7/18 Dam Area

[Brett Groeteke]

Fished the dam area on Saturday and weighed in 14.30 in the Joe Bass tournament. Started off great as we had 2 fish in the 4lb range in the first 20 minutes flipping trees inside a cut along a bluff bank. Tried that for another 2 hours with no more luck so we went and threw spoons for a bit, catching a couple keeper Kentuckies out of 30ft. Finally got our 5th keeper late in the day off a rock pile in 18ft on a football jig, a fat smallmouth about 2 1/4 pounds. Turned out the fishing was really good for several teams, as it took over 17lbs to crack the top 3. After hearing the other reports, Big cranks in the James was the place to be. My hats off to the guys that figured out that bite, it's something I haven't spent enough time trying to figure out

[Champ188]

Thanks for the report, Brett. Sounds like you guys had a pretty good day. Gonna fish tomorrow up the White.

[bobw]

My partner and I eneded up winning the Joe Bass Saturday. We had 18.60 lbs with a 6.06 for big bass. We did go to the James River. I was up there Friday and you couldn't get above Cape Fair. Saturday morning the wind must have changed direction, you could get all the way to Bear Den. The bite was to say the least was Phenomenal. We had some where areound 70 fish with maybe 25 keepers. That bite hasn't been like that for years up there. And because there was still quite a bit of floating stuff it kept the big boats away, it was like fishing on a week day instead of a week end. 2nd place also came from that area, the Fann brothers had 18.21 I think and I believe 5th place was up that way as well. It was a day every bass fisherman dreams about, numbers and quality. The only draw abck was it was so hot. We had all the fish we weighed by 10:00 and really had to work hard to keep them alive till the weigh in at 3. But the Skeeter live wells work great, kept the aeator and the Oxygenator going all day and they survived just fine.

[merc1997 Bo]

really great job! i have been suspecting that a great river bite might be had after all the water we have had. kind of nice to not have all the barge traffic and could fish.

bo

[Quillback]

Son!

You guys really got into them, congrats on the win!

[bobw]

Thanks, we caught all of them on a 6XD and 8XD. I know the Fann's said they caught some on a shallow running crank and a jig, but we stuck witht the deep one all day.

[5bites]

Good job guys! Sounds like a blast.

[dtrs5kprs]

Great report. Always nice to see someone do well fishing a bit differently.

[bobw]

I'm not a Ned Rig, finesse, shakey head drop shot fisherman. I will if I have to but I grew up power fishing in the James River. I don't do real well if I have to fish that other stuff, I know there are times when you have to but if they will bite something else I would much rather do that. This same bite has got to be going on in other parts of the lake as well i would think? Kings, Long Creek, up the White. Just need to look for it.

[Champ188]

My partner and I eneded up winning the Joe Bass Saturday. We had 18.60 lbs with a 6.06 for big bass. We did go to the James River. I was up there Friday and you couldn't get above Cape Fair. Saturday morning the wind must have changed direction, you could get all the way to Bear Den. The bite was to say the least was Phenomenal. We had some where areound 70 fish with maybe 25 keepers. That bite hasn't been like that for years up there. And because there was still quite a bit of floating stuff it kept the big boats away, it was like fishing on a week day instead of a week end. 2nd place also came from that area, the Fann brothers had 18.21 I think and I believe 5th place was up that way as well. It was a day every bass fisherman dreams about, numbers and quality. The only draw abck was it was so hot. We had all the fish we weighed by 10:00 and really had to work hard to keep them alive till the weigh in at 3. But the Skeeter live wells work great, kept the aeator and the Oxygenator going all day and they survived just fine.

Great job, guys. And thanks for all of your work to keep those brutes alive and well. I'm going to add an Oxygenator to the Ranger soon, particularly if I decide to fish the BASS Open in October.