Jason Essary

Ive seen a lot of them staging in the timber on shallow points near indian point. almost hooked one on a spinnerbait tonight. hit him, felt a thump and set the hook, just didnt connect on him. knew what it was as soon as he took off running through the water afterwards. probably a good thing as he would have broke off my sb in all that timber, he looked like 16 18 lbs.

forgot to mention water temp was 57 degrees in the windward banks, 54 without the wind

Just got in from 2 1/2 hours on the rock. fished in close to indian point. A friend and I caught 2 kentuckies, 3 smallies. kentuckies were 15 and 16". Two smallies were 18 and the best was 20 1/4". All the fish were wonderfully healthy. Smallies were released back, kentuckies will be released into grease tomorrow night. All on White sb with a little char color of some kind. Tried the pure char. ones but didnt seem to want them, but where im at the waters not real dirty. Caught two of them out in 20' of water outside a steep back, right at the boat, guess chasing shad. All others were deep in the trees, in 3 to 8 foot of water. One in general, was caught on the 5th cast in one small strip where we could get a bait through. The huge smallie was caught on my friends cast, after I had hit the spot twice and moved on. Wareagle green shad sb was a ball...think this weekend will be even better.

lilley can u change mine too. thanks man

Ozarks anglers, covering all the ozarks best waters. thats what Ive got.

heh, how much u charge for fish if u dont mind me asking

Was wondering if anyone is cast netting for shad below the dam. Ive caught them there before with the water extremely high the way it is. right against the dam on the east side in small eddies. Would like to have them for catfishing this summer.

I feel bad for the heartland tourny boys. The name says it all, they got to have a lot of heart to fish all weekend. High winds, cold front, 40 degrees at take off......wow. wish I could go to the weigh-in. If anyone gets info on the weights, areas, and baits please post some for us.

Just bought a new reel this weekend. BPro is running some shimanos with mail in rebates, so I bought a curado in the 7;1 gear. WOW is it smooth. Ive never had a high end baitcaster before. Loved it so much and with 50 dollars coming back i just went and got anouther one in the 5;1 gear. cant wait to chase the fish with a spinnerbait with them. What reels u guys like and gears?

Lilley, wheres the link to the cam. Does it show the darn? does the corp have a cam link on the darn?

denjac, if u dont mind, how deep were they staying. And were u in the very back of large feeder creeks of just large coves?

Bill, u stated big and little indian. Were u refering to the indian creeks near indian point? Went this evening for 2 hours to try the sb bite. caught one nice smallie, 19", just exploded on it. missed two others that I think were short strikes. waters green down here in little indian where i bass fish the most (near indian point). Was wondering if u were in the same area? oh, caught mine on a fire-tiger 3/4 ounce just as it cleared the last buck brush of the cast.

k ill ask, wheres taberville?

hit it friday for lonely bout 1 and a half hours. saw one 58 lb. caught. never hit anything, went back to fishing for whites.

Well makes me feel better that we all have those feelings. Have to admit they have got the better of me sometimes. Ive been known to but on a 1/4 oz jiging spoon on a spinning reel and start slinging it to back people off of me. Never directly at them just past there boat to show them how close they are. lol two years ago caught a nice white after such a cast right in front of anouther boat. would have never figured that one would hit it being reeled through the water so fast with not action to speak of.

If i could figure out how to show the map id help u out. point 15 is the dividing between flat creek and james river. "stones" is the first wider area north on james. "ashers cane bottom" is directly west of McCord bend (on the west or downstream side of the horseshoe). ashers has a nice ramp on the west side. its in a subdivision called walnut springs, caution that it gets busy and parking is very limited. "longs camp" is the very north side of the horseshoe bend, north and north east bank. can be accessed from car, west of galena. McCord bend is a small town right on the river. gravel ramp and limited bank fishing. "blunks" is another access with good ramp and lots of bank fishing. Taylor shoal is where the river bends north above blunks, caution as there are 3 very large rocks in the middle that are known for tearing up lower units, at regular water levels of course. Wilsons creek is just above taylor shoal on the east side. Jentry cave is next where the river turns west, right in the bend. thats as far as i normally ever go and thats as I have learned the river from locals in my lifetime. used james river lower 1-2 map for reference.

K toke the plunge friday. Toke my to workers and put in at McCord Bend. Not where i would advise to dip a boat. had to back through 2 and half foot of water for bout 60 yards to get to where the ramp starts to drop to get the boat off. we started up and caught fish scattered all the way to the Y bridge in galena. Never been that high in a boat. Found studs all the way up here and there, sows seemed to stop below gentry cave (least that we found). best spot was the very top of blunks, where the river splits now. a 40yard 4 foot deep shoot runs through were it use to be dry. real light current in it, and it had fish through out. can be fished from the bank in one 20 yard strip. steep over a fence and u have a open casting area. caught tiny studs to 16 17inch sows with one 18 inch 3 3/4 pounder found. totaled 42. thought we had our limit. hard to count when having that much fun. they ate bout everything, white roostertail worked easily the best, i beleive because it covers more water faster and more fish get to see it. purple and white swimming minnows worked well when they went neutral for a while. Got to vent out one problem i have with fishing the river. People please be respectfull of each other out there. we were fishing a little shoot, we could cast across it, and were off of the main channel mind u, and had people run past us full bore. we had people motor up and start fishing within casting distance of our boat. One boat started to stop and drift down the shoot (not having a trolling motor) but he finally left as I asked what he thought he was doing, as we would have to have moved way over to let him through, not alone the other TWO boats that had moved in on us at the time would have had to moved. Maybe Im a hard ---, but I dont do those things to anyone else and it drives me nuts when they do it to me. Oh, and bank fisherman in my opinion should have the highest right of way, as they cant move as we can in a boat. Anyways, curious on what u guys think. Maybe im making a big deal out of it.

where, whats yocum?

sounds like u caught them when they were on the move. when they stop and rest, they hug the bottom so close its real hard to hit them with the hooks, also they can lay in shallow water to get out of the current, where we normally snag in the deeper channels. thanks, ill be going again this weekend. should have went today but thought it was going to rain.

finally got my internet back. we fished from 10 am sat till 2 pm. never hooked a fish. started above ashers and went all the way to point seven. saw a few caught, maybe 5. and saw a few on the boats. seemed real slow but seems u found a nice pile. how deep were they. we stayed on the bottom most of the time. No whites either. guess the temp change gave them lockjaw but theyll be back

was just thinking the same thing, more posts like that and im going to want one of those things..Never paid much attention to si. What are the pros and cons of them (except cost of course)???

seth, look for the whites right now round walnut springs boat ramp in ashers cane bottom. Walnut springs is a subdivision on the james north of cape fair. anywhere in that area we are tearing them up. anything white, manly white roostertails, 1/16 to 1/8th. 2 foot deep to 8 foot. flats are doing the best seems like. dont know what this cold snap will do to them thou. got a couple buddys fisshing today, couldnt go with them till tomorrow so. let me know if i get into em...

Sorry havent posted lately been fishing to much.....went to ashers last night, caught 37 whites in 1 hour and 45 min with my boy. had a blast. anyways, temps were pushing 53. saw some nice bills breaking at dark. been graphing for them most evenings this week. some are as high as McCord bend and ashers is full by what i saw. Monday evening i saw a few round point 15 but not as many as i expected. Depending on the rain, were starting at mccord and working down, getting on water bout 7 in morning or earlier. Ill be in a 16' bass tracker with 60 horse evinrude (sp). Think we might fish for whites till bout 9 then start snagging. B me and boy and one other guy in my boat. Got three other boats goin that i know of. by the way, the ramp at ashers is going to be PAAAAAAAAAAAAccccccccccckkkkkkkked. Last night all parking was gone by 500 and still had trucks coming in... Good Luck everyone............here we go...

Thanks focused and bill. That explains a lot. most of my time throwing warts has been round home, ill take them to cape fair in a week or so and try it out. Anyone else got any other ideas.

Has anyone replaced the backlights for the x-15s. One of my two used graphs has went really dark. I cant read it unless the light is right. Still shows everything else fine. Where to buy, how much, how to do it???