10/19-10/22 Mid to Upper James River Report (detailed)

[kvo113]

I wanted to pass along the pattern that worked for us since the forum has been a great resource for me (we don't fish TR much and it's nice to keep up with the fishing reports) and we are not going to be back to Table Rock until spring. The fishing has been tough but it is getting better quickly, especially on the right days in the right areas.

Thursday and Friday spent mostly locating schools of baitfish in creeks/coves and testing baits and presentations with bent hooks as we were practicing for a 2 day tournament. Could not get bit on bottom baits except one or two bites on a shaky head, but it was a grind. Had more hits on top water and spinnerbait.

Saturday we had 2 keepers and 4 shorts by 9 am including a 3.5 lb LM on a topwater and unfortunately the sun came out and kinda killed the topwater bite, although I did throw it intermittently the rest of the day (medium to large profile baits, both walking and plopping variety) and I missed 4 fish so we only had 2 on Saturday. Many teams were fishing the white river or midlake area and mostly came in with smallies and spots. 1st place day 1 was 14 and 2nd was low 11, but lots of bags in the 7 to 10 lb range. Fishing was definitely better than the previous weekend, but our fish just didn't cooperate and I probably missed 1 or 2 keepers.

Sunday was miserable conditions but fortunately our fish were really fired up from the rain and wind. We had 2 good LM in the boat by 8 and had 4 keepers by 9:15. All on topwater around baitfish in the back of creeks. Got our 5th keeper a couple hours later, same way. ended with 12.5+ lbs which was 4th biggest bag of day and ended up catching a check and making the BASS team championship at Norfork. We committed to the pattern and threw topwater for 7 hours with 11 total fish and probably 6-8 other blowups that missed the bait.

Our pattern was find the bait fish near the surface (we could not get bit fishing around suspended balls of shad that you will see in the middle of creeks at 5-10 feet deep) we had to go way to the back and check every cove and creek to find the surface activity. We found them during practice and just ran cove to cove, and repeat, during tourney. We fished between aunts creek and cape fair.

When the baitfish were 'active' on the surface or we saw active bass chasing shad, we just cast our topwater directly to the action, behind it, or to the side, and we would usually get  a blow up or a bite if we were quick enough. If they were not actively feeding, we would cast to isolated wood, laydowns, or rock piles that were near the baitfish. It was a grind that way but we did get more of our big fish that way. The ones that would hit while they were chasing in the middle were usually shorts or squeakers.

View full article

[Sore Thumbs]

Good job guys!

[big c]

Very impressive, thanks!

[abkeenan]

Great report. Thanks for the in depth detail. Hopefully I am able to get down there in 2 weeks and the bite continues to improve.

[Quillback]

Thanks for the report, some great info.