Saturday In The James

[Champ188]

Donna and I spent a classic fall day in the James River arm on Saturday, taking in the start of what promises to be some fine fall color, breathing some crisp autumn air and catching a fair number of bass, although only three keepers.

Boat traffic wasn't too bad considering the Sloan derby was going on downlake.

We launched at Cape Fair about 7:30 a.m. and ran a couple of miles upriver to start, catching just one or two shorts on a War Eagle spinnerbait off shallow docks.

Came back down to Buzzard Branch and caught no one in there but did find a school of K's on a nearby main-lake bluff bank and caught close to a dozen of them from a 25-yard stretch on blade and mid-depth crawfish crank bait. None were keepers but a couple were close.

Went downlake a few miles to another creek and managed two keeper LM there and missed a couple of other good keepers, all on topwater and all in 10 feet of water or less. One was a 3-pound fish, our best of the day, and came from less than 2 feet of water.

Fishing the Champion derby next Saturday out of Cape Fair so not going to go into intimate detail, but the bottom line is you gotta work for the keeper fish right now.

Headed back up Wednesday for four straight days of fishing. Should be fun.

[johnboy2bfishin]

Thanks Champ

I had thought about going sat to that area sat. but decided to stay close to home with gas high as all get up. Don't get many reports out of that area.

Glad to know to stay away from there sat.

thanks for the report and good luck

[Quillback]

Thanks for the report, good to hear the TW bite is going. Good luck in the derby!