Tightline

My son has been chasing a huge school of whites for weeks now.Last tuesday,him and a buddy caught their limits with 17 crappie thrown in. Well I decided to go with him last saturday,we put in at Bridgeport and went down and of course the whites were gone. We finally found some upstream from where he caught them, but this was not the huge school he'd been catching out of. We managed 14 whites and 2 crappie before I had to leave. I think there are some big schools already moving up,not shallow, just further up the lake.When they finally get to Ashers and above we are all gonna have some fun.

Those are some dandy wallys. Good job!

From what I've heard and seen,the Wallys bit all last year for some.

Predator,I heard they were catching whites above Cape Fair so my son and I decided to give it a try today 1/22. It was pretty tough fishing,but we did manage to catch 8 whites, 6 crappie and 3 bass in 4 hours. The little dink males that were up James last year have grown to about 10-13 inchs,which to me is the perfect size to eat. Sliders and swimming minnows were what we used. We did see one boat trolling minnows real slow into the wind that was doing pretty good on crappie. It was cold with that southeast wind blowing, but it atleast cured my cabin fever.

Chief,Forsythian you guys are right on as usual.

Wayne,just wondering, how do you know the west end gets more Trout than the east? Does Mdc make public how many they dump where? I've been at Empire right after a load was dumped,it makes you feel like the ( Supreme Being ) of Trout fishing. Oh yea.I think money should be spent on Taney,I like to fish for just about everything and chasing those fish tank Trout is alot of fun.

I figured Babler would have something to say about the huge rocks in the channel,you know if he don't like getting trout blood in his boat he's really not gonna like hitting a big rock,just a joke Your map Phil is pretty good,except I wouldn't place the rocks too close to the south bank across from 2 and make them clusters of bigger rock. They'll shift, sink and move some but shouldn't wash away. Just an opinion. The Hydrologist should be able to figure out the best way.

Like the baitfish,beautiful mount.

The bigger the boulder the bigger the hole below it is going to be. I don't think the smaller rocks would stay on the south side or the rebar hole unless they were really locked in good with no gravel beneath them. I think some BIG( about the size of a Volkswagon ) rocks in the channel would be good above the Rebar,you guide's will get use to em,after a while.

Good job Mekayla, and that is awesome you got a pic of a deer passing you two in the stand. But I do think your gonna have to get some camo paint and smear all over that white beard,,,you no. So much for needing a bow that pulls 70 lbs and shoots 300 ft per second just to bag a deer!!

Man,you guys took a load of meat out of the ole Rock.Thanks for posting pic's,they sure help tell the story. Good job.

I was hopeing this might get some old pics out of the photo albums,wow, nice Jack there Brownieman.Ok now give it up,what did you catch that hog on?? Ozarkgunner,I thought he said it was caught in January. Does any body else have a pic they wanna show off??

As I was walking up the banks in Swan the other day I seen a carp that had the sides nocked off of it.It would've went 10 lbs maybe. Hey,I have eaten them smoked, not to bad.

Stopped at the new tackle store in Forsyth the other day and got to see one pig of a Wally picture there. A 15.5 pound monster plus several other good ones.Thats the biggest I have ever seen. We need more big fish pics on the forum.You would think with all the members we have now that surely someone has caught a big Wally and taken a pic recently. Wouldn't it be nice to see a pic of state record Walleye>>>>>>>>>> over 21 LBS

Uh,that would've been my report on the Powersite forum.The water has raised almost 2 feet since thursday evening.I released 19 females along with many more males that evening.The Walleye never had a chance to bite my lure! Just curious Phil, did you go up to the rock pile and see why all the boats have been piling in there?

I got to the Pothole about 5:00 pm thursday evening.wanting to maybe catch some post spawn Wallys. Went over to the River Run side just to look and see if I could wade at all. I managed to get out far enough to just barely reach the gravel bars in front of where people park with a good long cast. I had the best 3 hours of White bass fishing I have had in a long time,I won't even give numbers because you wouldn't believe it. Released all, but 7 smaller males which I took home to eat The boats had something corraled up above the rock pile,both thursday evening and friday mourning there were 6-8 boats there all the time.I wonder if its wallys their catching. CAUTION: The water is very swift,once it about washed my feet out from under me,so I backed up.The water is rising and is now probably not fishable at all from the River Run side without a boat.

S&M I was kinda getting hungry for some Crappie,they just don't last very long around my house. I thought I only posted 2 pictures though ?

My son and I got to Bridgeport about 8:00 am headed up James looking for wood to fish for Crappies.Well we were a little late because every brush pile or stick up that we wanted to fish already had a boat on it. We finally ended up on a single stick up on the edge of a big flat that I have fished for years. We ended up the day with 17 really nice slabs,all but one was caught on that one tree. Also had 3 Whites and 2 Chanel cats. Swimming minnows and live minnows were all we used.All the Crappie were caught less than 5 ft deep, Talked to a guy earlier in the week that said they had been catching limits for weeks now from Cape Fair up. We didn't tear em up but had a decent day Lots and lots of boats,by noon it seemed like there were 3-4 for every stick up or pile.Does any body work on Fridays ?

Both my brother-in-laws limited out down there Monday. How many did you end up taking home Duckyd?

I think you should've released some of those trophy ones.

Good job Mekayla, your an awesome hunter,but don't forget, you've had a pretty good teacher. That jake should be good to eat.

Sumday, I would say you are right on with your list.The True Bass are hard to beat as far as pulling power. I had never caught a Hybrid until a few years ago at Truman,they are like hooking a freight train, they are just unbelievably strong. But those Smallies are right there with the Whites.

Coyote,it was a little stained. One of the 9 sows had bloody almost empty egg sacs.A few times I seen them doing their spawning dance. (cutting circles). Don't think I have ever seen that in March.

Hey Coyote, as you go down Blunk rd and start down the hill toward the ramp there's a road that turns left,follow it to the end and you will see some steps built up over a fence,follow that path down to the James. The Blunk hole was packed so I decided to get away from the crowd and go way up stream. Glad I did. There was a couple of guys fly fishing up there but I didn't stick around to see if they were catching.

Got to the bluff about 11:30 am and looked around for a while,lots have changed since the floods. Started fishing a gravel point with a nice little eddie. I had a smoke SM on from the last time I went so I gave it a try,didn't think it would work since the water in James is stained a little, but it did. Caught 12 nice Whites,9 females,3 males from 12:30 pm to 2:00 pm,then they just shut down. Spent another 1 1/2 trying to catch my limit, but the temp and wind had changed and so did they. Tried a little bit of everthing after they quit. Headed for the house about 3:30,very content. That path coming off the bluff is real easy coming down,but going up,well,you need to think about what your going to pack with you,I had to stop twice before I got to the top. 25 years ago I could almost run up that sucker.