eater size fish before moving along to the next spot.

In our next anchor spot, we set up on a pile of marks holding tight to some underwater structure. We could tell there were a ton of fish behind the boat and some really nice marks included in the bunch. We could also see they were buried in the mud so we knew we may have to wait them out for a while. We waited 45 minutes and right before we were about to move, two rods went down. We were hopeful we would see one or two of the bigger marks we saw no our sonar but they ended up being two more eater size fish.

After putting some of the pieces together and checking out a few areas, Captain Dan decided to make a big move to a section of river that was holding a lot of bait. As soon as we arrived, we could see the river full of active fish breaking the surface. We scanned and scanned and could not see many marks. Our trip time was running short and we didn't want to waste time sitting on fish buried in the mud. With an hour left in the trip, we found a bunch of fish scattered on the slope of a mud flat leading to a deep hole. We set the boat up shallow and fan cast a bunch of rods out. Some were on the mud flat, some were on the slope down to the deep hole and some were inthe deep hole. One of the pink hellcat rods started to swim off and we could tell a fish had our bait. Harrison reeled down on the rod and the fish ran up the mud flat, trying to escape to the shallows. Harrison reeled in the slack and when he caught up to the fish the rod bowed over. Our patience paid off when a trophy fish hit the deck. It was a very skinny fish, weighing in around 23 lbs but it counted as a trophy fish by length, measuring just over 38 inches. Welcome to the trophy club!

Shortly after we handled this fish, another rod went down and started peeling drag. Ezra grabbed the rod and battled the fish to the boat. The fish must have used all it's might on the initial strike becasue he came to the boat easy. This was another great fish weighing in around 18 lbs.

We had one more big take down on a shallow rod. We heard the fish strike the cut bait, roll over, and splash its tail on the surface. As soon as Gibson picked up on the rod he could tell the fish was gone. After reeling in the rod, we realized that somehow a scale had been stuck on the hook point, losing us the fish. We had a good look at the fish in teh shallows and knew we had missed out on another good fish in the 20-25lb range. The rods were quiet for the last 15 mintues and we packed up and headed back to the ramp.

Thanks for joining us on the water! Can't wait for the next trip!

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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 trip to meet the needs of your group!

Captain Dan Szajta

USCG Master Charter Captain

www.goobertimeguideservice.com/book-online

804-592-0456