Catfishing Buggs Island 4/26-4/28

[hambone]

Went on our annual spring camping trip to Staunton River state park last week. Fishing was great. We tried power drifting but with the rising water there was just to much trash to drift, just to much aggravation. So we opted to anchor up and fish. We done fairly well, caught somewhere around 40 fish in 3 days fishing. Biggest fish we got in the boat was 16 lbs.. Most fish averaged around 5-10 lbs. Had trouble catching shad so fished with fresh cut chicken breast for first two days and on third finally got some shad to fish with, but didnt really have much more luck with the shad, we actually caught just as many with the chicken. We fished mostly above SRSP on the Dan river side, between the boat ramp and Aarons creek. Bite was best early morning and right before dark. Had several fish get off, a few that seemed to be really big fish, had one hit and took off that we never got turned, probably pulled 100 yards of line off before it made a u-turn and came right back at boat, was unable to catch back up with it and line went slack and fish gone... probably that 50 lber that i was after, haha.

[fly]

Gar