Fishing Today

[hambone80]

Did a little wade fishing on the James this afternoon. I was looking for a top water bite and spent a little too much time trying that approach, but I think most would agree that it's the funnest way to fish. At least when they're hitting anyways, but it just wasn't happening. I switched up to a Fluke, but no takers on that either. Then I put on the ol' Bomber crank and a fish hit. Initially I thought it was a little smallie, but then I saw that panfish profile. It was a goggle-eye just over ten inches. That's only the second one I caught that size, so I was pretty happy. I caught another small rocky and landed a 14" largemouth on the same crank. Had a fun little encounter with a five foot cottonmouth at my feet, but it was just as scared of me as I was of it. Well maybe not! Had to wrap it up early because of the storm rolling in. Yesterday I was catching little white bass behind the dam on an 1/8oz rooster tail. I had two that I would consider "keeper" size, but I let 'em go. If you got kids I would recommend taking them there ASAP so they can at least catch some fish. I was getting them on every cast. Don't get your hopes up on bringing back a mess of keepers because most were only five inches or so, but still fun on light tackle. I still found it pretty amazing that the whites get up behind the dam of Lake Springfield though. Take care and respect the water ways.

[Flysmallie]

I still found it pretty amazing that the whites get up behind the dam of Lake Springfield though. Take care and respect the water ways.

We caught some white bass up around Shelvin Rock last week and I thought they were a long ways up. But they were all about that 5 inch size that you are talking about.

Was all of your fishing done below the dam?

[et84]

My brother and his buddies have fished the James 3 times in the last week, floating the 125 bridge to "The Old Iron Bridge" and they haven't caught fish on anything besides SMALL craws. When I say small, I mean 2"or smaller. 3" chigger craws (normally a go-to plastic for us) wouldn't even draw a bite. My brother has been taking either Baby Paca Craws or Uncle Buck's craws and putting them on a Bitsy bug, or just a regular jig and then they started pullin' em out. Mostly all goggle-eye and smallies, and a few sunfish/ bluegill of course. I also heard they saw an ol' boy walking the float with a stringer full of eyes looped over his backpack. They're actually floating this same stretch as I'm writing this post. We'll see how they do today.