Post by 31Airborne on May 15, 2022 13:54:49 GMT -5
The penultimate stop on this year's trail. The James has always been a bit of an enigma for me. I am relatively adept at understanding and managing the tides, but I have never been able to put it together on this system. Seems I was always missing a piece here and there that kept me from breaking out of the middle of the pack w/ my 5 cookie cutter 2 lb fish. And then there was the memory of a really horrible practice on the Potomac two weeks ago. The Potomac had my partner worried. This one had me worried.
Practice. I got in mid-morning on WED and focused on the upper end. Put in at Osborne Landing in what was supposed to be an in-coming tide. Was kinda surprised by the high water (higher than a normal high tide state). I worked some main river stuff (wing dams and rock piles) for a bit before moving into one of the pits on the upper end. Didn't take me long to find some solid keepers. I bounced down river to some of the other pits to see if I could get my patterns to replay. Yep. Was starting to feel a little more at ease. My partner and I used THUR to explore a couple of new pits. We found an active shad spawn and were able to get a couple of really nice keepers on top water. We continued to work the adjacent areas w/ jigs and soft plastix, landing a couple more nice keeps. On the way in we hit a couple of main river community spots, working the rock and riprap w/ cranks and jigs. Managed a few more solid keeps. Confidence was building. FRI was dedicated to solidifying what we thought we had learned the previous two days. We pulled in to one of the pits I fished on WED. Didn't take long for me to hook up on a really nice keeper (plastix). We immediately left that area to work on some other stuff. Everything we found the previous two days was holding up. Also, the tide was normalizing, so targeting the fish would be a bit easier.
TX day. We drew #27 (out of 42) and made our way up to one of the pits we fished on WED and FRI. This pit fishes more like a small lake in that it has lots of structure - points, well defined ledges, and offshore humps. Some of the breaks in this area are very steep, with 4-6' or better in depth change. What we learned in practice told us this would be the best combination of structure, cover, and fish quality. Our first stop was at a long, tapering point that had some deadfall and man-planted wood on it. Our first fish came on the 3rd cast - a solid 3.5 lb fish. From there it was non-stop action for us. We filled out our limit within 45 minutes of arriving; made our first cull shortly thereafter. We were in the best location as the best of the out-going tide hit. Made several solid upgrades, including a nice 4 lb'er, as we worked this short stretch. There was a bit of a lull in the action as the tide transitioned, but once it started moving back in, the action picked up. Had the fish of day on around midday. A 4-5 lb class fish slammed by c-rig as I pulled it thru some submerged cover. I'm guessing I had a little too much bow in my line when set the hook. She spit the bait back at us as she got close to the boat. Everything we caught after that were solid keepers, but they didn't help. After enjoying a catching kind of day, we motored back to the launch site. Our 5 weighed 16.48, good enough for 4th place.
Observations: 1) WTs remained fairly constant throughout the 4 days we were there. Saw 64 at launch on WED, 64-67 that afternoon; 64 launch on THUR, 67-68 that afternoon; WTs held around 65 throughout the day on FRI w/ rain and clouds; saw 64 at launch on TX day, 66-68 that afternoon. 2) Water conditions were a mixed bag. Clarity was best in the pits (maybe 2-3' of viz). The outgoing tide did cloud things up a bit in places closest to the drains but you still had 1-2' of viz. Clarity varied on the main river - 3-4' in some places, 2' in others, heavily stained in others. Our bite was best in the cleaner water. 3) We were on a structure pattern. Everything we caught in practice and on TX day was relating to a break, a point, or a drain channel. The better fish were holding on sharp breaks. The best fish were holding on sharp breaks with deadfall or man-planted enhancements. We seldom caught fish on the first cast to a target. We covered up every target with multiple casts made from various directions/positions. Sometimes a slight angle change was all we needed to entice a strike. 4) The early bites were non-descript. No line jump or tick. It just loaded up. Sometimes the fish sat there holding the bait. As soon as they detected some resistance they started tracking off in another direction. Bites later in the day were much easier to detect - they were slamming everything. 5) The shad spawn was still under way while we were there. The best baits for us in the active areas were top water presentations - a Spook Jr and a Choppo 75 did some serious damage. Afterwards, we switched to SK 1.5s and chatterbaits. The 1.5 produced a number of solid fish. Just none that would help. We made a practice of tracking the shad schools as they moved off of the spawning flats. This helped us w/ finding some of our better fish. 6) Plastix did the bulk of the catching for us. Skirtless jigs and c-rigged creature baits were the best producers. Our best fish came on the c-rig. No surprise on the plastix - greens. 7) Wind blowing across a point or ledge was better than wind blowing in on it. 8) You had to cover points from shoreline to the tip. And you had to position to accommodate the effects of the tidal flow. We caught fish at just about every section of the points during all phases of the tide. You simply had to make the casts to find them. 9) We had a super high tide on WED and THUR. I immediately had flashbacks to last year's event when we did rather poorly. Then we never made the right adjustments during the high tide. Those lessons proved invaluable to our practice. We were able to use what we learned last year with great effect. As the tide normalized on FRI and SAT, we were able to find fish quickly and efficiently. A little homework paid off in a big way. 10) I learned very early on in my bass fishing days that rivers change daily. That's why it's so important to spend time on the water. Being able to see/track those changes makes the catching part easier. We invested a good bit of time in scanning the areas we knew we would target on TX day. In the pit where we caught the bulk of our fish we registered 75 new WPs, all in an area NMT 50 or so acres. Most of these were logs and brush. Lots of change since last year.
Our final event of the regular season is in JUN - the Chickahominy River. This place has become a favorite. An incredible river with tons of wildlife and scenery. And it's full of fish. Will take full advantage of the next 4 weeks to read and rig. Lots of notes from previous trips to review, lots of map study to do.
peace,
B
Practice. I got in mid-morning on WED and focused on the upper end. Put in at Osborne Landing in what was supposed to be an in-coming tide. Was kinda surprised by the high water (higher than a normal high tide state). I worked some main river stuff (wing dams and rock piles) for a bit before moving into one of the pits on the upper end. Didn't take me long to find some solid keepers. I bounced down river to some of the other pits to see if I could get my patterns to replay. Yep. Was starting to feel a little more at ease. My partner and I used THUR to explore a couple of new pits. We found an active shad spawn and were able to get a couple of really nice keepers on top water. We continued to work the adjacent areas w/ jigs and soft plastix, landing a couple more nice keeps. On the way in we hit a couple of main river community spots, working the rock and riprap w/ cranks and jigs. Managed a few more solid keeps. Confidence was building. FRI was dedicated to solidifying what we thought we had learned the previous two days. We pulled in to one of the pits I fished on WED. Didn't take long for me to hook up on a really nice keeper (plastix). We immediately left that area to work on some other stuff. Everything we found the previous two days was holding up. Also, the tide was normalizing, so targeting the fish would be a bit easier.
TX day. We drew #27 (out of 42) and made our way up to one of the pits we fished on WED and FRI. This pit fishes more like a small lake in that it has lots of structure - points, well defined ledges, and offshore humps. Some of the breaks in this area are very steep, with 4-6' or better in depth change. What we learned in practice told us this would be the best combination of structure, cover, and fish quality. Our first stop was at a long, tapering point that had some deadfall and man-planted wood on it. Our first fish came on the 3rd cast - a solid 3.5 lb fish. From there it was non-stop action for us. We filled out our limit within 45 minutes of arriving; made our first cull shortly thereafter. We were in the best location as the best of the out-going tide hit. Made several solid upgrades, including a nice 4 lb'er, as we worked this short stretch. There was a bit of a lull in the action as the tide transitioned, but once it started moving back in, the action picked up. Had the fish of day on around midday. A 4-5 lb class fish slammed by c-rig as I pulled it thru some submerged cover. I'm guessing I had a little too much bow in my line when set the hook. She spit the bait back at us as she got close to the boat. Everything we caught after that were solid keepers, but they didn't help. After enjoying a catching kind of day, we motored back to the launch site. Our 5 weighed 16.48, good enough for 4th place.
Observations: 1) WTs remained fairly constant throughout the 4 days we were there. Saw 64 at launch on WED, 64-67 that afternoon; 64 launch on THUR, 67-68 that afternoon; WTs held around 65 throughout the day on FRI w/ rain and clouds; saw 64 at launch on TX day, 66-68 that afternoon. 2) Water conditions were a mixed bag. Clarity was best in the pits (maybe 2-3' of viz). The outgoing tide did cloud things up a bit in places closest to the drains but you still had 1-2' of viz. Clarity varied on the main river - 3-4' in some places, 2' in others, heavily stained in others. Our bite was best in the cleaner water. 3) We were on a structure pattern. Everything we caught in practice and on TX day was relating to a break, a point, or a drain channel. The better fish were holding on sharp breaks. The best fish were holding on sharp breaks with deadfall or man-planted enhancements. We seldom caught fish on the first cast to a target. We covered up every target with multiple casts made from various directions/positions. Sometimes a slight angle change was all we needed to entice a strike. 4) The early bites were non-descript. No line jump or tick. It just loaded up. Sometimes the fish sat there holding the bait. As soon as they detected some resistance they started tracking off in another direction. Bites later in the day were much easier to detect - they were slamming everything. 5) The shad spawn was still under way while we were there. The best baits for us in the active areas were top water presentations - a Spook Jr and a Choppo 75 did some serious damage. Afterwards, we switched to SK 1.5s and chatterbaits. The 1.5 produced a number of solid fish. Just none that would help. We made a practice of tracking the shad schools as they moved off of the spawning flats. This helped us w/ finding some of our better fish. 6) Plastix did the bulk of the catching for us. Skirtless jigs and c-rigged creature baits were the best producers. Our best fish came on the c-rig. No surprise on the plastix - greens. 7) Wind blowing across a point or ledge was better than wind blowing in on it. 8) You had to cover points from shoreline to the tip. And you had to position to accommodate the effects of the tidal flow. We caught fish at just about every section of the points during all phases of the tide. You simply had to make the casts to find them. 9) We had a super high tide on WED and THUR. I immediately had flashbacks to last year's event when we did rather poorly. Then we never made the right adjustments during the high tide. Those lessons proved invaluable to our practice. We were able to use what we learned last year with great effect. As the tide normalized on FRI and SAT, we were able to find fish quickly and efficiently. A little homework paid off in a big way. 10) I learned very early on in my bass fishing days that rivers change daily. That's why it's so important to spend time on the water. Being able to see/track those changes makes the catching part easier. We invested a good bit of time in scanning the areas we knew we would target on TX day. In the pit where we caught the bulk of our fish we registered 75 new WPs, all in an area NMT 50 or so acres. Most of these were logs and brush. Lots of change since last year.
Our final event of the regular season is in JUN - the Chickahominy River. This place has become a favorite. An incredible river with tons of wildlife and scenery. And it's full of fish. Will take full advantage of the next 4 weeks to read and rig. Lots of notes from previous trips to review, lots of map study to do.
peace,
B
