a little afternoon trip today

[merc1997 Bo]

we put in around noon today and fished around the mouth of the james.  pretty good afternoon of fishing.  19 keepers.  best depth was 40-45 ft.  we did catch some up at 25-30 ft. we did have a couple of three pound lmg and one good 3 1/2 brownie.  three of the keeps were nice kentuckies and the rest except the brownie were lmgs.  these bass are all fat as can be.  i do not know if there is any mud other than in the james, but i would think that those bass after they adjust to the change, there would be some excellent shallow fishing.  the bass are eating.

bo

[176champion]

Nice report thanks!!

Ok i give up how do you fish 40- 45 FOW?  2 ounce weight tied to a wiggle Wart or what..

[m&m]

Bo, Nice afternoon trip.  Fishing that deep is something that I don't do.  But for those of you who do, it sure paid off today.

Mike

[merc1997 Bo]

21 minutes ago, 176champion said:

Nice report thanks!!

Ok i give up how do you fish 40- 45 FOW?  2 ounce weight tied to a wiggle Wart or what..

here is the lure list.  1 oz. NuJig, 1 oz. twin spin using a 1 oz. NuJig for head, jigging spoon in chrome, white, and chartreuse.  the spoon usually will get a school fired up, but the jig and twinspin will most often catch more numbers of better quality.

fishing deep is not any different than fishing in 6" of water.  just takes longer to get to depth, and boat control with the trolling motor is essential.

bo

[dtrs5kprs]

Baxter back to Kim City, and up the James to Aunts is hard to beat if there is a deep bite going. Lots of good places for them to bunch up.

The deep stuff is mostly mental. Turn around and pitch a jig from the bow to the transom next time you are out. Boom- that's the same as fishing 17-20' for most of us. Helps you get a grip on the scale of things. 

[cheesemaster]

I have never tried it, but would love to learn what to look for and how to do it. I rarely get more than 30 feet from the bank.

[176champion]

15 minutes ago, merc1997 said:

here is the lure list.  1 oz. NuJig, 1 oz. twin spin using a 1 oz. NuJig for head, jigging spoon in chrome, white, and chartreuse.  the spoon usually will get a school fired up, but the jig and twinspin will most often catch more numbers of better quality.

fishing deep is not any different than fishing in 6" of water.  just takes longer to get to depth, and boat control with the trolling motor is essential.

bo

Thanks Merc1997..

[Champ188]

1 hour ago, merc1997 said:

we put in around noon today and fished around the mouth of the james.  pretty good afternoon of fishing.  19 keepers.  best depth was 40-45 ft.  we did catch some up at 25-30 ft. we did have a couple of three pound lmg and one good 3 1/2 brownie.  three of the keeps were nice kentuckies and the rest except the brownie were lmgs.  these bass are all fat as can be.  i do not know if there is any mud other than in the james, but i would think that those bass after they adjust to the change, there would be some excellent shallow fishing.  the bass are eating.

bo

Great job, Bo. You nailed em again on a day when everyone I talked to struggled. That included a couple of pretty good deep fishermen.

Was a beautiful afternoon. Great for photos.

[Ham]

I choose to NOT fish >35 foot down. Too tough on the fish. I've caught fish with the boat sitting in >100 foot of water, but I was fishing for schoolers on top. I catch more fish > 20 foot deep than I would have ever dreamed possible before I moved up 8 years ago.

[Bill Babler]

Both yesterday and today were good bass days reported by the Dam area guides.  Lots of fish in the 35 to 60 ft. range.  Some of these guys had bags in the 20 plus pound range and 50 to 70 fish.  Most of the really good bags were on a 1/2 white or chrome jigging spoon.  Lots of fish also both days on drop shot.  Spoon and drop shot fish were K's and LM

Others reported yesterday was a very good day for the jerkbait in the dam area on the flat gravel sweeping points mostly SM.  Boat in 30 throwing in.

  Buster also had them pretty good reporting 17 keepers on a 3/4 oz. football jig dragging it in 40 to 50 feet.  Just about the same location they were catching the spoon and drop shot fish.  Those deep fish were not really worming much, but would lift and return pretty quickly to the bottom.  No whites where the bottom seems to lift up, these were all bass.  Guys also reported that shad were not present in any huge amount the fish were just positioned where they usually are and waiting.  That is the reason there probably was not a ton of whites there.  They seem to follow the shad where the bass will get to their Winter haunts and wait.

Good Luck