RIVER MONSTERS! James River Catfish

I've always loved catfishing, Its pretty much what got me hooked on fishing, when I was a kid there was a place called "The pipe" It was a large pipe that crossed a creek back in the woods that you could sit on and fish. Me and the other kids would go to fish mostly for small bullheads with worms. When I became older I still loved catfishing, especially during the Rockfish moritorium, catfish were not only plentiful but good fighting.  I rarely ever target them anymore, but thats only becuase I still catch plenty of them while casting lures, and they still bring a smile to my face everytime I get one.
But theres one catfish that I always wanted to catch, the Big Blue catfish. years ago I would read fishing magazines about Blues in the Mississippi river, some as big as 100lbs! Then about 1990 I started reading about them showing up in good numbers in the James river near Richmond va,  The possibility of me one day catching a monster catfish started to seem even more plausible, but every year would pass by and I never got around to targetting them. This year I finally decided to check one more thing off my bucket list. I thought about trailering my boat and targetting them on my own, but I thought a guide my be a better option. It really doesn't cost that much more when you consider the price of gass you burn in the boat, plus wear and tear on the trailer and boat. plus its much less work, not to mention the odds of success are better. So I booked a trip  Josh Fitchett   River Cat'n Guide Service.
I could tell right away he knew his stuff just by how effortlessly he would fling the baits with level line reels, he looked like he's done a few thousand times before.
The setup he used was basically a fishfinder rig with a chunk of Gizzard shad. One thing that I thought was surprising was the areas where we caught the fish. Im not going to be to specific, so not to burn anyones spots, but I thought we would be fishing warmwater discharges, but instead we fished mostly areas where you would think they would be in spring, summer and fall. From a inexperienced Blue catfishermen, I think they seem to favor Deep water with structure. especially where shallow water meets deep water, some of the spots were so small it was surprising such big fish could be there.
We tried about ten different spots and caught fish at every spot except one. A total of 15 fish were caught, 10 were citations over 30lbs, the biggest being 49lbs! The smallest was caught on corn ment for Carp. I read about James river carp and Rockfish and Capt Josh let me experiment a little with my light tackle rod. I Didn't get any carp or Rock but we did pull up a Rock ( about 30") in in the net while catching our bait in the morning. Even the smaller Catfish were pretty big to me. Its funny to pull up a 15/20lb fish and Capt Josh calls it a little one. I think that river is spoiling him a little :)


It was a pretty cool experience, the River has some nice scenery, if your used to boating the Upper chesapeake where the shoreline has either a house or building everywhere you look, its strange to run miles down the James and rarely seeing a house, just trees as far as the eyes can see. Like being back in time

My quest for a Northern Pike

Last winter I bought a VHS video from a guy about catching Trophy Pike in Canada for two dollars (yeah thats right, I still have a VHS player, Im a neanderthal). After watching all the Giant Pike they were catching, I really became psyched to catch one. Theres only one place close to where I live thats known to have Pike and thats Loch Raven, So my plan was to fish there until I get a Big one. I only caught a Pike once before and that was at Loch Raven in 2006 on Mothers day. back then I went to my mothers grave site in the morning and came home a little depressed, so I took a nap, I started to dream about a real event that happened to me back in 1993, Back then me and a few friends would go to Loch Raven for the Spring White perch run. We would use a basic top/bottom rig with nightcrwlers, but there was a trick to catching them, you had to set the hook as soon as you felt the slightest tap, if you didn't, your worm would soon be stripped from your hook, if you hooked up with one Perch and waited a few seconds you could usually get a fish on the other hook. When we would leave with huge stringers of fish, many people would be shocked because they weren't catching anything..One day while fishing there by myself, a young guy came up to me and asked me how I was catching so many, I told him the trick, then he relayed some info to me, They were catching Big pike a little ways down the road, he said to drive until you see a small bridge then pull over and walk a trail to the water, cast large crankbaits in to the shallow water.
I never did go but In my dream 13 years later I did go. the only difference was that I casted a White spinnerbait with black polka dots and a bassasasin trailer also with black polka dots. In the dream I caught a Big Pike! I set up my camera for a self photo of me and the fish, then released it.. When I awoke I couldn't beleive how surreal the dream was, then I realized I actually had a spinnerbait and bassasasin with black polka dots, I Got out of bed and immediately put on my shoes, grabbed my fishing gear, and was soon driving to Loch Raven still groggy from my recent nap, It was strange because somehow I knew I would catch one. I arrived at LR and started to drive down the street the guy said to, and sure enough there was a small bridge, I pulled off and walked the trail, and the very first cast I was hooked up with a good fighting fish, the fish was desperately trying to go towards a fallen tree, and I was desperately trying to keep him away. I finally got him in and it was my first Pike ever! but at 32" it was smaller then the fish in my dream.. I decided to take a quik picture of it while it was on the ground before taking a self photo with it, And Im lucky I did because just seconds after taking the picture, the fish started jumping around and made its way back into the water. Pike have alligator type teeth that can do a lot of damage if you are not experienced with them, so I wasn't about to grab it while it was jumping around.On my very next cast I got a snag and lost the lure, I tried other lures but I didn't catch another fish that day..Well anyway, back to the present time, I really wanted to catch a Pike again, and this time I wanted one bigger. I thought it would be an easy thing to do since I got one on one cast in 2006, but This time I didn't catch one the entire year of 2012, tens of thousands of cast and no Pike, I did catch plenty of other species though, so I can't complain. I fished there so much I got to know some of the regular fishermen in the area, they said catching Pike was actually rare, and catching a big pike was even more rare. It started to look like my chances of catching one was pretty slim, I even considered traveling to Canada just to try to end my obsession. but then on sunday (1-8-2012) I decided to go to Loch Raven and try out some of the homemade spoons I made. I tried a few other lures at first, including a chartruese spinnerbait with a bassasasin trailer, but I didn't catch anything until I started using my homemade spoon. I caught two pickerel, then I hooked up with something bigger, once it started taking drag I knew what it was ;) The ultimate preditor of Loch raven. finally my quest is over












UPDATE!!!!!!!!!
I guess my quest isn't over. I went back to Loch Raven a couple days later after work for a few cast before sunset and hooked up with another one, I also caught a good size Pickerel, once again on a homemade spoon!

Big fish to end the season

This turned out to be a good year in the Upperbay for Rockfish despite all the adverse weather. I was hoping to get into some bigger fish that migrate into the bay late in the fall, and luckily I got a few light tackle jigging, I tried trolling a few times and did catch fish on every trip, but I could never seem to get anything over 40". usually you get bigger fish trolling for the migrants and smaller fish jigging, but not this fall. I did go on a pierandsurf.com group trip on the charter boat "Katherine" and one fish over 40" was boated by one of the board members, but I think we were about a week to early that day.

Falll Rockfishing on the Upper bay

Luckily the dirty water brought on from this summers storms started to clear just in time for some great Fall Striper fishing. Once the temperture started to cool a little, The Rockfish started to school up, and there was some outstanding fishing to be had, with many fish over 30", in fact, catching fish over 30" was so common, it was expected!..I actually didn't see a lot of working birds early in the fall, and the marks on the fish finder didn't always show a lot, I had to basically go to a spot, work it thoroughly and hope something was there, if not, I'd try another spot until I find them. And ofcoarse finding a spot where no other fishermen are around to scare the fish is as always the most important thing of all..actually with the lack of bird action and marks, the biggest obstacle of all was trying to get away from other boats that wanted to fish the exact spot as me. I could actually catch three times more fish if it wasn't for other boaters. If they only knew the real key to finding fish is finding a spot away from other boats. So many do the complete opposite and go wherever they see another boat...maybe one day this winter I will do a blog story on that...
Another possitive thing is the huge schools of juvenile Rockfish throughout the bay, This springs Striper spawn was a very good one, In the last couple of weeks I have been seeing birds working over acres of small fish, the next couple years should bring some exciting light tackle action with smaller fish!

Hot summer on the Chesapeake

I didn't fish as much this summer as usual, this was the hottest summer ever recorded in history, last summer was the hottest on record but this summer blew that record away. With water temps in the bay reaching into the 90s, the fish obviously aren't used to the temps. especially Rockfish, they are primarily cool water fish, the larger migrants generally go where ever the water temps are from 50 to 70 degrees, migrating into the Chesapeake in the spring and going north in the summer to the New England states to seek out a more comfortable temperture. The smaller schoolie Rockfish are pretty much stuck in the Chesapeake and try to stay where the temps are most comfortable to them. So when this years heatwave brough temps over 100* in june, I knew the Rockfish in the mid and lower bay wouldn't move north into my part of the bay until the water finally cooled. the Upper bay is more shallow and the fish just won't travel miles across that hot water. But there were still some Rockfish in the Upper bay, and catching a limit of fish usually wasn't very hard. Just bailing 100 legal size fish in a day wasn't going to happen. But the White perch and Catfishing was very good. My general routne this summer was to target Rockfish for part of the day but always make time for the great perch and catfish fishing. The perch fishing was so good you never needed any bait, just jigs like stingsilvers. there were many days when I C&Red most of the day, then filled the cooler up with more then enough White perch in the last hour of the trip. The last couple weeks we had slightly lower water temps and the Rockfishing did get better, but then we got a weekend of very heavy storms, folowed by a hurricane Irene a week later, then Tropical Storm Lee came up the coast a week later and stalled out right over us! they opened all the Susquhanna floodgates, first time since Hurricane Agnes in 1972.
The Susquehanna runs as far as New york, And everything that runs off into the water will eventually make its way into the Bay
I haven't been out on the Chesapeake since then but I have heard reports of Chocolate color water and A LOT of debris floating around, everything from entire trees to refrigerators. so It may be a while before things get better, hopefully it is not a major enviromental disaster like Agnes was.

Loch Raven fishin

I didn't fish the bay very much this spring. I got a used VHS tape at a fishing flea market last winter about catching Northen Pike and I really wanted to catch one, so I started fishing Loch raven pretty hard. I never did catch a Northern, I actually didn't even catch a single Bass, which is unusual, I normally catch quite a few at Loch Raven in the spring. But I did catch some nice Pickerel, Yellow perch and my biggest Crappie yet at about 16" on a Booyah spinner bait with a 6" Gulp sand eel. Since I sometimes hike fairly long distances, I can't take a lot of lures, I will usually take some spinnerbaits for casting close to shore, then some type of lure that casts far like a casting spoon, And usually some 2"-3" twister tails for when nothing bigger is biting, I can usually always catch something on a twister, but they will usually be smaller (but not always). I never catch a lot of fish at loch raven like I do in the bay where catching 100+ fish on a trip is not uncommon (excluding white perch fishing or lucking onto a big school of crappie), but that may be because I know the bay better, plus I fish the Loch from shore, which can be a big disadvantage. But its fun hiking through the woods and casting the shoreline, and there is a great chance of catching a real trophy close to home. some of the downsides this spring was getting a very sore throat and difficulty swallowing and needing a visit to the doctors for alergy meds, and also recently finding a Deer tick on my waist and having to take antibiotics, but I guess you have to take the good with the bad. I figure since I am on antibiotics I can still fish there for a while, but I may have to stop fishing there in the summer, Deer ticks can be very serious, and eventhough I took plenty of precautions like sprying myself with deepwoods before each trip, constantly checking myself for ticks and showering after every trip I still got a deer tick. Its about time for me to start fishing the bay more anyway :)

Still some surprises while fishing

One of the things thats always kept me interested in fishing is being surprsied. The more I fish the less surprised I get, but it still happens. I still remember catching my fish seatout years ago and wondering what it was. recently I was shore fishing at Loch Raven with nightcrawlers hoping to catch some perch or maybe a carp, but instead I hooked up with a fish that felt like a Bass, when I pulled it out of the water I didn't know what it was, It was about 18"and it looked like it had a Suckers body and a trouts head. I asked another fisherman nearby and he didn't know what it was either. so I took a picture and released it, then went home and searched the DNR website without any luck, so I posted it on pierandsurf.com. and a few guys knew what it was right away, it turned out to be a Fallfish, Its actually the largest member of the minnow family. seems to be a fairly common catch in the Gunpowder by Trout fishermen. I actually enjoyed catching this fish more then catching a Rockfish over 40", just because its more unusual to me