Are My Expectations Just Off? What Is "good" Fishing?

[moguy1973]

Along with the crawdads catch yourself some minnows too. It's pretty easy to do. Make yourself a homemade minnow trap out of a couple 2 liter bottles, put some rocks inside so it sinks, crush up some crackers and put it in the stream in about 4-5" of water and watch the minnows swim in and not be able to get out...

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/main-crappie-fishing-forum/65648-minnow-trap-home/

Smallies and catfish both love minnows...

[jimithyashford]

So, I will be stuck fishing on the James near to town for at least the next two weeks. So I have been advised to try crawfish and minnows and to try fishing in the eddies just below riffles and also near cover/structure. I have actually been fishing the heck out of cover and structure using jigs with no luck, but I havn't tried live bait and I havn't tried eddies below riffles.I think I will try getting in the water at Crieghton and wading upstream for several sets of holes and riffles. If I plop a crawfish and/or minnow in each eddy and do a couple casts along any cover I find, is the consensus that I would be very bizarre if that didn't net me at least a few decent fish?

[Flysmallie]

is the consensus that I would be very bizarre if that didn't net me at least a few decent fish?

I would be more inclined to find it bizarre if you do catch a bunch of decent fish. I guess it depends on what you consider decent but I never go to that access expecting much. Sometimes I'm surprised. But don't think that if you don't catch a few decent fish then you must suck. It doesn't work that way.

A couple of other things that I don't think have been mentioned.

1. It's the middle of summer. You are not fishing the best conditions right now.

2. The river is pretty skinny through there right now. You are not fishing the best conditions.

When you are able to travel out a little further from town let me know and I'll give you some much better options. It's going to help if we get some rain before then.

[Big Brown Trout]

I've been out fishing maybe a 10 times so far this summer. Average time with lure/bait in the water per trip is probably about 1-1.25 hours.

this easily could be part of your problem the shortest fishing trip I have taken this year was 3 hours. know your prey, know your gear, learn to read water. these are the keys to better fishing. and also be patient. you don't have to get a flyrod to catch trout, but I would be more open to trying lures over bait. my wife always uses bait and I always use flies and typically I almost always outfish her. This isn't because flies are necessarily better, but I know how to use them in a way that brings out a fishes aggression. In any predatory fish this can be key, now with catfish or other scavengers don't worry to much about this. My best luck with catfish has been using live shad.

just study your trips, be aware of what you did or more importantly did not do and learn from it. Like anything else you get better with experience and study.

. I have actually been fishing the heck out of cover and structure using jigs with no luck,

every time I have fished the last few weeks I have NOT found fish clinging to structure. sometimes they are there sometimes they are not, keep your eyes open and you will see signs of fish. also don't neglect shade. I have found more fish hugging the line between light and shade on the surface of the water than I have under logs or rocks.

[jimithyashford]

Big Brown Trout:

So as you probably figured, I don't have a boat. So for me a fishing "trip" consists of heading out to fish 2 or 3 spots in very close proximity to each other. I have been told by people on other threads that if you are fishing a spot for 20-30 minutes without a bite, then the fish probably aren't there, and you are better off moving on then sinking hours in water with no action.

That is the reason for my short trips. If I fish a hole for about half an hour and get no bites, I move on. Usually I hit two or three likley spots near each other, and that equals out to be about an hour an a half or so. Occasionally I'll drive out to whole other area to fish if I am still energetic despite the skunk, but I am counting that as a seperate "trip". I hope that makes sense.

So I don't know whether you're advice is to be more patient and put more time in a piece of water before you move on, or that you are assuming a "trip" consists of packing up and moving to a different streatch of water if nothing is happening.

[Gavin]

Thinking 3 good casts and move if you are prospecting. Cover some ground till you find some and work from there.

[jimithyashford]

So, I fished from about 6:30 until it got dark using the methods mentioned in this post. I got in the water at the upper end of crieghton and waded upstream to the large wide deep spot where the intake building is. I fished with a crawdad in the eddies during the walk upstream and got no bites at all. I changed te crawfish out a few times when they stopped kicking.

On the wade back I switched to a small spinner and caught 4 small sunfish 1 smallie a little bigger than finger sized, and one rock bass a little shorter than my hand.

So, while it was nice to actually catch 6 fish over the course of about 2 hourss, they were all teeny tiny. Two of the sunfish were so small I almost considered hooking them an casting them back out as bait.

I guess that means I have the right technique but there just weren't any big fish to be caught?

[jimithyashford]

Also I left a limb line with crawfish tails on it for catfish which still had the bait on it when I got back. So no luck with cats.

[Tim Smith]

It's going to be impossible to diagnose what's going wrong from the internet. If you're doing something to spook the fish or tying your knots sloppily or making short casts....

...someone has to be there to see that if they're really going to help you.

Get one of these guys to show up and offer some tutelage.

[GloryDaze]

Here's a good day for me..... not working, wetting a line, catching a HUGE buzz, take a picture of the scenery, go to bed. Repeat and repeat makes a great trip.

There is my expectation.....