jfo
12-07-2004, 09:53 AM
Thanksgiving Night, Nov 25: We sat at the dinner table talking about going fishing the next day. The weather had been very windy, tomorrow was supposed to be calm but with a high of 50 and we would be throwing for bait when the temp was somewhere around freezing. It was 51% go, 49% not.
November 26, 3:30AM: We are going. The boat was already hooked. We put the propane bottle heater in, we rounded up an extra boggin for Dad, we put a whole pot of coffee in the big thermos. We are going.
Daylight breaking. Deep Bottom boat ramp, James River. Lots of stuff "steaming" in the river. We go around 70 feet from the ramp and see a shad boil, throw the net - one 16 inch gizzard. Its gonna be a great day.....
Three hours later we now have five baits. That's enough for when the fish are biting but we know that they are not. I can see the meat on one of my fingers from tugging the cast net in. One stroke of mercy, the water was warmer than the air so at lease the net wasn't freezing and my hands weren't cold. We need five more baits for what we have to accomplish. A friend getting a later start (we are both 2 1/2 hours drive from home) comes by. He has six and thinks it not enough either. He tries several times in the area we had been working because we both know there was bait there but somehow we just couldn't get the net onto it. After around 45mins he comes up with a dozen and splits them with us so now we both are going fishing. Its 11am.
About the bait, this is what fishing is about. Many, many nights he and I are two boats out alone on our home lake (Kerr in NC). When that happens we try to phone each other every 45mins or so for safety because our tactics quite different, we are generally some miles apart. Diversity and all.... As we're getting the extra 5 baits into my livewell, I'm thinking back to a tournament last summer when I had solid big baits and he'd had trouble finding the bigguns. No prob, we put several over onto him as we're waiting for the launch...today this comes back in spades...thx Katnip. But I digress...
James River 11:15. We're at a spot where several info points had said we need to be to accomplish our mission. I do mark some fish but it just feels wrong. No explanation, just feels wrong. We pass on that spot and move on. Oh, the mission: In Virginia, there is a program for "expert angler". Its a wonderful program that generates interest in the sport. When a citation (trophy) fish is caught, you send in $4 and a form and the State mails you a certificate telling you how great you are. When you get ten of these on a particular species they mail you a different "expert angler" certificate and a patch. Great program. For Blues in Va until the end of 2004, a Blue cat 34 inches or 20 pounds is a citation. My Dad has seven and today, we need three citation blues.
James River 11:45 We're set onto the first hole in 25-40 feet. Now for ya'll that don't fish the James its a tidal river. During the day the current changes every few hours. The sets we generally use are to anchor the bow and let the current trail the boat behind the anchor. Then you can toss lines off the stern. I generally add a downline off the left/right bow. Nothing here but the hole feels good. A boat came and setup and left so I see somebody else trying the hole to. We decide to stay local.
James River est 1:00 We're set maybe 100 feet from the earlier. The water here is 25-30 feet deeper. To give you a feel for the current, the downlines were set with 12oz cannonballs and I was hanging them say 4 feet off the bottom at 45-60ft. The current would make the 12oz trail down stream to the place where I reckon'ed the bait to be 10 or so feet behind the boat. Not slack. The rigs were simple Carolina's with a 12oz cannonball or a 8 oz pyramid over a big bead then a swivel, then a 80lb 24-36 inch mono leader to a #8 Circle. We snag a 25lb/37in. On paper that's 1/3 of the goal but for where we are, with the sets we've got out and for the "feel" of the hole...this is not good. That fish wasn't supposed to be. Where's his daddy? And the current has stopped, the boat is moving all around on the anchor line, the lines won't stick because the boat is moving too much...we gotta change something. But the hole still "feels" good.
James River est 2:00 We abandon the anchor. Out with the trolling motor the current is slackish moving in, out, left, right, sideways as the river decides what to do with the tide. Also, we're on the point of a Y in the river between a barge cut-thru and a horseshoe so the current is complicated by the ebb and flow around the intersection of the Y. On with the depth finder, here we go. We're onto six downlines now trying to keep them at 4 off and 20 off the bottom as we move around. With the trolling motor I'm trying to keep the boat in the right depth to keep the lines right while gently moving around "looking" for fish. Bang, Dad gets a 43.4/44incher. This was "the" hardest fighting blue I EVER saw. He stripped drag for 6-10 seconds on Dad at least three times. The poles I use are medium weight (sticker says 25-30lb) and at one point my Dad was unable to keep the tip out of the water. Life is good. Day is perfect now but we still need one more for the gold.
James River est 3:15pm The way we are baiting is to take those big gizzards and make 5 or so baits out of them cutting them vertically. So the head is one, the gut pocket makes 2-4 more and the tail is one more. The current is coming back up but the trolling motor is still OK. We stay where we are, moving gently around within say a 1000 ft box. We take in everything and rebait fresh. These gizzards have been in the baitwell now for 4-8 hours. They have lost all the reddish color they had when they came in the boat. They're bright silver now and very frisky. The gills are still moving on the heads as we toss in this "last" set. Sunset is in an 60-90 minutes and I want to be on the trailer at full dark. Very quickly. BAM! Rod tip down into the water....45lb/43.5incher. This guy didn't fight like the 43 but he's a bit bigger. Mission complete. We stop and think for a minute and then just take in the poles...we're headed home.
Merry Christmas Dad, you're an Expert according to both me and the Great State of Va.
...jfo
November 26, 3:30AM: We are going. The boat was already hooked. We put the propane bottle heater in, we rounded up an extra boggin for Dad, we put a whole pot of coffee in the big thermos. We are going.
Daylight breaking. Deep Bottom boat ramp, James River. Lots of stuff "steaming" in the river. We go around 70 feet from the ramp and see a shad boil, throw the net - one 16 inch gizzard. Its gonna be a great day.....
Three hours later we now have five baits. That's enough for when the fish are biting but we know that they are not. I can see the meat on one of my fingers from tugging the cast net in. One stroke of mercy, the water was warmer than the air so at lease the net wasn't freezing and my hands weren't cold. We need five more baits for what we have to accomplish. A friend getting a later start (we are both 2 1/2 hours drive from home) comes by. He has six and thinks it not enough either. He tries several times in the area we had been working because we both know there was bait there but somehow we just couldn't get the net onto it. After around 45mins he comes up with a dozen and splits them with us so now we both are going fishing. Its 11am.
About the bait, this is what fishing is about. Many, many nights he and I are two boats out alone on our home lake (Kerr in NC). When that happens we try to phone each other every 45mins or so for safety because our tactics quite different, we are generally some miles apart. Diversity and all.... As we're getting the extra 5 baits into my livewell, I'm thinking back to a tournament last summer when I had solid big baits and he'd had trouble finding the bigguns. No prob, we put several over onto him as we're waiting for the launch...today this comes back in spades...thx Katnip. But I digress...
James River 11:15. We're at a spot where several info points had said we need to be to accomplish our mission. I do mark some fish but it just feels wrong. No explanation, just feels wrong. We pass on that spot and move on. Oh, the mission: In Virginia, there is a program for "expert angler". Its a wonderful program that generates interest in the sport. When a citation (trophy) fish is caught, you send in $4 and a form and the State mails you a certificate telling you how great you are. When you get ten of these on a particular species they mail you a different "expert angler" certificate and a patch. Great program. For Blues in Va until the end of 2004, a Blue cat 34 inches or 20 pounds is a citation. My Dad has seven and today, we need three citation blues.
James River 11:45 We're set onto the first hole in 25-40 feet. Now for ya'll that don't fish the James its a tidal river. During the day the current changes every few hours. The sets we generally use are to anchor the bow and let the current trail the boat behind the anchor. Then you can toss lines off the stern. I generally add a downline off the left/right bow. Nothing here but the hole feels good. A boat came and setup and left so I see somebody else trying the hole to. We decide to stay local.
James River est 1:00 We're set maybe 100 feet from the earlier. The water here is 25-30 feet deeper. To give you a feel for the current, the downlines were set with 12oz cannonballs and I was hanging them say 4 feet off the bottom at 45-60ft. The current would make the 12oz trail down stream to the place where I reckon'ed the bait to be 10 or so feet behind the boat. Not slack. The rigs were simple Carolina's with a 12oz cannonball or a 8 oz pyramid over a big bead then a swivel, then a 80lb 24-36 inch mono leader to a #8 Circle. We snag a 25lb/37in. On paper that's 1/3 of the goal but for where we are, with the sets we've got out and for the "feel" of the hole...this is not good. That fish wasn't supposed to be. Where's his daddy? And the current has stopped, the boat is moving all around on the anchor line, the lines won't stick because the boat is moving too much...we gotta change something. But the hole still "feels" good.
James River est 2:00 We abandon the anchor. Out with the trolling motor the current is slackish moving in, out, left, right, sideways as the river decides what to do with the tide. Also, we're on the point of a Y in the river between a barge cut-thru and a horseshoe so the current is complicated by the ebb and flow around the intersection of the Y. On with the depth finder, here we go. We're onto six downlines now trying to keep them at 4 off and 20 off the bottom as we move around. With the trolling motor I'm trying to keep the boat in the right depth to keep the lines right while gently moving around "looking" for fish. Bang, Dad gets a 43.4/44incher. This was "the" hardest fighting blue I EVER saw. He stripped drag for 6-10 seconds on Dad at least three times. The poles I use are medium weight (sticker says 25-30lb) and at one point my Dad was unable to keep the tip out of the water. Life is good. Day is perfect now but we still need one more for the gold.
James River est 3:15pm The way we are baiting is to take those big gizzards and make 5 or so baits out of them cutting them vertically. So the head is one, the gut pocket makes 2-4 more and the tail is one more. The current is coming back up but the trolling motor is still OK. We stay where we are, moving gently around within say a 1000 ft box. We take in everything and rebait fresh. These gizzards have been in the baitwell now for 4-8 hours. They have lost all the reddish color they had when they came in the boat. They're bright silver now and very frisky. The gills are still moving on the heads as we toss in this "last" set. Sunset is in an 60-90 minutes and I want to be on the trailer at full dark. Very quickly. BAM! Rod tip down into the water....45lb/43.5incher. This guy didn't fight like the 43 but he's a bit bigger. Mission complete. We stop and think for a minute and then just take in the poles...we're headed home.
Merry Christmas Dad, you're an Expert according to both me and the Great State of Va.
...jfo