mmirg

Why all the hate for the A rig? I haven't used one yet but thats just because I can't bring myself to spend the crazy money that they are asking for them and haven't taken the time to make one. Is it worse than side view electronics? I'd have that too if it wasn't $1000. Just curious.

Thanks for the report. Were the bluegills cleaning sized? That yellow perch is awesome, my dad calls it fish candy.

We fished Swan last night from 4:30 to 7:30 and caught 1 bluegill. Then we trolled the mud banks up toward the pothole and caught a nice rainbow. Saw a guy catching short bass at the swan bridge but that was all the fish I saw caught.

We stayed on upper taney this weekend. The fishing was pretty tough for us. We did manage some fish though. We caught most of them on spoons. We looked for creek mouths adjacent to deeper water and fished the seam between the fast and slow water. Spoon color didn't seem to matter much, we kept changing it up. We did get a few in the slow water behind monkey island on power bait and spoons.

Tried the pothole tonight for about an hour and a half before dark. Lots of water coming over the top of the dam. We threw the kitchen sink and never had a bite. The lowest part of the cable was about 5' from the surface of the water.

Me and two of my boys fished on wed night also. We put in around 3:30 and took out at about 7:30. We did some trolling and Some casting . We ended up with 5 whites, a short walleye, a channel cat that hit a swimming minnow, and a kentucky. We used swimming minnows, silver/white spinners, and rapallas with equal results from each. Fished from taylor shoals to mccord. Had a guy tell me the water temp was 67°. Saw a couple of guys catching them right at dark with live minnows. The whites were a mix of big sows and smaller males.

Wow. Thats my kind of vacation. Thanks for the report.

Took one of my sons and my brother inlaw out last night. Put in around 3:30 and took out at about 8:00. Fished above Cape Fair 15'-20' water around brush or wood. My boy caught 3 keeper crappie in his first 4 casts. He was putting his daddy to shame. We were throwing purple smiminnows on 1/16oz. heads. (head color didn't seem to matter) Casting it out and letting it sink, then reeling it in about as slowly as we could stand to. The were hitting really light, you had to be ready as soon as you felt the tick. Missed a bunch. Ended up with a mess. One went 13 1/2" the others were just legal.

Thanks for the report. Seems like everybody stays pretty tight lipped when it comes to crappie. Glad to here that you got into em.

I took my 2 youngest sons out to beaver on Saturday morn. We put in at beaver ramp around 9am (lots of trailers in the lot). We played dodge boat all the way up beaver till we got just past the mud banks around the 3rd bend. Watched the graph all the way up and never saw a fish on the screen or being caught. We found a few smaller scools of whites up there but couldn't get em to bite on anything. (purple/silver, smoke swiminow, blue rebel, rooster tails, sliders] water was very clear and no wind 'till about noon which is when we left tried a couple spots on the way back to the ramp but didnt have any takers.

Me and a buddy put in at the road that is now under water next to Shadow Rock park last Tues. A guy at the bait shop told us that the water was 24' high then so you may still be able to put in there and slip under the old concrete bridge. We didn't have any luck though. We tried spoons and trolling at the pothole and on the flats around Barker and never got so much as a bite. Better luck to you if you end up going.

My brother and his family came up for the week from Houston, Tx. We floated from the Seneca bridge to the old low water bridge. We had 6 adults and 11 kids with us, what a hoot that was. We had 1 canoe with all the stuff in it, coolers, food, etc. We called it the chuckanoe. My brother and I ended up floating on some fancy rafts that we bought for our wives but since they didnt end up going we used them, everyone else was in tubes. Boy where the rafts comfortable (no back pain from a day in the canoe), I have always been the guy in the canoe but this time my dad wanted to man the chuckwagon. I took a small box with all my senco stuff in it since that is all I end up using on the river anyway. We ended up with about 12 smallies, 4 spots, and a bunch of rockies. The 3 biggest smallies were only about 13"-14", nothing huge but the the catching was pretty consistent. There were 3 of us fishing. I caught all my fish on a 7" motor oil with red flake senco that I cut in 1/2 cause I kept getting short strikes. The float took about 5.5 hrs. We ended up walking the last 1/4 Mile because the water was so low. The canoe made it through pretty decent though with some portaging. Sorry no pics. Good times spent with the family.

Creating memories with the kids is the best. Some of my fondest memories are fishing with my Dad. Thats a pretty nice 'gill.

Nice smallie, I've heard tell of walleyes in the James but have never caught one. Thanks for the report.

My favorite for that spot (as with most spots on the river) is a 5" senko rigged with a split shot about 12" up from the hook. Work it real slow around the docks and next to the bluff on the left at any variation in the rock that looks like it might be holding fish. Across from the bluffs you can throw it at the bank where there is structure in the water. Let it set, move it about a foot and let it set again, thats usually when you will feel the bump. I have never caught anything spectacular there but the goggle eye and the LMBs are still fun to catch.

Wow! Sounds like a dream float. I will have to expand my river repetour to include some more cranks. I have never tried a spinner bait on the river, but it sure sounds productive. I usually go with the finesse worms. Thanks for the report.

We floated the James on Fri. 5/15 from around Crane Creek to below Cox Ford. The water was pretty high. We threw mostly finess worms and some cranks. Fishing was slow for the most part. I went with my buddy and my 10 yr old son. We ended up with about 8 smallies all around 12", 1 K, and 1 goggle eye and a needle nose gar on a plastic crawdad. I did manage to match my biggest smallie so far, a 19.5" on a 5" dark purple senko. The gar were slashing minnows all day long. mmirg

Wow, that is a heck of a float. How long did it take you? Just wondering.

Well, if you were saying to yourself I wish I could have been on the river Thursday, let me tell you that you didn't miss a thing. We put in at HL Kerr at around 8:30 and took out at Y bridge at about 12:00. We threw senkos (my favorite) 4"-7" in every color that we had, small plastic crawdads, jigs, cranks and even cured minnows to every type of structure/bank that there is. We caught one smallie, a little guy about 10" long. Everything looked great, the water was moving nicely, clearish, not muddy at all. It was even overcast all day. I'm not sure what else we could have done, but we got skunked. So don't feel bad about not playing hooky yesterday. But, hope springs eternal and there is always next time.

Here is a picture of a 19" Smallie that I caught on the James last summer, I don't know what it weighed. It is my biggest so far, he went back in the water so somebody can catch him again when he's 20"+. I hope that somebody is me. Anything over 15" is a nice smallie in my book. A 20"+ would definitely be a trophy to me. I think that the same criteria holds true for rivers spots too.

Dad and I put in at Bridgeport around 8:00 this morning. There were quite a few boats already there getting ready to put in. Talked to one of them who told me that they were pre-fishing for a tournament that was starting tomorrow. Anyway, we didn't get skunked but we came awfully close to it. Between the two of us we caught about 7 with only one of them being a squeaker keeper. The others were around 12" and even smaller. I work a white spinner bait and dad threw around a 3/8 oz. brown and orange jig. No takers on either of those or a deep crank. The fish we caught all came in on a dark purple with red flake senko style worm rigged with a split shot. The weather turned bad around 10:30 so we headed for the ramp. As they say a bad day fishing still beats a good day working.

We have caught a few crappie/bluegills around Cape Fair. The crappies are in (or have been before this colder weather hit) 15'-25' of water around structure. Look for steep banks/bluffs. We were getting crappies on minnows with no jig just a hook. You will probably pick up a bunch of little LMB's doing this too, pesky little minnow wasters! The bluegills are in the same place, use pieces of night crawler fished in the same structure, just jig it through the tree limbs and get ready to tie on alot of hooks. Hope this helps and good luck, mmirg.

We fished the lower James on Tues. Had a great day of fishing and the catching was pretty good too. Between my buddy and me we boated about 25 fish with only 3-4 that weren't keepers. We mostly used 5" tiki sticks in mossy pumpkin on a spit shot rig. Towards the end of the trip I put on a 4" senko in chartrues and my buddy gave me hell for my choice of colors, but the fish didn't seem to care. If you got the bait to the fish and worked it really slowly the bite was there, sometimes I would feel the bite and then just dead stick it or give it a little twitch until they picked it up. We had alot of short strikes and fish that just wouldn't commit. That's why I tried the shorter senko. They seemed to swallow it instead of just nibble on the tail. The biggest fish of the trip was about 18", lots in the 13-15" range and one nice goggle eye. The bigger fish were holding in the fastest part of the current or in the middle of the deeper stretches instead of up in the structure like normal. Sorry I don't have any pics to verify my fishing story, as soon as my partner caught the first fish of the day (and one of the biggest) my camera battery died. Aint that the way it goes. We put on at around 8:00 and took of at about 4:00. Good luck, mmirg

I floated the Finley from the bridge below 160 to the old low water bridge on Mon. The water was low, murky/green and we had to drag the canoe about 4 times. The fishing was slow. The used senko style plastic the whole time. The fish we caught were hitting on dark colors and were holding in the deeper pockets near structure. The high light of the day was a 16" smallie.

Sam, Thanks for the info. I really appreciate it. I might give that a try tonight if we don't get rained out.