Cape Fair Area

[Bill Babler]

Cape Fair is traditional river fishing for mostly Largemouth bass. Yes there are very nice amount of K's up there, but nothing like from Aunts Creek down. Smallmouth can also be caught in the James and some darn good ones, again not the numbers we have from Long Creek to Campbell Point on the Main White River, but they are there. I always tell folks when they want to fish the river systems they are excluding large amount's of fish. You are getting way more specialized, and your techniques should change from traditional clear water fishing to good old bass fishing.

When I want to go fishing just to fish, I usually put in at Aunts Creek and fish to point 15 up the James.

The lake is really dropping and I wish I could have been up there the past 3 weeks throwing a buzzbait around the bushes and on the shallow docks. Didn't have time. We are now below 916 and it seems to be dropping about 3 inches per day.

Good Luck

[Champ188]

Hmmm, pulling water that hard would almost have to mean a pretty good ledge bite up in the James on deep crank baits, fb jigs and C-rigged lizards. Might even be able to slow-roll a swimbait like a Keitech Swing Impact on a weighted head off some of those ledge drops and channel-swing bluff ends.

Haven't been up there to test it ... mostly just thinking out loud but it's food for thought.

In addition to LOZ, which Bill mentioned earlier, the James fishes somewhat similar to Truman. When they're pulling water for power generation in the summer, it positions the fish pretty predictably on the points, bluff ends and channel drops. When they shut the water off, heaven knows where they go. Actually, I believe they bury up in the brushpiles or just rest until the water starts moving again. Table Rock's dam is not as big as Truman's, so it doesn't create quite as much flow. But it does create enough to activate the bait and the bass.

[flyman]

Keep thinking outloud, Champ. It's giving me some ideas. I can't wait to get back out there and try a few things. I have some great spots circled on the maps to check out. I planned to go tonight. My two and a half year old daughter asked if we could go to "Bass Pwo" (as she calls it) and see the fishies and the turtles. Makes my heart melt. I couldn't say no to that.

[flyman]

Cape Fair produced, well, fair . Started the morning with a black buzzbait, no takers. Sun started coming up so switched to a Strike King 2.5 square bill and picked up a couple. One of the bass I caught on the crank was a 3 inch largemouth. He had some spirit Next I fished the the rocky bluffs targeting the large rocks and shelfs with a taxas rigged robo worm, texas rigged Paca Craw and a Rapala Xrap. All three produced on the bluffs but a small cove in the bluffs got the largest fish of the day on the paca craw (pumpkin). Probably a 4.5 lb largemouth right from the center of the small cove. Ended the day dragging a Jewel Finesse FB jig with a tiny paca craw (purple) as a trailer. Dragged the jig over a nice long ledge and caught a few right in a row (a few spots and a nice smallie). Overall I think I did fair being a novice and first time visiting this area. I'll be back. I like the area. Have fun out there

[Quillback]

You did good, Flyman. From all indications it was a slow weekend out there.