Seth

My dad and I and two buddies head up to Bagnell for some snagging this past Saturday. When we got there, there was hardly anybody in the parking lot, we figured this was a bad omen. We made our way to the bridge and talked to a couple boats and nobody had any fish at all. We figured we had wasted 2 hours driving up here. Well we snagged below the bridge a little bit and we hit four bigheads and landed two of them, both about 8-10 lbs. Talked to a few more boats and still not one fish for anybody. My buddy has a jet motor on his boat so we headed down river to through all of the shallow shoots to Cat Rock. Nobody else was down there becuase of the low water. I got us started with a paddlefish on my first cast and we ended up catching eight, six keepers and two that didn't measure. The biggest one we caught was my second one and it was 41" long from the eye to the fork of the tail and weighed 28 lbs, it is the biggest we have seen come out of that body of water in a while. Had a great time, but it still isn't as fun as catching them big spooners that are down on the James River of Tablerock.

Yes it was definetly packed during the daylight hours. We were crappie fishing and had to weave between boats from flat creek on up.

We all limited out fishing just above Flat Creek. My step mom even caught two in one cast. One was was right at 60 lbs and the other right at 30 lbs. That was pretty neat. We had a 70 lb, 60 lb, couple 50 lb (one was a big male), and then the rest were 35 and smaller. There was very few boats out at midnight. The paddlefish were sloshing all over the place. We hit a bunch of them at the tops of our jerks and they pulled off. We hooked probably 30 just to get the ones we landed in the boat. Today during daylight hours, we got some minnows and went crappie fishing, but the crappie weren't biting very well. Did see a bunch of snaggers when daylight came, and almost every boat had a fish or two hanging from it. It was the best snaggin trip I have had down there. I think this year will be a banner year for snaggers. Anybody else do good too? My step mom on the left with a 60 lber and a buddy of ours on the right with a 70 lber.

I got to thinking that I have had these little quantum ultralights for about 3-5 years now and I have NEVER took them apart and cleaned out the grit and old grease Do you guys have any info on what get's greased and oiled? I was going to take them apart and wash the parts in some soapy water and then dry with a wash clothes, but I don't know how they get oiled/greased. Thanks for any info. Seth

I can just imagine that sight lol. Yes I agree some of them ol ladies down there take there trout fishing serious hehe. I parked above the hatchery and walked down to the sidewalks. Normally when I am wearing waders I park in the gravel parking lot then cross the bathroom hole riffle. It was jam packed with people thats for sure. Lots of people were getting tangled quite often and getting aggravated lol.

I'll be hitting it at midnight on wednesday

My buddy and his girlfriend and then my girlfriend and I got down to the springs at about 1pm today. Fishing was pretty good, the catching wasn't. Got lots of bites, but had a heckuva time keeping them hooked. Rainbow and white powerbait got bit good. Also, my buddy used some brown "007" bait. I caught a few on the green body/head white rubber legged jigs. Three of us limited out and my girlfriend only landed one. Me and my girlfriend caught ours at the Lazy Hole and my buddy and his girlfriend caught all theres at the bridge. I was fun to fish in such beautiful weather. The crowds were pretty heavy also though. Right before the buzzer sounded I was fishing upstream from the Lazy Hole on the sidwalk and I seen one of the lunkers from opening day left over. I would guess he is about a 4 lbers. He came up and nosed my jig but turned away and then I lost him. Loads of fish in the Lazy Hole as always and there are a lot right along the sidewalks above the Lazy Hole. River was up a little bit and had more current than usual, but it's still pretty clear.

Will anybody be down snagging on the James the opening night? I got lucky and my spring break is the following week so I will down there with my dad hard at it as soon at midnight comes I wonder if these warm temps we have been having will have the water warmed up enough to make some paddlefish move up river already???? Usually I think we just get the resident fish that wintered in the James. All well, I know it will be fun and I can't wait.

I have a 10 foot surf rod that I use for snagging and the 2nd guide from the tip is messed up. I need to replace it and wanted to know what you guys do to remove old guides cleanly so you can put on a new one. Can I just scrape the epoxy off the thread with a scalpal or utility knife? Also, will I need actual rod wrapping thread to put on a new guide, or will regular sewing thread work ? Thanks for any help, Seth

They only way I ever fished them was by throwing them out, wait a few seconds for it to sink, then start reeling them in slowly while bouncing my rod tip up and down. It helps having a flimsy slow action rod. Those yellow Eagleclaw rods that a lot of people use are perfect for bouncing jigs.

Shawncat....that might be one of my jigs lol. I broke a few off horsing them in a little to hard the other day on 2 lb test. Pick up a few of those at DJ's there in town, they work really good even though everybody and there brother uses them down there. I am going to tie up a couple wooly bugger jigs as I call them for this weekend. Those were killer the past few years, but I just eventually lost them all and need to tie up some more. White and black ones were all I tried, but that is all I needed, the trout hammered them.

Do you dead drift cracklebacks like a dry fly or do you bring it back with short strips? I have never caught any trout on a crackleback down there. Only thing that I have gotten them to bite on were beadheads, san juans, and glo balls under and indicator.

Hey shawncat.....was that jig you called a new jig.....was it one that had a painted green head, green chenille body and then had 4 pieces of white round rubber laying along the back of it? If so, that is what I have been catching a lot of trout on. They have been around for a year or two that I know of. DJ's there in St. James has sold them for a couple years now I know. I still haven't used my fly rod hardly due to the crowds of people. I will get down there this Saturday and I hope that I can get some time with the fly rod in. I want to try drifting an orange or chartreuse glowball on the surface and see what happens. Those pesky trout have been eating floats off the surface like crazy everytime I have been down there.

Nope it sure wasn't me. I was down there with my girlfriend though. I had a camo jacket on and a fishing vest and glasses. It was tough for us on Saturday. We got down there around 1pm I believe. We headed right for the Lazy Hole. Dad and I caught our limit of trout, but it wasn't an easy limit. I caught seven before I put my fourth one on the stringer. My dad helped out my step mom and she caught a couple and also had a few nice ones come off during the fight. My girlfriend hooked two, the first one was a nice one and he broke her off and the next one was a smaller one and the hook came out of his mouth during the fight. I caught a few on jigs, one on white DD's, one of some brown bait we call "007", and two or three on orange cheeseworms. I caught my last two up at the pond hole, one just to the right of the big tree by the handicap hole and the other just on the left side of that big tree, both on orange cheeseworms. Glad you had a good trip. Me and my girlfriend will be down there this Saturday again as long as the weather isn't too nasty. I am trying to get one of my buddies to go too. Him and his dad went down there today in the PM during the rain and said they hammered them pretty good on that brown "007" bait.

I did pretty well again today. Just a guess, I would say I caught 30-40 in about 3 hours of fishing. My dad said he only caught about 10, due to the fact that he had a hard time keeping them hooked. I just hung out at the bathroom hole again today. The trout were still stacked in there too. There was one 4-5 lber swimming around in the area, but he would not look at anything. One guy caught one about 4 lbs right by the cleaning station, just above the log that lays across the river. That's the same spot that guy caught that 5 1/2 lber on the orange globall yesterday. I did the best on jigs again today. Right before I left, I was using an orange cheese flavored trout worm and getting a lot of strikes and catching a few. I didn't bother with the fly rod today either. I wish I would have though, there was plenty of room to fish with it today. I plan on getting back down there again Saturday also....weather permitting. My girlfriend wants to go do some fishing so we will give it a shot. If you want to try and spot me while your down there, just look for somebody wearing green neoprene chest waders with a big patch of white water sealant on the right knee. That's me hehe. I always wear my vest and a yellow Hollister hat too. Good luck to you next time you get down there.

Not sure what you mean by the "steps". Are you referring the the steps that you walk down to get to the stream from that parking up past the hatchery that sits on top of the hill above the stream? I usually fish the "pond" hole and the "lazy" hole, or "bathroom" hole as some call it.

I started out fishing right above where that log lays across the stream. We caught quite a few and that is where I caught the 18" one. My friends dad was fishing besides me there too and he seen the guy catch that big one on the orange globall. I don't know the "legend" that your talking about. I wish I could have met him and chit chatted. That would have been cool to here some of his stories.

I decided to play hooky from college (wasn't doing much anyways today) and go fight the crowds. The stream was absolutely loaded with fish. I only seen one monster on a stringer though, so I am hoping there's a couple left in there for tomorrow for me to catch. I caught probably 30-40 today in about 4 hours of fishing. FIrst one I put on the stringer was probably one of the "lunkers" they released becuase it was about 18" long. Also, I caught a tagged trout for my last fish to keep, but I caught it at 11:00am and they stopped checking in tagged trout at 10:00am They bit on just about everything a person would throw. I would catch a few on everything I tried, but then would have to switch pretty often. Green/white or chartruese/black rubber legged jigs were my best lure for the day though. I decided not to mess with the fly rod today due to the crowds, so I will give it a shot tomorrow probably. Phil, I put your little flyers you mailed to me out by where everybody signs there tags and I checked them when I left and they were all gone so I hope they bring some more people to the site for you.

I can't remember a day when the opener wasn't cold and nasty outside. The river is usually up and muddy from a lot of rain we usually have. I can just imagine how packed it is going to be tomorrow. Still, I am gonna play hooky from school and go stand shoulder to shoulder with all the yahoo's. Also, Phil I got them cards and I will do my best to get them all handed out for you tomorrow. Good luck everybody who attends the mad house.

I wish I could of spent Valentines day the same way that you did.

I already have Media Player 10 though. It used to work just fine for me but has stopped recently.

Everytime I click the link to watch the cam, I get a "red x" in the box that the video is normally in? Anybody else having this problem?

One of my buddies works down there in the summertime and they know the crew down there really well. They could probably get your cards distributed around pretty easily. Me and my dad could help also, we go down there quite often too.

How big of a rainbow was it?

I only made it down once so far for C&R, and I didn't see any of the big fish. I hooked about a 5-6lb rainbow last year on the last weekend just up from the bathroom hole, but haven't seen any big fish this year. Where did you guys catch these fish at?