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Name: Jeffrey Banko
Email:
Date: 11/28/05
Time: 1:00 - 4:00
Lower James River
windy and cloudy but 71 degrees out
very stained
Old Appomattox River Channel
1 LMB
Kreture bait
0 - 6 feet
Wanted to get a few hours in today before my boat weny into the shop for some work. Only caught one dink and lost one small one. Think the rain the night before plus all of the frontal activity going on shut my hot bite down.
Name: rattlesnake
Email:
Date: 11/24/05
Time: 8:30 - 2:00
Leesville Lake
sunny and windy
53 deg. and stained to dingy
from around goats island, up to bridge
one smallmouth
crankbaits, spinnerbaits and jigs
5 to 20'
tried to find fish in the back of some creeks or cuts without any luck at all. no baitfish seen. ended up going up the lake and started fishing a rock bluff wall on the sunny side, about 1/4mi. below the bridge. was throwing a black/blue jig bouncing down the rock when i finally got a bite. when the fish broke the water i could not believe it, it was a smallmouth. first smallmouth that i have caught from leesville. fish was a little over 21" long and weighed 4.6lbs on my digital scales. got off the water around 2:00 since the wind was howling. would have liked to keep fishing the rock bluff and see if i could have caught a few more but decided with wind picking up, i wanted to find someone i could show the fish to. ended up finding a family on their dock and they were nice enough to take some photos for me. tight lines and God Bless.
Name: Jeff Banko
Email:
Date: 11/27/05
Time: 11:00 - 4:00
Lower James River
50 Degrees and clear, light breeze
48.5 degress, stained
Old Channel Appomattox River
20 LMB
Creature Baits, Spinner Baits, Ring Worms
0 - 6 feet
Fish around laydowns and other hard structure
fished with Rich K. and one of his buds, Marcello, today. I caught 12 LMB and Rich and Marcello each caught 4. Pretty awesome to have 20 fish in the boat at the end of November.
Name: Jeff Banko
Email: vafishing@comcast.net
Date: 11/23/05
Time: 12:00 to 4:0
Lower James River
Windy, Windy, Windy, and cold 45 degrees
never checked
Appommattox River Old Channel
8 LMB
Creature Baits and Dead Ringer worms in June Bug
0 - 5 feet
Pitched the creature baits and the dead ringers around laydowns and along chunk rock walls.
Awesome day on the Appomattox today considering it was very cold and really windy. Caught 8 bass, biggest going around 4 pounds and several in the 2 - 3 range. Actually had probably 20 - 30 bites but the wind was just so bad it made it hard to get good hook ups. Anyway glad I froze my butt off it was worth it. Oh yeah, I know they proably won;t see it but want to say thanks to the 3 guys that helped me get my boat off of the bar. Really extreme low tide today caught me in it's arms, ughhhhh...
Name: Rich K
Email: wishiniwasfishi@verizon.net
Date: 11/20/05
Time: 9:00 - 3:00P
Lower James River
Clear with high clouds
53 deg Muddy water
Appomatox River, old channel, pye alley
11 LMB smallest was 12.5" biggest was 18"
Spinner bait and smallie beaver
1' - 12'
Slow rolling/bouncing
fished last half outgoing tide, and first half incoming, was on fish from my first spot above Hopewell. Good day for me, but they havent quite move into the areas I like best.
Name: Jeff Banko
Email:
Date: 11/19/05
Time: 1:00 - 5:00
Lower James River
clear skies, around 55 degrees out
Dutch Gap Area
O
Shad and Bream
Took a buddy to try and catch some cats today. Could not even catch bait. Looked everywhere and could not find any good concentrations of bait to catch with my cast net. Only managed four small shad and bream and did not catch anything on them.
Name: rattlesnake
Email:
Date: 11/11/05
Time: 6:30 - 2:00
Smith Mountain
sunny and a little windy
slight stain
campers down to becky's and betty's
largemouth
spinnerbaits, crankbaits, buzzbait, jigs and plastics
3-15
caught 3.3lber on a buzzbait first thing. tried jigs on docks for a while and had no luck.caught a few on spinnerbaits near the back of a creek and a couple on crankbaits on secondary points. ended up with 7 fish and 3 keepers.
fish were really scattered. could not find a lot of shad activity in the backs of any creeks i fished. was fishing against 2 other fellas and when i was checking the livewell they had spit out some crayfish. i caught my last keeper on a soft plastic crawdad. God Bless and good fishing.
Name: Rich K
Email:
Date: 11/12/05
Time: 07:00-15:00
Lake Gaston
COLD AM 30 deg at blast off, foggy bluebird skies
slight stain 58-62 deg
Poplar, 6 pound and Holly grove creeks
2 short LMB for me
Rattletrap, spinner bait, flukes
2-25'
Slow, tried to top the grass in 5'-10' of water
Fished a mini T with some of the BBC folks, I think there were 18 boats total. 3 or 4 goose eggs including me. Best bag was 3 for around 7.5. It was a tough day fishing for everyone, most were on fish, but all short. It was still better than being at work!
Name: BassKat
Email:
Date: 11/11/05
Time: 0630-1330
Sandy River Reservoir
foggy am chilly @ 30 degrees then blue bird skies
clear to lightly stained
mid to upper
Bass
spinnerbait, senkos, trickworms, pig/jig
shallow to 12 feet
slow on plastics, burning the spinnerbait
Great day. Best 5 fish about 13 pounds. Caught on spinnerbait and pig/jigs. Saw one fish about 6 pounds rolled spinnerbait at the boat and another went airborne after the jig at the boat. They didn't want plastics today for some reason. Son missed a few on the hook set. May give up the first few days in a tree to be back on the water. Tightlines
Name: Bill
Email: BigFishAddict@aol.com
Date: 11/08/05
Time: 3-5pm
Upper James River
great weather, warm and clear
very clear water with leaves
Pool under the "Pipeline Overlook" again. 12th and Byrd St. downtown Richmond.
2 LMB, 6 Crappie, lost count of the Sunfish.
Nightcrawler pieces on a hook and bobber.
2-3 ft below the bobber
Cast and wait, it doesnt take long.
Went back to this spot again today. It was my day off and I had plenty of "projects", but you just cant beat a couple of good hours of fishing. Threw all fish back today. My neighbor who eats them wasnt with us today. Bill
Name: Ray
Email: v23842@aol.com
Date: 11/08/05
Time:
Lower James River
warm & sunny
clear
main river from Osborne landing to just below I-295 bridge and the barge yard
LMB
Crankbaits and spinner baits
10 ft. or less
Caught only three today. I used to live on the river in the Fall and the fishing was exceptional then. For the last two years its less then desirable. I was told that the fishing would be back this Fall, but you can't prove it by me.
Name: Bill
Email: BigFishAddict@aol.com
Date: 11/05/05
Time: 4pm-530pm
Upper James River
sunset, nice, warm
clear
12th and Byrd St. beneath the "Pipeline Overlook" in downtown Richmond. Its next to the flood wall.
LMB, SMB, lots of Bluegill, Crappie, Channel catfish
The old worm and bobber.
2-3ft below bobber.
Watch the bobber
This is a great spot if you work downtown and want to wet a line during lunch break. Its full of panfish. Fish the "pool" of water directly below the "Pipeline Overlook".We were catching fish on just about every cast until it got dark. We did have two big pole benders, but with the small worm hooks neither got landed. Besides the fish we caught, there are also some large Bowfin (Grinnel) and Flat Heads in there. Stripers this time of year too.
Name: Ray
Email: v23842@aol.com
Date: 11/03/05
Time: 8:00--2:00
Lake Chesdin
Bright sunny blue bird skies
clear
Whippernock Creek
one LMB, one Pike
Rat-L-Trap, spinner bait
shallow, less then 3 ft.
Caught the bass on a Rat-L-Trap and the pike on a chartruse spinner bait
Tough post frontal conditions. High sky and bright sun.
Name: Rich K
Email: wishiniwasfishin@verizon.net
Date: 10/30/05
Time: 11:00 - 3:30
Lower James River
Clear, warming throughout the day
55 deg incoming tide
Appomattox river, old channel
LMB largest about 2 lbs
Spinner bait, pegged t-rigged creature baits
0-12'
Slow rolling spinner, Flippin' creatures into laydowns
Great day for me, and my son. Caught the 2 lb'er on a spinner bait, the main hook got him on the inside, and the trailer on the outside. Moved to a different spot and got into them with the creature type bait. I caught no less than 10 fish off the same tree. It's been a long time since I've had fish hit that hard. twice I almost lost grip on my pole, man what a feeling. My 5 yr old helped me reel in a few of 'em. You couldn't beat the look on his face when he was catching his fish.
Name: Mike F
Email:
Date:
Time:
Open Team Bass Tourney @ Abel Reservior
Weekend Bassers will hold an Open Team Bass Tournament at Abel Lake from 7am to 3pm on November 6th Payout will be 70% with 1st, 2nd, 3rd and Big Fish. There may be an optional side Big Fish Pot too. 1 or 2 people allowed per boat. This is an electric only lake but gas motors must be trimmed up. For more info contact Mike at 571-247-1017
Name: Jeff Banko
Email:
Date: 10/27/05
Time: 2:30 - 6:00
Lower James River
Clear and in the 60's
Stained
Barge Pit
5 LMB
Ringworm, Creature Baits.
0 - 10 feet
Cast around any structure
Fished with Rich K. today for a few hours. Only managed 5 fish no big ones. Rich lost one small one.
Name: Jeffrey Banko
Email:
Date: 10/22&23
Time: 7:00am3:15
Lower James River
Saturday overcast and breezy, Sunday was a beutiful day
Stained
Herring Creek, Main River and Barge Pits
Saturday 3 keepers for 5-4#s and Sunday 5 for 6-12# but caught like 40 fish.
Finesse worms in red shad, june bug, and mocassin blue. Creature baits in black and blue
0 - 12 feet
Pitching the worms and creature baits to hard cover. Most fish came from pilings.
Fished club classic on the James River. Saturday I finished 8th which was good enough to get to the second day should have been better but broke some good fish off. Sunday was great day. Caught like 40 fish and had my limit of 5 by 9:30. Spent from 9:30 to 3:00 trying to find that one kicker fish but never did. Cost me as I came in second by about a half pound to one of the other guys who only had 3 fish but had one 4 pounder. Well that is my luck or lack there of this year...
Name: Jeff Banko
Email:
Date: 10/16/05
Time: 7 - 3:30
Lower James River
Windy, Widny, windy, but clear skies
stained
Herring Creek and Chippokes Creek
3 LMB
Finesse worms red shad and june bug, creature baits in blues and blacks
0 - 10 feet
Pitching every piece of cover
Fished ABA T on the chick/James. Not a bad day caught 3 keepers and lost one more that was a nice fish. Would have been close to the money but came in 3 minutes late due to a damaged prop and the penalty killed me.
Name: Bill
Email: BigFishAddict@aol.com
Date: 10/25/05
Time: afternoon
Upper James River
light rain,windy,chilly
That little pool near the new condos around 8th st. and Bank St. downtown Richmond. Right below the concrete overlook by the flood wall. Its hard to give directions to. Its not on a city map. But it IS there.
Bluegill, LMB, Flatheads
worms, bluegill, topwaters
There are all kinds of fish in this hole. Not very well known but its a honey hole and only access is from the bank. Saw some others walk out on the "pipe" walkway and catching stripers. They also had a 5lb LMB.
Name: Jeff K,
Email:
Date: 10/19/05
Time: 7:30-5
Lake Monticello
Beautiful, 80 at least
water temps in the 70's
camped 3 different spots.
LMB
BIG, MONSTER, HUGE, LIVE SHINERS (OR MINNOWS FOR SOME FOLKS OUT THERE)
UP TO 17-20FT
Ol bobber and wait. I picked areas where I thought fish would move to and from shallower water going after bait fish.
Since it was such a beautiful day Wed, I ordered up 4 dozen jumbo minnows from the local shop here and headed down to Lake Monticello. I camped out 3 different spots for about 3 hours each. Big cooler of food and drinks. Threw down 2 anchors and threw out 3 rods with live shiners. Caught 9 LMB. Smallest fish were 1 lb-1 lb 1/2 with lots of 2lbrs ... one fatty just shy of 4lbs and one really fat 5 lbr (on my scale). They really like those jumbo's .... no pecker heads can eat em (very easily that is). Unfortunatly .... I can't tell you how many times I either missed a fish (not getting to the rod fast enough) or was bringing in a fish when another bobber went under ..... this must have happend no less than 8-9 times ..... very frustrating. I feel like I missed some really nice fish since the ones I was catching had such nice bellies. Oh well .... I wanted to better my chances with 3 rods and I paid the price that comes with it. I wonder if this was my last GREAT day of fishing this year? I hope not. Cold front coming in this weekend with rain. Didn't use all the minnows so I may fish a farm pond near my mom's house on Saturday .... there are some nice fish in it. Tightlines all.
Name: Ray
Email: v23842
Date: 10/19/05
Time: 7am-2:30pm
Lake Chesdin
Bright bluebird skies
stained
Whippernock Creek, Stony Creek
LMB
Sp[inner bait, Rat-L-Trap
0-3 ft.
Caught one 4 pounder first this in the morning ripping a spinner bait thru the grass. Caught the next one 2 1/2 pounderfishing outside edge of grass on a Rat-L-Trap. Caught the third one another 2 1/2 pounder thesame way. Lost two at the boat both in the two pound range one on a spinner bait, and one on a Rat-L-Trap. All fish were caught in Whippernock Creek.
Name: Ray
Email: v23842@aol.com
Date: 10/18/05
Time: 7:00 am-2:30
Lake Chesdin
Clear Blue bird skies
stained
Whippernock Creek
LMB
Spinner bait, Rat-L-Trap
0-3 ft.
Fished the grass in Whippernock Creek, caught one dink, one 4 1/2 pound, two 3 1/2 pounds
First three fish came in the first 1/2 hour of fishing before the sun came up, last one came around 2:00 pm
Name: Bill
Email: BigFishAddict@aol.com
Date: 10/18/05
Time: 10am-145pm
Private pond
Sunny 80*
Pond level about 1-1.5 feet below normal
Started shallow along banks and around dock. No luck. Took the canoe over to the dam side and had much better luck in the deeper water.
LMB. Caught 15 to 3lbs. And "The ONE that got away".
Rat-l-trap in Bluegill color
caught most fish deep. Pond is only 8ft deep. Fish were near the bottom
Havent been bass fishing in a while. It was nice to catch some fish. I will tell you about the big one that got away on the message board!
Name: Basskat
Email:
Date: 10/12/05
Time: 0600-1500
TomBigBee Waterway Columbus M TomBigBee Waterway
Foggy mornings blue bird skies in the afternoon
stained/heavy stain
Columbus Pool mostly, however did make several runs up or down river. Rules allowed to lock up 1 or down 1 only.
Bass mostly
Spinnerbaits, baby brush hogs, cranks
shallow
worked logs and hydrilla mats with any bait
BASS picked a heck of a place to hold a Regional. Picture a place like Briery, then add thick hydrilla mats and lilly pads as big as barrel. Prefished Monday, Tuesday and Wed. A lot of fish caught, but things slowed a bit on Tourney days. I thought a one time Santa had arrived when we pulled off the river and into an oxbow. Santa may have been there but he didn't leave presents. Then fished the mats in the midday sun. That was an experience. All in all not a bad year. Finished 9th overall in the division and 44th in Regional. Should have better, I know, There is always next year. Tightlines
Name: Joey Moore
Email: jjmoore@roperlumber.com
Date: 101605
Time: all day
Nottaway/Blackwater
little windy
little muddy
Sat-Nottaway Sun-Blackwater
2 bass, 1 bowfin Saturday 3 bass, i pickerel, 3 bream Sunday
soft plastics
4-10'
slow
Tough fishing this weekend, still had fun. I took friends with me both days, that was total fish caught between all of us! We will try harder next time!
Name: Rich K
Email:
Date: 10/16/05
Time: 11:00-2:30PM
Lower James River
Bluebird Skies, lots of wind
Choppy 68-70 Deg
Comstock
Bream-about 20
Nightcrawlers and bobber
2'
Toss it to the bank in shaded areas, and hand one of the kids their pole. Watch their face light up as they said I got another Dad.
I didn't catch any, but between working the t/m, and two 5 yr olds who could. They had a blast.
Name: bill
Email: bassin231@verizon.net
Date: 10/16
Time: 830am to 630
Chickahominy lake
windy, water temp 65 to67
high and trashie alot of milfold grass
stand alones, points and drop offs
pan fish, about 2 doz good ones
bass-cranks and spinners for bream red worms
4 to 12
fished arond strutures and points for bass but no luck. switch to bream fishing about lunch. caught about 2 doz good ones on drop offs
first time fishing the lake. will be going back again to try more luck at the bass. anybody got any tricks for the lake let me know
Name: Bill
Email: BigFishAddict@aol.com
Date: 10/16/05
Time: late day
Upper James River
Clear beautiful day
high and muddy
James river locks park
Blue Gill and Crappie
Night crawlers
Shallow
Nightcrawler pieces on a small hook with a bobber
Caught a few blue gill and crappie on a worm on the James. Nothin special but just pan fishin was fun. Beautiful day.
Name: Vyper-P&J Fishing Enterprises
Email:
Date: 10/15/05
Time: 7am-2pm
Sandy River Reservoir
Clearand bright. Wind 15-20 mph
Clear as gin!
The whole lake!
LMB
C-rig and finesse worm
2ft-18ft
Slow!
Fished several differant bait, but the C-rig and a finesse worm caught the fish. It was a little slow all morning, but when the wind picked up, so did the fish. Had to fish the wind blown side of whatever structure you were fishing. Caught them high in the water column and several on the bottom.
Name: Dan
Email:
Date: 10/16
Time: 8-10 :(
Motts Reservoir
windy, mid 50s to 60s
clear, average
Turkey Run and Mine Run
3 Largemouth
wacky-rigged senko
shallow
A 4-pounder early and a 3.5 pounder a little after that...the final one was a half-pounder...my cousin (who made us late and then had to leave early) caught one small bass on a texas-rig worm.
Name: Rich K
Email: wishiniwasfishin@verizon.net
Date: 10/13/05
Time: 1:30-5:30 PM
Lower James River
Cloudy off/on drizzle, windy
Outgoing tide, HIGH water 68 deg
Hopewell ramp to Anchor Point, then ran down to Herring Creek
None - Goose egg
Jig and trailer, and spinner bait
0-12'
Almost everything I could think of
Fished with Jeff again, actually behind him in seperate boats. Combined we had about 10 solid hits, but he managed the only hook up of the day. We were on fish the whole time, but they were super tight to cover, and very picky. I made a promise that I was going to practice pitching the jig, and stuck to it for most of the day. Got a few good pointers from Jeff which helped improve my casting accuracy. Maybe Sunday will be better
Name: rattlesnake
Email:
Date: 10/08/05
Time: 8:00 - 4:00
Buggs Island (Kerr Lake)
cloudy with rain late
73deg., 3 vis.
mainlake from rudds to nutbush
largemouth
crankbaits, spinnerbaits and plastics
top to 15'
fished mainlake points and cuts
fished against a few buddies in a little tournament. could not find any pattern. picked up 8 or 9 fish scattered here and there. majority caught on a crankbait on the mainlake. ended up with 5 for around 8lbs.
Name: rattlesnake
Email:
Date: 10/07/05
Time: 8:00-4:00
Lake Gaston
cloudy, windy and rain
temp. 73deg, 2' vis.
mainlake and peahill area
largemouth
topwater, crankbaits, jigs and plastics
top to 12'
tried to catch some schoolers early. caught a 8-9lb. striper right off the bat on a sammy.had a few blowups. went back in to some cuts and missed a 2 decent fish, one on a spinnerbait, the other on a jig. went back out to the mainlake and caught a nice 2.5lb bass on the sammy. was fishing a small tournament and ended up with 3 keepers a little over 6lbs.
Name: Jeff Banko
Email:
Date: 10/10/05
Time: 11:30 - 6:00
Briery Creek
CLoudy and rainy
fairly clear
701 ramp to south end of lake, stuck to channel areas.
3 lmb
Live shiner, plus cranks, jigs, and c-rig ring worm
10 - 25 feet
shiners on slip bobbers, everything else was just worked along channel drops and structure
Decided to go out and have a relaxed day fishing so actually brought live shiners with me. Only thing that i caught fish on. Landed 3 all in the 3 - 4 pound range and had one monster break my heart. Got it to within 10 feet of the boat and could see it was probably a double digit fish, guess it saw the boat because it took off tearing drag. On it's run it wrapped a tree, I tried to work it free but could not so I untied the boat from the tree I tied off on and motored over to the fish to try and get it free. Could see it clear as day wrapped probably 3 1/2 feet down. Tried and tried to get it off but could not, Finally after what was probably ten minutes I decided I had to try and reach it with the net and knock it off and hopefully get lucky. Well I got the fish off the hook and then she bolted right away from the net. Crushing to see a hog for that long and then not get it. :(
Name: Joey Moore
Email: jjmoore@roperlumber.com
Date: 100905
Time: 7:00am-3pm
Nottaway River
Overcast
little muddy
Various locations!
Spinnerbaits, plastics
2-12 ft
Slow and very deep in cover!
Me and my brother in law went Sunday, he has just started fishing this last few months, I've been teaching him well, he out fished me on Sunday! He did great, despite yesterdays conditions, we managed to have a great day on the river. I caught several bowfin, as he did as well! Largest, he caught, was 4-1/2 lbs, nothing to brag about. We both caught several bass, he caught the largest, 3-1/2 lbs. Others were small, this is the fourth trip on the river in a row we have caught and released a bass over 3 lb's, that is better than I have ever done! I did manage to catch a small small mouth, my second this year. Other notables for the day, he caught 2 pike that were 2lbs plus! Did not weigh them, only guessing! No redeyes yesterday, but still had a blast, given the conditions!
Name: Jeffrey Banko
Email:
Date: 10/9/05
Time: 11:30 - 5:30
Nottoway Lake
light rain most of the day
very light stain
entire lake
10 LMB, one big catfish
everything
0 - 20 feet
First time to Nottoway in awhile. Only managed 10 fish mostly small but did catch two nice 4# fish.
Name: Vyper -P&J Fishing Enterprises
Email:
Date: 10/8/05
Time: 7am-3pm
Buggs Island (Kerr Lake)
Overcast and rain. Little wind
Clear, slightly offcolored in bascks of some creeks.Temps-73-75
Bluestone to Rudds
Green ones and one toothy critter
Everything we had! Mainly cranks and blades
0-20ft.
Varied.
We caught what would have been a small limit. It was slow, piked up a fish here and there. Caught three on one spot in four cast was the best concetration we had. Bigger fish came on the rig and blade, numbers on cranks. We fished main lake from Bluestone to Rudds, then fished Rudds from the mouth to the back. Most fish came in the creeks, better fish came off main lake. Had shad everywhere, but nothing busting them. Most fish caught were deep!
Name: Jeff Banko
Email: vafishing@comcast.net
Date: 10/4/05
Time: 7:00 - 1:00p
Briery Creek
Mostly Sunny with some clouds, wind coming from the North end of the lake
Very Clear
From 701 Ramp all the way to the south end of the lake
5 LMB, 1 pickerel
Jigs, C-Rigged Worm, Buzzbait, Crankbaits, Horny Toad, jerkbait
0 - 25 feet
Fished the buzzbaits early on, then fished the horny toad on pad beds, and fished all other baits on channel drops.
Caught nothing on the buzzbaits, not even a blow up. Had two hit the horny toad in the pads but couldn't hook up with them. Then caught two smaller fish on a deep running crankbait, switched over to jigs and caught one 4+ on one of the channel drops I always fish, continued to head down lake alternating between the jig, worm, crankbait, and a senko. Few light pick ups but no real taker. Got to the end of the lake and fished some of my spots up there with no luck, the water is super clear up there and with the sun being up high it is tough. Also by then the wind got pretty strong and it was getting tough to fish so started to work my way back. Cuaght two more on the jig on channel drops one small and one around 3, then switched to a jerkbait to fish over all the grass beds on the way back and caught one pickerel. Tough day only 6 fish, only had maybe 7 or 8 hots all day including the fish caught. Seems that whenever that wind is blowing from the dam end of the lake to the south end of the lake that place just practically shuts down.
Name: Jeff Banko
Email: vafishing@comcast.net
Date: 10/3/05
Time: 12:30 - 6:00
Lower James River
Sunny but windy
Stained
Appomattox New Channel and Herring Creek
1 LMB
Jigs, Riongworn, Spinnerbait, Small Crankbaits
0 - 10 feet
Fished around docks, laydowns, any other structure i could find
Caught the fish off a Cut just as the outgoing tide was ending. Then plugged away through the slack and incoming tides with no success. Not even a pick up.
Name: Joey
Email: jjmoore@roperlumber.com
Date: 100205
Time: Afternoon
Nottaway River
pleasant, little warm!
little muddy
Lower end, down south!
A couple small bass, a couple small bowfin, one really nice 12" redeye!
Plastics
4-10 feet
Fished lay downs and drop offs, I think the tournament guys fished my honey hole out Sunday! Still had fun!
Still had a great day, I will report again Fri, taking Thursday off, me and the wife doing a little pond fishing! Nottaway later in the day!
Name: Bill
Email: BigFishAddict@aol.com
Date: 10/02/05
Time: 10am-3pm
Lower James River
Sunny beautiful day
clear, 80*
Spray pits, barge pits, dutch gap, jones neck loop, all over
Blue cats
cut and whole live eels
shallow behind cove and deep in the channel
Carolina rigged
Fished hard today. Only caught two small catfish.. Thats the way it goes some days. Better luck next time. Lots of boats on the river. The sunken barge/crane/junk back near the spray pits is on a slow fire. Smoke and heat are coming from it. I dont really get it, as there is nothing on there that could burn. My girlfriend thinks homeless people are living on it but she has a vivid imagination. I fished under it.Caught one fish. Tide was low. Tricky getting back in there. Polarized sun glasses helped alot. Bill
Name: Ray
Email: v23842@aol.com
Date: 9/28/05
Time: 7 a.m.--2 p.
Lake Chesdin
bright blue skies, no wind
clear
lower end of lake
LMB
Rat-L-Traps
10-20 ft.
Streight crankin
Very tough day. only caught three. One went 2 1/2 lbs. one around a pound and one a dink
Name: rattlesnake
Email:
Date: 09/23,24
Time: 7:00 - 4:00
Smith Mountain
fri., hot & sunny. sat., cloudy and a little cooler
stain, 77-79deg.
around hales ford bridge to B41 in blackwater
largemouth
plastics
5-15'
texas rigged worms worked the best
friday fished back up in blackwater. buddy and i caught 11-12 fish, but only 5 would keep.largest was around 2.5lbs. fish were scattered. caught a few off docks in cuts off main channel. few off of lay downs and some of chunk rock/bluff walls. fished the blue ridge marine tourney on sat. partner and i only caught 2 fish for approx. 4lbs. fished schooling fish most of the day. had a few blow ups but could not get hooked up. the 2 fish caught were on a worm and crankbait. winning weight i think was around 14.5lbs. on 6 fish? was leading when we left anyway. tight lines and God Bless.
Name: Joey
Email: jjmoore@roperlumber.com
Date: 092505
Time: Morning
Nottaway River
partly to mostly cloudy
a little muddy
Various locations
Both of us caught 20 largemouth, 1 redeye, 2 bowfin
plastics
less than 10 ft
slow
1-bass was 3.5 lb's, my brother in law caught that.
Name: Jeff Banko
Email:
Date: 9/24/05
Time: 7 - 4pm
Lake Chesdin
CLoudy and windy
Fiarly clear down lake, mid lake and up moderate stain
Entire lake, points down lake and mid lake then finally docks mid lake
20 - 30 LMB
C-Rig, Cranbkbaits, Wacky rigged senkos
0 - 30 feet
Fished the C-Rig and Crankbaits on a bunch of points that I fish. No fish caught but broke two off. Swithced to pitching a wacky rigged senko in tight to dock pilings hit pay dirt in numbers.
Was fishing the Fed Region 6 T and it seems it was a pretty hard bite. Happy that I caught so many fish but stinks only brought one 2.65# in to weigh in (dang slot). Stinks even more that I had two 4 - 5 pounders come unbuttoned right at the boat, no non to net them for me... :(
Name: BassKat
Email:
Date: 09/24/05
Time: 0530-1500
Sandy River Reservoir
overcast and breezy
clear visiblity 3-4 feet
midlake and creek arms
Lmb
buzzbaits,pop'r, jitterbug. Then senkos, floating worms and jig/pig
topwater early then swallow to about 8 feet
slow retrieve on topwater. Fish would just swirl at it at fast retrieve.
Took the old man out with me and the oldest and caught a total of 20 bass between us. Only one nice fish about 3 pounds. The rest were 9-12 fish. Fun to catch but not what I was looking for. Will try again soon. Tightlines.
Name: Dan
Email:
Date: 9/23
Time: 6:30am to 10
Motts Reservoir
low 70s, sunny
low, warm
Mine Run flats and Turkey Run flats
5 Largemouth, 1 Channel Catfish
5" Senkos, Nightcrawlers
0-10ft
Started off fishin' for some of the big carp I see cruisin' around all the time...chummed with corn and pitched out a corn/bread doughball and a nightcrawler...nothing- just watched them swim around and stir up mud. Put on the senko and started fishin' the shallow cover around the flats. Caught five bass on the senko including a 21", 5 pounder. Channel Catfish bit the worms I threw out in the middle of the channel just for fun right before leaving. Planned on fishing for carp so I didn't have the tackle I should have brought to check on the fall pattern- the bass I caught were shallow and fat though so it is probably startin'.
Name: Jeff Banko
Email:
Date: 9/19/05
Time: 6:30 - 2:30
Potomac River
beatiful sunny day bareyl any clouds but breezy
Very light stain
Piscataway, Mattawoman, and Pomonkey creeks and also a few cuts on the main river
7 lmb
Senkos, jig and trailer, baby brush hog
0 - 10 feet
Fished senkos in openings in the grass and hydrilla, fished the baby brush hog florida style with a 3/4 ounce weight to get though some of the matted vegetation and fish below that, jig and tralier was fished around docks pilings along with the brush hog.
First pre-fish day for a club T on the river in October. The Potomac is awesome. did not catch too many because I was experimenting a lot trying to come up with something to target bigger fish but did catch 7 on the baits mentioned above.
Name: Jeff Banko
Email:
Date: 9/17/05
Time: 7:00 - 3:00
Lake Chesdin
Clear but breezy
Stained mid and pper lake to light stain down by the dam
Cattle Creek, Jack's Creek and several main lake points and grass edges
7 LMB
Senko, Swimbait, Jerkbait
0 - 25 feet
Fished senkos around grass edges. Fish the swimbait and jerkbaits by casting to pods of baitfish and wroking the baits through them.
Fished club T. My partner and I had 7 fish in the boat, 5 for me, but could not find the bigger fish that were over the slot size of 15". Very dissappointing day.
Name: Rich K
Email: wishiniwasfishin@verizon.net
Date: 09/18/05
Time: 7:30-12:30 P
Lower James River
Clear Bluebird Sky with some wind at times
Muddy, outgoing tide most of the time
Appomattox - Mouth of the old channel, and then about a mile past I-95 on the man made side.
2 lmb
Jig and Trailer, Spinner, weightless Fluke
0-10'
Worked baits through wood laydowns
Both were about 2 lbs each, one came off an area of chunk rock, and the other from the outside edge of a laydown. I did not realize it until after I got loaded on the trailer, but apparently there was a woman's T going on. While speaking with one boater about what a tuff day it was, I said "I almost always pull one off this tree, but today - nothing". After I moved off of it I watched her pull up to it, and pull one off. I didn't see what kind of size it had to it, but it went into the well. So congrats to her.
Name: Basskat
Email:
Date: 09/17/05
Time: 0645-1500
Buggs Island (Kerr Lake)
sunny blue bird skies
clear to slightly stained
bluestone area
None
Everything possible
1 foot to 25 feet
slow, super slow, medium, fast
The highest of highs to the lowest of lows. From finsihing 9th last weekend in BASS and 9th overall in the division to ZERO yesterday in the BFL Super. I must say that is the hardest I've ever fished. Not even a strike all day. My boater caught 2 for 4.8 and he did not make the cut for today. They were taken the top 23 from yesterday to fish today for all the money. I guess that is why they say fishing and not catching. Still planning on going to the BASS Regional in MS in 3 weeks. It can't get any worse right? will fish Sandy of Briery next weekend to recoup. Tightlines
Name: Ray
Email: v23842@aol.com
Date: 09/16/05
Time: 3:00-8:00 pm
Lake Chesdin
Clear
Clear
down lake points.
LMB
Crankbaits & worms
10-20 ft.
Three fish were dinks, two weighed about a pound a piece. four came on crankbaits, and one on a worm
Name: Ray
Email: V23842@aol.com
Date: 9/13/05
Time: 7 am --2 pm
Lake Chesdin
cloudy and foggy
clear
main lake points
LMB & citation Pikeral
Rat-L-Trap, Plastic worm and Little N
Mostly 10 to 15 ft.
The Pike weighed 5 1/2 lbs. and was 27 inches long. Largest bass 2 1/2 lbs. Rest of bass small
Name: Joey
Email: jjmoore@roperlumber.com
Date: 091105
Time: All Day
Nottaway River
East wind, Mid 80's
Muddy
13 bass, 1 was 4lbs, 2nd biggest I've ever caught out the Nottaway, 2 bowfin, 1 was 8-1/2 lbs, 1 redeye, 12" long. Pictures to prove all! 16 fish total, great day!
Plastics
less than 10 ft.
Slow
You guys need to have a category set up for the Nottaway! I had a blast yesterday, my brother in law caught several himself, grand total 23 fish in the boat!
Name: Rich K
Email:
Date: 09/11/05
Time: 6 AM-1PM
Lake Chesdin
Clear and windy
Stained 79 - 82 deg
All over the lake
None
Everything in the boat
0' - 25'
Everything I could think of.
Bad day for me. I was seeing baitfish all over, but couldnt seem to put anything together.
Name: Basskat
Email:
Date: 09/11/05
Time: 0630-1500
Buggs Island (Kerr Lake)
sunny but windy
clear
Wind Blown Points
Bass
Pop'r and C-rigs mostly
6" to 15 feet
pop'r fast and furious c-rigs slow
Fished last of the Bassmaster Series events yesterday and finished 9th with 3 fish for 7.2 pounds. A lot of zeros yesterday. Wind was howling all day. If you could hold the boat in the wind on points you could catch fish. Lake is low, Hope the hurricane will dump some rain this week before the BFL Super this weekend. Tightlines
Name: Bert
Email:
Date: 09/10/05
Time: 6am - 4pm
Briery Creek
sunny with a steady breeze
clear
701 ramp down toward dam
Bass
Sencos, Lizards, Rapalas and Yamamoto Grubs
A few topwater early and then working points
My Dad and I caught a total of 18. Anywhere from 12" to 16"
Name: country boy
Email:
Date: 9/11/05
Time: 8:00 to 3:00
Briery Creek
windy
clear five foot visibility
lower dam area
lmb
crank baits sink-o's
fish 4 to 5 ft deep in 30 to 40 ft of water
crank baits blazed through schools of shad and a few bass came off the edge of dollar pads on sink-o
early the bass started busting on fast moving bait fish and we threw LARGE crank baits to them and were hooked up instantly as the morning moved on the wind kicked up and the bait moved down and we caught several more slightly deeper but still in real deep open water. The name of the game was keep moving and the fish were 1 to four pound with alot of 2's
Name: Vyper -P&J Fishing Enterprises
Email:
Date: 9112005
Time: 630am-1130am
Briery Creek
Clear, sunny, 15-20mph wind
Super clear.
701 ramp area to back of lake
Largemouth fishes!
Cranks,jigs and senkos
12-17 ft.
Dependent on lure.
Caught 5 fish today. Smallest was 2lbs, largest was 7lbs. A good day for me on Briery!
Name: Jeff K.
Email: jsk2d@yahoo.com
Date: 09/09/05
Time: 6-5
Briery Creek
chilly in the morning/sunny and upper 80's later
water temp 77-79
midlake to lower and upper and back to mid
12 lmb
Flukes/senkos/10in worms/Blackie Lee specialty worm/zoom horny toad/spinners and minnows
3-25ft
T-rigged/wacky/etc
Slow day compared to the last few times out to Briery. 7 bass for Blackie, 5 for me. I missed an additional 4 fish that I don't want to talk about and a I made a spectacular save on a rod jerked in the water by a fish only to lose the fish on the other end. Largest fish was around 3lb (Blackie). Saw an incredible amount of baitfish on the top of the water around day break. Never seen so many. Sloooooooow day for us though.
Name: country boy
Email:
Date:
Time:
Briery Creek
Hey fellas I haven't had a real in my hand but I have been working close to briery and we have been riding down to the lower ramp for lunch and wednesday it looked like somone was bombing the place it was so many shad flying through the air. Thursday showed the same and I hope to give it a try soon. It looks as if the fall chasing schooling shad pattern has started!
Name: Bill
Email: BigFishAddict@aol.com
Date: 09/07/05
Time: 11am - 4pm
Lower James River
sunny, 83*. Great weather
Normal, 80* water temp., some wind caused us to use the 2 anchor system to keep the boat still
Dutch gap down to Jones Neck loop. Main river channels and flats. Around the sunken barge leading up to the cut to the barge pits. I hate that spot because I always get snagged there, but it does produce big cats.
Catfish and bass
Live eels for cats and Senkos for bass
I caught 3 catfish today. Biggest only went 7lbs. My buddy got bored and started throwing a Senko near shoreline. He caught a nice looking bass. Fishing could have been better, but we DID catch fish, and thats what its all about. Only saw a couple of other boats in 5 hours of fishing the main river. I suspect high gas prices are hurting the big motor boys. Im glad I only need a 25HP these days. Bad enough my Jeep only gets 14MPG, without the boat.
Name: Joey
Email: jjmoore@roperlumber.com
Date: 090405
Time: AM
Nottaway River
Clear
slightly muddy
All weekend 5 hours per day, Sat, Sun, Mon I caught 50 bass, 2 redeye that were 12-1/8" long, unlimited bowfin, few pickerel!
plastics
shallow
slow, and deep in cover!
I should have fished the tourney on Saturday, I did better than most in tourney!
Name: Jeff Banko
Email:
Date: 9/4/05
Time: 6:30am-2:30
Buggs Island (Kerr Lake)
Mostly Sunny but breezy
Light stain 82-84 degrees
Main lake points and a few primary points in Butchers Creek
4 lmb, 2 pike
C-rigged centipedes, lizards, and ringworms, Crankbaits, Pop-R, and Buzzbait
0 - 30 feet
Fished the topwaters first thing in the morning on some primary points, once sun came up strong swithced to crankbaits and c-rigs.
Fished a bass boat central mini tourney. Team format we had ten boats. Tough day. Top weight was 5-14. My partner Rich K. and I caught two keepers that went 2-5 or something like that. Our fish were caught ripping crankbaits threw laydowns on points.
Name: Jeff K.
Email: jsk2d@yahoo.com
Date: 09/02/05
Time: 6-1:30
Briery Creek
Sunny/upper 80's-low 90's
water temp 75-83
701 ramp towards dam and work back to 701 ramp
21 lmb
Flukes/senkos/minnows
8-25
throw it in the water ..... lol
2 bass went 6'11 and 6'5. Also had four 3lbrs. Lots of nice 1-2lb fish. Heartbreaker-got a HUGE bass to the side of the boat, only to have it thrash violently when I bent down to lip and broke the line. It was much bigger than both of my six's .... might have been 8-9lbs .... who knows .... I cried. ;o( As a friend of mine told me "nothing but 20-25lb test Jeff!!" I should have listened. Got 2 pics of the six's I'll send ya Jeff. Water level looked up. Guy pulled a 9lb out earlier today .... didn't catch his name. Long Day = short report. Tightlines
Name: Joey
Email: jjmoore@roperlumber.com
Date: 08/27/05
Time: Morning
Nottaway River
Cloudy
little muddy!
7 bass, 2 bowfin, a couple redeye.
plastics!
Shallow
Fished drop-offs and wood cover
Name: Dan
Email:
Date: 8/29
Time: 6am - 11am
Motts Reservoir
foggy, low to mid 70s
clear, slightly low
fished several areas but concentrated on the creeks
4 Largemouth Bass, 1 Northern Pike
topwater poppers, crankbaits, senkos
6 inches to 8 feet
Got topwater bites early but missed them- small bass or big bluegill hitting/slapping the lure I guess. Decided to fish the topwater in the very back of a creek I had never fished very far back before- saw a fish move on the bait but back up then I saw about twenty fish schooling around in less than a foot of water. Picked up the five inch senko (custom color) and started tossin' to visible fish. Picked up a four pounder and 2 pounder along with two dinks doin' that. Northern Pike (20 inch +) bit the senko (haha) underneath a laydown in a foot of water!
Saw two carp pushin' thirty pounds rollin around and kickin' up dirt in the flats...might have to break out some corn balls...last year a woman caught a 52 pound carp from Motts but released it without registering it for the state record which it would have easily been.
Name: Jeff Banko
Email:
Date: 8/28/05
Time: 6 - 2pm
Buggs Island (Kerr Lake)
Sunny but breezy
fairly clear
Butchers Creek all the way to the rivers.
None
Everything in my boat
0 - 25 feet
Everything humanly possible
Went to pre-fish Buggs with Rich K. Tough day we tried it all C-Rigging points, topwater, deep cranking, Pitching shallow cover. Nothing fish just seem to be scattered everywhere in transition to the fall patterns. With them scattered it is just near impossible to pin point any way to fish them.
Name: Jeff K./Blackie Lee
Email: jsk2d@yahoo.com
Date: 08/26/05
Time: 6-5
Briery Creek
Cloudy early/sunny later/ 80's
Water Temp in the 80's/stained
701 ramp to midlade - to south end and back to mid lake
32 lmb largest being Blackies 5lbr. I had decent 3 lbr and we both had lots of 14-18 inch fish.
Blackie - Flukes and 10 inch worm - Jeff K. - Trick worms/senkos/flukes and good ol live minnows.
0-25ft
T-Rigged flukes/worms, wacky rigged worms, ol stand by bobber/minnow. Fished humps and stumps. ;o)
I put 17 bass on the boat and left by 2:00pm. I 'd say 11 of mine came via bobber/minnow. I missed 3 more by way of minnow because I was just trolling em and fishing at the same time and didn't get to the rod in time to set the hook. GGRRRRRR! Blackie had 15 bass and I'd say he left closer to 5. I spoiled the bass with my juicy minnow buffet which led to Blackie's lower numbers this time out. lol .... just kidding Blackie, you bailed me out more than once on my "double catches." I may need to invest in a glove or something ..... my thumb looked like shredded wheat and was bleeding by the time I left. haha .... poor me right? Good day, good weather, good fishing. I plan on going back this weekend hopefully. Tightlines!
Name: tim davis
Email: tdavis596@pmtnet.net
Date: 08/28/05
Time: 7:30-12noon
Smith Mountain
started foggy , got hot
stained
hales ford area
largemouth 4 , largest 3.5 to 4 rest were 13 and 14 inch fish
c rig , topwater
top to 15 ft
carolina rigged lizard
thought that i would slay them on top but only one on top . shad are beginning to migrate to back of creeks . bass are about half way back
Name: Vyper- P&J Fishing Enterprises
Email:
Date: 8/27/200
Time: 630am-230pm
Buggs Island (Kerr Lake)
Overcast, windy in am, sunny, hot after 1100 am
Clear-82-84 temp
Clarksville to Rudds
Not enough!!!!! Had a few dinks and one two pounder.
Everything I had in the boat!
6in-20ft
Tried everything we could think of and some stuff I just made up!
Bite was way off today. Could only catch a few dinks on some spots that usually produce good fish. Its tough right now!
Name: Jeff Banko
Email:
Date: 8/25/05
Time: 6 am to 12 p
Lake Chesdin
Sunny but windy
Vsibility varied from 1 to 3 foot
Appomattox River, Winterpock Swamp, Then main lake
12 LMB
Buzzbait, Senkos, Trick Worm
0 - 25 feet
Fished Senkos on grass edges, Trick worms around dock pilings and timber, buzzbait early on all cover
Not a bad day this morning. Fish are definitely in transition from summer to fall pattern. Lots of baitfish already back in the creeks so it is only a matter of time until the LMB follow them. Right now the bass are pretty scattered. Was able to pick up a dozen though. First 2 wer biggest around 1.5 to 2 pounds caught fishing the senko on grass edges up in Winterpock Swamp. That bite died then went to the main lake. Tried some points with C-Rigs and Crankbaits with no luck, seems like fish have moved off of them. Then went to the shore tried main lake grass edges with the senkos no takers. By this time the sun was pretty high up so decide to check some docks. Caught ten on them none of size. Wind got reall bad then and had to stop to go pick my wife and kids up at the launch to take them out on the lake to picnic. My 3 year old daughter then caught her first bass on a worm near a dock.
Name: Rich K
Email:
Date: 08/24/05
Time: 3-5 PM
Lower James River (Appomattox)
Clear
Muddy, incoming tide 84 deg
Appomattox River, Old river and New channels above Hopewell
2 LMB about 2 2 1/2 lbs each.
Spinner bait, c-rig and flukes
0-6'
Worked baits through wood laydowns
Both fish came on the fluke off the same tree within minutes of each other.
Name: Rich K
Email:
Date: 08/23/05
Time: 3-5:30 PM
Lake Chesdin
Clearing as the day progressed cold front the night before
slight stain mid 80's
Main lake points
None
DD Cranks, C-Rig, Super Fluke
surface to 20'
Slow retreive for the most part
First time ever on this lake, which is horrible since it's only about 15 minutes from my house. I basically went to this one totally blind, no lake map until I got there and bought one at seven springs. I was able to locate lots of fish on stucture, and most were suspended at about 14-18', just wasn't able to give them what they wanted.
Name: Jeff Banko
Email:
Date: 8/23/05
Time: 5:30 am to 3
Buggs Island (Kerr Lake)
Cloudy with intermittent rain. Pretty windy
Fairly clear
From Bluestone all the way to Butchers.
2 LMB
C-Rig, Jig N Pig, Crankbait, Buzzbait, Devils Horse
1- 25 feet
Fished the buzzbait and devils horse on cover that was on main lake points. Fished everything else on deeper structure for the most part
Real strong front came in today and killed things for my pre-fish. Basically my game plan was to jump main lake points all day trying to find points that had fish on them. Found several but could not get bit. Two fish I did catch were caught on jig n trailer. One was actually on a shallow laydown that was right on the tip of a point and the other was caught on deep structure.
Name: Bill
Email: BigFishAddict@aol.com
Date: last wk
Time: am and night
Avon,N.C.. I know, its not Va.
Sunny every day
6-8 ft waves sunday from Irene
Avon pier and the surf at Cape Hatteras
Spot, Croaker, Flounder, Stingrays
Bottom rigged shrimp
surf
Had a great vacation in Avon. Caught lots of fish from the pier and the surf. Nothing big but Stingrays. Saw some small sharks (2-2.5 ft) caught from the end of Avon Pier.
Name: Wayne P.
Email: purdum43@aol.com
Date: 19,20-05
Time: 6-3
Lake Gaston
Friday-cloudy, Sat. clear-HOT
slight stain 76-86 degrees
Underwater islands above Holly Grove and Six Pound Creek channel edges when it dropped from 4'-8'
Fri-29 bass and about 20 white perch Sat-17 bass and 1 white perch
Yellow Magic, Rat-L-Trap, Bandit 200 and Excalibur Fat Free Fingerling, Tx. rigged Zoom 4" curlytail worm
Surface to 10 feet
Found some surface schooling bass and perch Friday when it was cloudy and used the Trap and Yellow Magic to get a sore thumb taking them off the hooks. Located some in Six Pound on a creek channel edges when the sun was shining and caught the most keeper size ones on the cranks alternating between the two brands. Got third place in club tournament even while loosing one about 5# and one about 4# on the crankbaits. Largest landed was just over 3#.
The water temp was about 10 degrees cooler within sight of the I-85 bridge than downlake near Eaton's Ferry bridge. Several local anglers stated they were doing better uplake too. The boat traffic and clear sky on Sat. turned off the surface schooling action and the creek channel edge was the most consistant pattern for me. Other club guys had success with crankbaits on grass edges. Jigs on steep banks was the next best pattern.
Name: Blackie Lee/Jeff K.
Email: jsk2d@yahoo.com
Date: 08/19/05
Time: 6am-8pm
Briery Creek
Rained early/overcast mostly/sunny late
Water temp in the 80's I believe
701 to South end and back slightly past 701
34 Largemouth Bass
Super flukes/senkos/trick worms/live minnows(just Jeff K.)
2-30ft
T'rigged, wacky, weedless wacky, bobber rigged some wacky style and finally some good ol bobber/minnow action (could only find smaller minnows, apparantly the Briery Big Bass did like my h'ourdervs)
Blakie Lee 18 bass ...... Jeff K 16. Fun day. My thumb looks like I scraped it up against a cheese grater and my bass seemed to really like Blackie's boat since they kept jumping out of my hands and flopping around on the floor. I got soaked early .... Blackie had the foresight to bring a poncho. Blackie had the biggest of the day 3'11. Didn't get the big ones we wanted but hey ... that's fishing. Blackie waited till 2 days later to meet up with his lunker. I'll remember that Blackie! Tightlines.
Name: Blackie Lee
Email: blackielee2003@yahoo.com
Date: 8/21/05
Time: 6:30 to 9:30
Briery Creek
Sunny with lite breeze
Clear and 83 temp
Lower midlake
6 Largemouth bass
Super Fluke
12 to 30 feet
Texes riged.
Bass of the day 8 pounds 12 oz. To see picture check out my fishing report page at trophybasshunter.bravehost.com
Name: Jeff Banko
Email:
Date: 08/16/05
Time: 6 am - 12 p
Lake Chesdin
Early heavy fog and overcast around 9:30 got sunny and overcast
stained
main lake points, and winterpock swamp
None at all
tried everything
0 - 20 feet
First time on Chesdin in a while. Tried going up lake into the river and into the swamp early, treid buzzbaits, senkos, spinner baits no takers. Moved down into the main lake and tried cranking and C-rigging some main lake points, had a few light pick ups but still no hook ups. Front came in last night and borught some storms and I think the combo of all the rain plus the post frontal conditions justs had them tight lipped.
Name: Vyper of P & J Fishing Enterprises
Email:
Date: 8/14/05
Time: 6am-1pm
Buggs Island (Kerr Lake)
Clear and HOT
Clear and 88.9
Rudds to Clarksville
None at all!
Spooks, blades, cranks, C-rig, T-rig, finesse worms.
6in.-20ft.
Every kind I could think of!
Its slow on Buggs now, everyone must be fishing at night!
Name: rattlesnake
Email:
Date: 08/13/05
Time: 6:30a-2:30p
Smith Mountain
sunny & HOT
81-84deg, 3'visibility
state park up to hales ford bridge
largemouth bass
spinnerbait and crankbait
15'-20'
tried fishing plastics on deep docks, laydowns and brush. could not buy a bite on any plastics. tried cuts and pockets with no success. only 3 fish caught. 2 caught on a 1/2oz. spinnerbait slow rolled and the other on a deep crankbait. the 3 went right around 6lbs.
fished in a tourney with 4 boats. 2nd, 3rd and 4th place were all within 4oz, we finished 3rd. first place had 5 fish that went 12lbs. 9oz. good luck to all
Name: basskat
Email:
Date: 08/13/05
Time: 0345 to 1100
Briery Creek
muggy then hot
clear
701 then south end
total bass 16
pig&jigs, senkos, trickworms, and buzzbaits
topwater early then 7 to 10 feet
buzzbaits before the sun came up then slow presentation on other baits
We were on the water early, 0345 and made our way to the southend midway. Topwater water bite was slow I only had three blow up on the buzzbait and partner had one. All fish missed the baits even with trailer hooks. Some of the blowup sounded like big fish. Once the sun was up that was it. Partners fish were the biggest of the day, one 4.5, 5 and 5.5. fishing pig and jigs. He had one the biggest on a horney tad fishing the dollar pads. Of my 12 biggest about 3.5 to 4 but only one was about a pound. Would love to have a day like that on tourney days. We were off the water by 11 to hot. Another friend was there and had one that was 5.9 and 221/4 for length citation. Well vacation is over and its back to long hours. Tightlines. Jeff lets hook up soon.
Name: Jeff K.
Email: jsk2d@yahoo.com
Date: 08/12/05
Time: 6-11
Lake Monticello
Very Nice
Great!
Main lake points and open water
18 LMB. 10 for me ..... 8 for my friend. Largest was my 6lb 9oz (per my new digital scales) then I also had a 5'4 and two that went 3'8,3'3 .... my friend also had a nice fat 5lb11oz .... nothing we caught was under a pound. We probably missed 6-12 fish (over excitement - fish not hitting it right)
Flukes in shad/bait fish/rappala cranks
10-50 ft but all fish were caught on top.
Look for the Bass bustin shad ..... throw lure ...... bam! .... fish ..... that simple. I'm serious.
My buddy told me he had an awesome day Monday morning fishing Monticello. Told me that the bass were chasing shad/bait fish all morning .... he would just wait for them to break the surface (normally several bass at a time ganging up on em) ... throw his bait and the fish would hit. He caught 12 by himself this way, his biggest was a 7lb. He wasn't kidding. We were on the water by 6 .... first fish was in the boat by 6:15 .... a nice fat 3lbr. The theme all day was wait for the break ..... toss your lure into the fray and hang on! Blackie Lee taught me to skip my fluke across the top a little when I saw such action .... DEAD ON Blackie ..... DEAD ON. Worked for me all day ... all I fished with .... my friend used the crank. My 6lbr was only 19 inches but as Bill Dance would say ..... looks like he had a belly full of biscuts and gravy!(and lots of shad) Lots of fun and very exciting. All fish were released. Hope you enjoyed the report.
Name: Jeff Banko
Email:
Date: 08/10/05
Time: 6 - 2
Briery Creek
OVERCAST
Very light stian
from 701 ramp followed channel to the south end
8 lmb
big worm, flukes, senkos
0 - 15 feet
Fished with Jeff K today. Day started out pretty good caught 4 fish in our first spot, it then died for the rest of the day but we still scraped out 4 more. No big fish though I did lose two that felt good. End of the day caount I caught 5 on jigs. Jeff K caught 3 on flukes and also a pickerel. Oh well we had fun even though it was rough going.
Name: Rich K
Email:
Date: 08/08.05
Time: 14:30-16:30
Lower James River
Overcast with spotty showers
muddy
Old Appomatox River Channel
1 lmb - dink
C-rig, Fluke, Spinnerbait. 1 Fish came on the spinner
1 - 12'
Everything I could think of
Pretty poor day fishing, but I wasn't at work so, you know how it goes.
Name: Don Arbaugh
Email: arbaughbunch@direcway.com
Date: 8/8/05
Time: 10:00-3:30pm
Briery Creek
A little warm, but nice!
Clear
Middle of lake
LMB
10' Culprit Red Shad worm
Dropoffs/Humps
Normal bumping bottom structure.
1st LMB was smaller in length than the Culprit worm I was using!! Went on point with probably a 1/2 dozen solid hits with only fragmented worms to show! The biggest of the day, boiled the water and then went Southbound? Not a bad day!!!!
Name: Bill
Email: BigFishAddict@aol.com
Date: 8/7/05
Time: 10-2pm
Lower James River
partly cloudy
choppy due to recreations
dutch gap
catfish
eel
all
Carolina Rig
Two big bites, couldnt land either. Got a sunburn.
Name: Vyper of P&J Fishing Enterprises
Email:
Date: 8/7/2005
Time: 6am-2pm
Buggs Island (Kerr Lake)
Overcast in am, sunny after 11 am
Clear and 89 degrees
Rudds Creek, Grassy Creek and main lake points
Two dinks!
Topwater in morning, C-rig, Crank and T-rig.
1ft-18ft
Slow brother!
I caught one dink on main lake rock on a spook first thing and then one more in Rudds on a C-rig on the way back to the ramp. Water is hot and the fish didnt seem to be chasing anything much. Never saw a lot of shad in the areas I was fishing.
Name: Dan
Email:
Date: 8/3/05
Time: 6am-10am
Ni Reservoir
hot and sunny
low, average clarity
dam rip-rap and laydowns
5 Largemouth 2 Chain Pickerel
bleeding pearl Chug Bug, crayfish (matte finish) Bandit 200
surface to 8 feet
Fished topwater early in the shallows to the right of the boat ramp- partner and I each landed 3 fish with a three pound bass being the largest. Moved on to fish some of the laydowns before the fish went deep- we switched over to crankbaits and landed a few more bass and some white perch before I set the hook on a huge pickerel. Turned out to be a CITATION by length, measuring 25 3/4 inches. A lot of folks don't like pickerel but I love catchin' em! It got hot and I'm no good at fishin' deep and slow (I fish power style like my boy KVD) so we left.
Name: Jeff Banko
Email:
Date: 8/2/05
Time: 5 am - 3 pm
Briery Creek
Light clouds but strong sun, very hot
clear
From 701 ramp to south end of the lake
15 lmb
buzzbait, frog, Jigs and trailer, 11" worm,
0 - 20 feet
Started the day off throwing the buzzbaut. No takers on that so switched to throwing jig along the channel. Caught five this way biggest going around 4#s, others all around 2#s. Then worked my way over to another channel area I like. Threw the 11" worm on a c-rig. Caught 5 on that also all good size around 3 - 3.5#s also lost several that felt bigger. Finally went to the end of the lake and threw a senko over the grass. caught a few small ones and then one more that went 3.5#s. Ended the day working my way back to the launch throwing a frog on assorted pad along the way. Lost a real nice one, probably a 6 - 7 pounder doing that.
Not a bad day considering I tended to stay with the tactics I use for bigger fish. Probably 90% of the time I was throwing the jig or the big worm. Lost several fish that felt real big on the C-rigged worm. I think I am wasting my knots setting the hook too hard when I use that rig. I get soused to the cross their eyes hookset needed for the jigs that i forget to dial it down a little bit for the other methods. Oh well live and learn.
Name: Jeff Banko
Email:
Date: 7/31/05
Time: 5 - 11 am
Briery Creek
Raining all morning
Light stain
Mid lake
10 LMB
Senko, C-Rig 10" worm
1 - 20 feet
Fished the senko along the edges of weed beds and on flats. Fished the C-Rig on points and channel drops.
Tried the early morning bite today. Started with a buzzbait with no luck. Saw a lot of fish moving on flats and near weed edges so started throwing the Senko. Caught ten this way but nothing of size. Decided to try and locate a bigger fish so backed out to deeper water and fished point dropoffs and channel drops with a c-rig. Did not catch any but did have two good hooks up that broke me off. Dam Flouro leaders.
Name: Rich K
Email:
Date: 7/24/05
Time: 8:30 - 12 PM
Lower James River
Sunny and HOT
Outgoing tide, muddy
Meads Pit
Bream
Nightcrawlers
2'
Throw and wait
Took my step-son fishing in the morning, caught about 50 total bream. He is only with us for a couple weeks this Summer, so I figured I had to put him on some fish. Heavy boat traffic on the River yesterday - even for a Sunday.
Name: Jeff Banko
Email:
Date: 7/24/05
Time: 3 - 10 pm
Briery Creek
Clear, very light breeze
Very light stain
From 701 ramp to the south end of the lake
15 lmb
Jig, 11" worm, Senko, and buzzbait
1 - 15 feet
Fished the jig on channel and caught one nice fish around 3 pounds. Fished senko over grass beds at the end of the lake and cuaght several 1 to 2 pounders. Fished C-Rigged big worm on a secondary channel and caught a nice 21" 5.25 pounder and another that was probabyl around 3. Fished buzzbait once it got dark and caught one around 4#.
First time to Briery in awhile. Not too bad a day.
Name: country boy
Email:
Date: 7/24/05
Time: 9:30 to 7:00
Sandy River Reservoir
upper 80's calm,clear
about 4 to 5 ft visibility and warm
mid lake points and shelves and up creek arms.
16 larm mouths in the one to two pound range
sink-o worms and deap diving crank baits.
deep
put the worms on the wood structure off the shelves. And managed to pick a few off of the deeper end of it. If we didn't find them at the normal places we would cast straight out twards the center of the lake from those places with deep divers and would find them there.
the gizzard shad are schooling in the center of the upper lake arm and there are alot of bass chasing them if you can keep up with them.
Name: James Fento
Email:
Date:
Time:
Lower James River
Name: Jeff Banko
Email:
Date: 7/23/05
Time: 5 - 11 a.m.
Nottoway and Blackwater Rivers
Clear and hot
Stained
Launched from Dockside Restaurant. Fished that area of the Nottoway, then ran to the Blackwater, ran up that a few miles and fished there
7 lmb, 3 Bowfin
Buzzbait, Jigs, Fluke, Senko
0 - 15 feet
Buzzbait, jigs, and Fluke around wood. Senko on outside edge of pads.
Fished the Nottoway and Blackwater today for the first time. Met a bunch of my BBC friends down there. Rivers look awesome but the bite was tough. Of the lmb i caught most were dinks with maybe 4 or 5 of them making 12" + Still loved that rivers and will go boack again.
Name: Dwayne
Email:
Date: 7/20/05
Time: 5:30-9:00 A
Swift Creek Reservoir
75-83
light stain
coves, drop offs
3 bass one monster pickeral
buzzbait early, nothing senko, two from one cove brokenback shad rap, monster pickeral 10' diving crank bait in perch pattern, one more bass
1-15'
too hot to be out in that sun by 9:00, but a good couple of hours. Healthy, fat LMB 2-3#
Name: Jeff Banko
Email:
Date: 7/19/05
Time: 3:30 to 9 pm
Lower James River
Cloudy, windy
Stained
Herring Creek and Appomattox River
6 LMB
Carolina Rig Worm and Buzzbait
0 - 10 feet
Fished with Rich K. today. Thought we would kill them had the outgoing tide the entire time we were out and it was a full moon tide. Caught all of our fish in Appomattox. I was fishing a Chartreues Buzzbaits along flats where i saw baitfish activity and caught 4, 3 small ones and one around 2#. Rich caught 2 throwing the c-rigged worm around cover.
Name: Tim Davis
Email: tdavis596@pmtnet.net
Date: 07/17/05
Time: 6am till 2pm
Smith Mountain
hot , almost no wind
clear 83degrees
hales ford area
caught 6 largemouth bass ranging from a little over 4 down toa little better than two . had between 17 and 18 lbs
topwater early , switched to carolina rig after sun came up hot
top early deep rock later 10 ft or more
not too bad a day for all the traffic that was on the lake , had one more heavy fish that came unbuttoned on carolina rig in about 15 ft of water at end of dock . rod bowed double when he ran at boat but just popped loose
Name: Wayne P.
Email: purdum43@aol.com
Date: 07/16/05
Time: 5:30-3:00
Sandy River Reservoir
90 and partly cloudy
dingy 89 degrees
Mid to uplake
57 bass 1 catfish
1/4 oz Rattlin Rap, Bandit 200, Zoom 4" curly tail worm, 3/8 oz custom buzzbait
Surface to 10'
Buzzbait on spawning drops at dawn Rap when bass were schooling on top Other lures on creek channel drops
A lot of surface activity all day with suspended bass over creek channel edges Largest bass was 3# 7 oz. The catfish (5# 4 oz) hit the Bandit crankbait Jeff, I haven't lost a bass on that buzzbait yet.
Name: Wayne P.
Email: purdum43@aol.com
Date: 07/10/05
Time: 5:30 A.M.-2
Sandy River Reservoir
Partly Cloudy HOT
stained 87 degrees
Mid to upper areas
25 Bass
custom buzzbait, Bandit 200 crankbait, buzztail shad
Surface to 10'
Used buzzbait over spawning drops before sunrise Used crankbait around channel drops Used buzztail shad in dollar pads
Caught largest ones on buzzbait early with largest one 5-10 and several in the 3 pound class. Smaller ones on crankbait and shad after sun-up,except one 3-4 on the crankbait.
Name: Jeff Banko
Email:
Date: 7/10/05
Time: 6 am - 2 pm
Pamunkey River
Beautiful hot very little clouds though
stained
Up river from Williams Landing
20+ LMB
Ring Worm and Finesse Worm, and Jig and Trailer
0 - 10 feet
Fished Ring Worm on a C-rig for dredging some deeper humps Also fished the ring worm texas rigged, the finesse worm on a jig head, and the jig and trailer thrown around laydown and cuts.
Fished club T today. Did not place. Caught 20+ fish but only three over 12" and their weight was only 2 pounds 14 oz. Just could not find a big fish all day. Oh well still a fun day since I was on fish all day.
Name: Jerry Ferguson
Email: jcf62@comcast.net
Date: 07/03/05
Time: 6am to 3pm
New River
overcast
clear
New River Gorge National Park 14 mile stretch from Sandstone to Prince WV
Smallies
Buzzbait / Crankbait
top - 3ft
burn em
Fished Buzz baits all day with an occasional crank bait here and there. Fish blew up on buzz all day. caught as many as we missed from short strikes. Trip was a blast. Guided by Twin Rivers Outfitters Daniels WV. We fished Saturday also but Buzz bite ended at 8am. crank baits the rest of the day. My son and I caught about 25 smallies from 10 - 16 inches both days.
Name: Tim Davis and Ray Craft
Email: tdavis596@pmtnet.net
Date: 07/07/05
Time: 6am - 3:00pm
Smith Mountain
cloudy
clear to stained
roanoke river side
largemouth
topwater
top
rock points on tributary creeks
fishing was fantastic today .Had one fish that made a citation, had one over 5 and we quit counting at around 11 am with ten . all but two were 14 plus and most were 2.5 lbs. or better.
Name: Tim Davis and Ray Craft
Email: tdavis596@pmtnet.net
Date: 07/07/05
Time:
Smith Mountain
Name: Rich K
Email:
Date: 07/05/05
Time: All Day
Lower James River
Hot&Clear to T Storms All Day
82 - 88 Dirty
Appomatox & Meads Pit
12 LMB 30'ish Bream
C-rig Finesse worms and nightcrawlers
Various
slow
Me and the wife took the day off work to "have a date" (first date in 5 yrs). She sunbathed and I fished. I finally got her to try fishing, and after only a few small backlashes, she landed her first ever fish. A nice 3 - 4 lb LMB on the c-rig. Afterwards, we took the kids out for some fishing, and they did well too with about 30 bream.
Name: Steve Smelcer
Email:
Date: 07/09/05
Time: 10:30am
Sandy River Reservoir
Sunny
stained
Mid lake
Large Mouth Bass
Deep Diving Crankbaits (Rapala DT-16)
16-20 ft.
trolling deep diving crankbaits
Fish today were all caught in deep water, caught 6 bass with the largest being a 5 1/2 lb. 21 inch beauty.
Name: Basskat
Email:
Date: 07/02/05
Time: 0530-0100
Cape Hatteras Surf
Partly cloudy, 85 degrees
crystal clear
South of Oregan Inlet Bridge, Known as Pea Island
Mostly skates blues (taylor) 1-3 lbs
bottom or fish finder rigs, cut bunker or squid strips, blues were on metal or jigs
depending on tide this hole is 4 to 10 feet
metal or jigs were ripped through the water hoping for spanish, bottom or fish finder rigs just there
Hope not to stir up to much with this type of posting, do know if everyone fishes the surf.Made a quick trip to Hatteras to catch some blues (hoping to for specks) for the smoker and had a decent day.Blues were caught early as the sun came up with a few caught later in the day. Was surprisd that the skates had taken over one of my favorite holes. I knew the water was to clear for basic bottom feeders but thought there should have been other species there. Hope this report is O.K. since it's not about bass and cats. Will head to Sandy tomorrow. Tightlines
Name: Jeff Banko
Email:
Date: 6/26/05
Time: 6-11 am
Pamunkey River
85 degrees with overcast skies
stained pretty heavily 80 degrees
Main River near Jacks Creek and in Big Creek
3 LMB
jigs
0 - 10 feet
worked jigs, and plastics, around latdowns and duck blinds.
Pre-fished for a club tourney on the 8th of July. Toguh bite. only had three small ones take the jig on duck blinds. Tried fishing laydowns around cuts and creeks with no luck.
Name: Wayne P.
Email: purdum43@aol.com
Date: 06/25/05
Time: 8:00-6:00
Sandy River Reservoir
Partly cloudy 90 degrees
Stained 81 degrees
mid to upper lake
68 bass total
wacky rigged finesse worm
1'-8'
Fished mostly steep drops and around surface weeds
I got out fished by my partner, he caught 43 and I caught 25. Sure was nice fishing without a lot of wind and the partly cloudy conditions made the temp. bearable.
Name: Rich K
Email:
Date: 06/21/05
Time: 530P - 800
Lower James River
Light wind with brief storm at about 7:00
Outgoing tide, 80 deg
Appomatox River (old Channel) mostly
4 LMB biggest was about 4 lbs
Spinnerbait, Buzz bait, and C-Rig
0' - 5'
various, mostly pulling baits across the outside of laydowns
Good day for me, 3rd cast a HUGE bass ate my favorite spinner, she liked it so much, she kept it. I managed 2 smaller ones on the c-rig in the same area. As the storm started approaching, I worked my way back to Hopewell hitting some points that I have never touched, and wham, an easy 4 lb LMB took the buzz bait. I hit one more spot after that, but the wind was getting pretty strong, got 2 backlashes in a row and called it quits.
Name: Jeffrey Banko
Email:
Date: 6/18/05
Time: 6-3
Lower James River
clear
stained 84 degrees
Turkey Neck, Herring, and Appomattox
2 LMB 1.5 and 2.6 pounds
Wacky rigged worm, slider head rigged worm, jig, and popper
1 - 10
Fished around wood and grass.
Caught one fish on the early morning outgoing tide fishing and old set of dock pilings in turkey Neck, then had nothing all day until the second outgoing tide came on around 1:00 at Herring Creek, Caught the 2.6# on the grass at the mouth of that creek.
Name: Jeffrey
Email:
Date:
Time:
Lower James River
Name: Dave Dwyer
Email:
Date: 06/18/05
Time: Early mornin
Briery Creek
Cool, few clouds, mist on the water in early morning
Clear
By the dam
1 crappie and 9 bass
Top waters and crank baits
shallow on the west side and deep on the east side of the dam and along the dam
Pause and retrieve on the skitter prop accounted for the crappie; Rapala Shad Rap with black top and white belly [two sizes] accounted for 5 of the bass; and Mann's 20 chrome with blue back accounted for 4 bass.
The bass were working the baitfish in the deeper water. Would occasionally see them busted the shad on the surface. Not having a depth finder, that is the only clue we had to knowing where the fish were. Just another great day and good finish to the annual pilgrimage to Briery Creek.
Name: Dave Dwyer
Email:
Date: 06/17/05
Time: morning and
Briery Creek
Mild with scattered clouds and light winds
clear
Fished southern end of lake in the morning and to the north of the 701 ramp in the evening
15 bass, nothing of size; my youngr son had two bigger fish break his line.
Rapala skitter prop and other top waters in the morning, Zoom albino shad super fluke, Zoom trick/finesse worms in pumpkin seed, pumpkin seed with red flake, and june bug
Mostly shallow, close to shore, but did venture out into mid lake
Pause & retrieve presentation of skitter prop caught several fish, weedless wacky worm caught most, super fluke caught a couple using a jerking retrieve.
Another great day on the lake. Fished early morning, napped in mid-day and early afternoon, and then fished again from abotu 5 till dark. Another great day to be on the lake. It was actually cool in the morning.
Name: Dave Dwyer
Email:
Date: 06/16/05
Time: 5:30 p.m.
Briery Creek
partly cloudy, wind sorta from the west, in the 70s
clear
across the lake from the 701 ramp, and then on the ramp side just to the northof the ramp
2 crappie and 8 bass
most fish caught on Zoom trick/finesse worms in pumpkin seed and june bug colors
within 50 yards of shore
weedless wacky
Fished until dark. Was out with my two boys, they caught all of the fish. Great father-son time on a beatiful lake with pleasant weather.
Name: Basskat
Email:
Date: 06/19/05
Time: 0530-1300
Sandy River Reservoir
overcast
clear to slighty stain
mid lake
bass
buzzbaits, pop'r, trickworms and senko
1-15 feet
Fished pretty fast and steady
Best topwater bite of the year. On the water at 530 made the 45 minute trolling motor run to mid lake and the bite was on. Had 7 keepers in 30 minutes and topwater was good up to 8. Wind turned from the North and topwater stopped. Total number was 21 bass. Old man caught big fish of the day at 5.5 and trickworm. I lost one 6 to 7 pound range right at the boat. Heartbeaker. Fish came around trolling motor and nice jump and spit that bubblegum right at me. I differently need one of these days on the tourney. Tightlines Kevin
Name: Wayne P.
Email: purdum43@aol.com
Date: 6/18/05
Time: 5:30-2:30
Smith Mountain
NICE, 75 degrees partly clouly
slight stain in Roanoke arm
west of the Hales Ford bridge in small coves
Largemouth bass and smallmouth bass
Wacky rigged finesse worm-open hook and weedless, finesse worm on a jighead, Yellow Magic popper, wacky rigged Senko, and a Wet Harley Rig proto-type buzzbait
2'-15'
Fished docks, rip-rap and wood off of main channel in small coves containing shad schools
Practicing on Friday, I caught 7 bass while searching and Sat. club tournament I caught 17 bass and non-boater caught about 10 bass. We both had a 4 bass tournament limit and I got 1st place and he got 3rd place. We also caught more than 50 warmouths as they were everywhere along rip rap and hungry.
Name: nitroman
Email:
Date: 6-17-05
Time: 7pm to 12am
Claytor Lake
party cloudy, warm
murky, low 70's
caught lots of lmb,only 2 keepers
texas rigged worm
2 to 12 feet
Name: Bill
Email: BigFishAddict@aol.com
Date: 06/15/05
Time: 07pm-08pm
Lower James River
sunny to sunset
clear
Around Ancarrows landing and downstream
None
Strike Kings new catfish dynamite sausage links.
shallow and in the channel
Carolina rigged
Well I had been painting the house all day and couldnt resist getting out the boat for an hour or so. Wanted to try out the new catfish bait my son got me for my birthday. Only fished for about 30 minutes. Only had two strikes, couldnt set the hook on anything though. The sausage links dont stay on the hook so good though. Went thru a half a bag in 30 minutes. If Im gonna use a stink bait, I will probably use the catfish dynamite dip bait on a huckleberry treble. Have had better luck with that. Still nice to get out on the river in the early evening. Bill
Name: Jeff Banko
Email:
Date: 6/12/05
Time: all day
Briery Creek
partially cloudy
very light stain
from 701 ramp to south end of lake
25 - 30 LMB
Trick worms, jigs, X-Rap, Moss Mouse, Texas rigged 10.5" worm
1 - 12 feet
Trick worms fished weedless wacky style around trees and stumps. Jigs and big worm fished on deeper channel cuts, X-Rap fished all around. Moss Mouse in Lily pads
First time to Briery in about a month. Fished with Jeff K. today he is a really cool guy. We had a good time and a pretty good day, not great but good. Briery has weeded up real bad. Almost unfishable from the Little Briery Creek Cove to the end of the lake. Caught most of the wacky rig fish around stumps in 5 - 10 feet of water. Jig, Worm and X-Rap fish were caught fishing the various creek channels. Did lose a couple of decent feeling fish, other than that largest fish may have gone four. Had a few in the 2- 3 pound range and then the rest were all around a pound to pound and 1 1/2.
Name: Wayne P.
Email: purdum43@aol.com
Date: 06/11/05
Time: 8:30-5:30
Sandy River Reservoir
Partly Cloudy 85
stained, 1'-2'visibility
mid to upper lake areas
Bass
Finesse worms
1'-8'
Rigged finesse worms weedless wacky and open hook wacky
A friend and I caught 54 total bass with all less than 2#. Most productive pattern was fishing around shallow pads and grass where bass were jumping to catch dragon flies.
Name: Rich K
Email:
Date: 06/08/05
Time: 5PM - 8:30
Lower James River
Clear Hot and sunny with the exception of a breif rain storm
vis 1-2' 82deg
Turkey Neck Island
4 LMB
T-Rigged crawfish, spinner baits
1'-10'
Slow roll killing the spinner after bumping limbs, all took it on the fall.
Trying to expand my horizons by exploring new (to me) areas and presentations.
Name: Jeff Banko
Email:
Date: 6/4
Time: 6:15 - 2:15
Lower James River
Sunny and clear
slight dingy
Herring Creek, Kittowan Creek, Chipokes, and then Meades Pit
None, zippo, zilch
Finesse worm and Jigs
0 - 6 feet
fished around laydowns that i usually do well on
Tought day for me again. Pitched a zero in a Club T. Was on fish in the morning for about an hour and a half as the outgoing tide was finishing up. Broke something like 4 or 5 off on the wacky rigged finesse worm. Also missed several on that rig and on the jig. Then my bite died. Had no more hits until I made my desperation into Meades Pit just before going to weigh in at Osbourne. Had two pick up jigs there that i pitched into the hearts of bushes but could not bury the hook. I hate zeroing..............
Name: Rich K
Email:
Date: 06/05/05
Time: 7:00 AM-12
Lower James River
Clear Hot, Sunny
Last half out going tide temp 70-72
Main river Laydowns and rock eddies up river from Dutch Gap
4 LMB - one about 2 1/2 lbs three bareley made 12"
All came on T-Rigged Plastics
Various
Relativley slow dragging through wood and bouncing off the rocks.
Not a bad day by my standards. They are just barely starting to move back out to the main river. Was helping a buddy pre-fish for an upcoming tourney. While we didn't do great, we were able to eliminate a lot of water for him.
Name: Wayne P.
Email: purdum43@aol.com
Date: 06/04/05
Time: 8-5
Sandy River Reservoir
Partly Cloudy 80 degrees
Dingy 1'-2' visibility
Mid to upper areas
Bass
finesse worm
1'-5'
Rigged worms wacky style-open hook and weedless
Partner and I caught 36 total bass for relatively slow day. We only had seven at noon. Weather and water seemed perfect for a good catch but the fish must still be recovering from the spawn and not activity feeding yet. At various places around the lake, we saw some bass fry being escorted by a parent. Largest bass was 3lbs.5oz.
Name: Don Arbaugh
Email: arbaughbunch@direcway.com
Date: 05/31/05
Time: 7-12am
Slate River Watershed
Clouds to Sunny
Very Clear
Various
Bass
Yum Dinger, Topwater Frog
Various
Fished topwater frogs through vegetation, and weightless Yum Dinger in vegetation and off bottom structure.
This lake is a treasure with both visual scenic beauty and good concentrations of bass, pike, and crappie! Though it is historically know for it's Pike populations, citation bass are present in good numbers. This impoundment is secluded and quiet which is a plus! You owe it to yourself, to visit this scenic beauty! Only electric, with smaller crafts more practical! Due to it's vegetation growth, and Briery Creek type structure.
Name: rattlesnake
Email:
Date: 05/30/05
Time: am
Smith Mountain
sunny
clear, water temp. 65deg.
dam area
bass
spinnerbait, plastic worm
10-12'
started out fishing points with spinnerbaits and crankbaits. fella i stayed with said they had dropped the water approx. 2' since last thursday. once the sun came up, tried fishing docks with jig-n-pig and plastics.
fished from around 6:30 till 10:00. caught one dink smallmouth off a point on a spinnerbait near the mouth of witchers creek. move over to louse creek in a cut and fished some more docks. caught 2 largemouth on a blueshad zoom worm. biggest was a little over 2lbs. caught one off a dock and another off a stump and lay down off a secondeary point. got off the water when the boat traffic started picking up. tight lines.
Name: Budda
Email: matt@hunting-fishing-virignia.com
Date: 05/30/05
Time: 12:00pm/300p
Appomattox River
clear and hot
cloudy to muddy
Launched from the small boat harbor in Colonial Heights and did not run either way for long.
Bass and perch
Sinking worms and crankbaits
Fished banks and small drop offs
I fished the appomattox river on Monday May 30th. Fished from 12:00 to 3:00. It was a little hot out there so we did not stay long. I managed a nice river bass around 2.5 pounds on a sinking worm and one small perch. This was the first time I have fished in the Appomattox and I do believe I will be back. We launched out of the small boat harbor in Colonial Heights. Any suggestions on some good holes would be much appreciated.
Name: Ego
Email: mnovak@comcast.net
Date: 5/29/05
Time: 11am-3pm
Diascund Reservoir
Sunny, 83
clear
All of the coves straight out from the ramp
Bass, pickerel, crappie
Mepps/Rooster tail, 4" sluggo/threadfin plastic bait
3-5 feet
pretty fast presentation on retrieves, kept the rooster tail about a foot underwater, jerked the plastic bait like a crippled minnow
What a beautiful day....I went out there in the kayak today. If anyone saw the red kayak with the rods sitting up on the back in rod holders that was me. I didn't get on the lake until about 11am...when I was launching the kayak a guy told me he was very disappointed and didn't catch anything. Then on my way out another guy was coming in and said the same thing. Instead of taking a left and going under the bridge like I usually do, I went straight out from the ramp......fished the first cove where those powerlines cross in front of the ramp.....and.. On my fifth cast I landed a SLAB crappie on a mepps/roster tail.....next cast produced a skinny yet looong pickerel. Then I saw some bushes shaking and paddled slowly a little closer to see what it was...and it was a huuuge snake. It was either mating or trying to swallow something bigger than itself because it was randomly shaking the bush lol.. Fished that rooster tail for the next few hours and didn't get any hits. Paddled next to some family or something who was landing their canoes at a sand-ramp in a cove and one of the girls was talking something about her "boobs" and how her bikini barely covered her nipple....man if only I'd brought my **** binoculars Paddled toward the back and got within view of the I-64 bridge and there's a big tree laid down in the water on the right shoreline heading toward the bridge....something told me to switch to this 4 inch rubber bait that looks like a mix between a slugg-o and a threadfin shad....and on the first cast to that log I nailed a 2 pounder....he fought really well too.... Paddled up under the I-64 bridge just to see what was over there, nothin but swamp. Turned back around and headed in around 2:30pm. All in all it was a 3 fish day which IS an IMPROVEMENT based on what I do at Harrison Lake lol
Name: Dan
Email:
Date: 5/27/05
Time: 6:30 - 10:30
Rapidan River
beautiful, high 50s to low 60s
cool and clear
from somewhere about 4 miles up from the SNP boundary to a little ways into RWMA
14 Brook Trout
gold spoons, flicker spinners, inline spinners- all small and single hook
all
Couple of fish over 12"- which is always nice for a wild brookie. Saw a weasel (first I've ever encountered in the wild), took me by suprise at first till I figured what it was. Run into a couple of bear on this part of the Rapidan before but never a weasel.
Name: Bill
Email: BigFishAddict@aol.com
Date: 05/26/05
Time: 10am-3pm
Chickahominy Lake
Nice day for fishing, a little windy
clear, 70* water at Ed Allens
way up lake in the creek channels and coves
2 chain pickeral and a 7.5lb bowfin
all fish caught on a suspending X-Rap
shallow, slack water
No luck with bass so concentrated on pickeral and bowfin. That big bowfin put up a good fight.
Name: Gaston Mike
Email:
Date: 05/22/05
Time: 4p-8p
Lake Gaston
Warm and sunny light ne wind
clear
lower lake creeks and coves
3 lg. mouth
c-rig, buzzbait, plastic
shallow to 7
Tried a few this fishing slow 1 on c-rig 1 on buzzer 1 on worm
no pattern I could find in the short time I had to fish
Name: Don Arbaugh
Email:
Date: 5/22/05
Time: 9:00 to 4:00
Briery Creek
Sunny/Windy
Normal
Big Cove across 701 ramp
Huge Shellcrackers/Bigger Bream, (2) LMB over 5lbs.
Floated live Crickets / LMB on Yum Dingers fished weightless.
2 1/2 to 3 foot down
Pulled crickets slowly through new topwater vegetation growth. Fished Yum Dingers weightless on edge of dropoff!
Started culling around 11:00! The shellcrackers were smaller then years passed but, the bream were tremendous! They were located just on the outside edge of the vegetation growth!
Name: Jeff Banko
Email:
Date: 5/21/05
Time: 6:25 - 2:30
Lake Gaston
Windy but clear
light stain
Lizards Creek
11 LMB
Wacky Rigged Trick Worm, husky Jerk
3- 10 feet
Fished the trick worms around docks. Fished the husky jerks on flats around points.
Fished Club T today. Won it with 5 for 12-4. Was culling by 9:00 a.m. All told caught ten fish that were keepers and one dink. Tried a lot of things but the trick worm and the husky jerk were the ticket.
Name: Bill
Email: BigFishAddict@aol.com
Date: 05/19/20
Time: 930a-130p
Private pond
overcast, finally no wind
clear, lots of pollen on lower end
LMB
Tried a variety of hard baits, traps, x-raps, no luck. Switched to the old weightless, wacky rigged Senko and thats exactly what they wanted.
Most fish caught were tight to the bank.
The weightless, wacky rigged worm was the only thing that produced fish. Slow fall then twitch it back. Most strikes on the twitch.
Fished the pond with my buddy. Caught a bunch of bass 1-2lbs. Small fish but it was fun catching. Lots of fish are still on beds. Saw one very large fish on a bed but she wasnt as interested in us as we were with her, so thats where we left her.
Name: test
Email: terset
Date: rfdef
Time: nmhbj
Briery Creekerserer
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Name: rattlesnake
Email:
Date: 05/14/04
Time: 7:00-3:00
Smith Mountain
sunny
clear
Indian Creek down to R22
Largemouth
Senko
6-12'
wacky rigged senkos skipped under docks
Suppose to fish a little tournament out of Indian Creek, but only 2 boats showed up. Reckon we are out of the loop. Had a little match between the 4 or us though. Fishing right tough, at least for me and partner. Sun came early and stayed out. Tried fishing points and small main lake cuts. Saw a few fish and had some follow ups on spinnerbaits and flukes. Tried a little topwater with no success. Tried to carolina rig some points but with the wind and boat traffic it was dern near impossible. Ended up catching 5 fish on wacky rigged senkos. 3 off docks, one off stump and one beneath overhanging bushes. THe 5 fish weighed 8.6lbs. Fellas we fished against had 4 fish at 6.4lbs. They had a 4lbsfish on a jig but came off as they were swinging it in the boat. Tough break! Other than the boat traffic and the trip back to Indian Creek it was a great day to be out. Tight Lines!
Name: Rich K.
Email:
Date: 5/14/05
Time: 3:30 PM- 9PM
Appomatox River
Clear skies, wind gusts to 20MPH
Dingy, 74deg
Conjours Neck
Bream, small bass, and 1 catfish
Live nightcrawlers
5-7'
Sink and wait
Took my two 5 yr olds out for a while, I never even took my poles out. We caught about 50 small bream, and a few small bass as well as 1 catfish that broke off at the side of the boat (my fault, bad knot). The kids were extatic, if you were in the area you probably heard us hoopin' and hollerin'. The action was so fast near sunset that I had to cut them down to one shared pole instead of both having one. My daughter did everything herself except bait the hook, and my son wouldn't hold his fish because they were "icky", but we still had a great time. I got lots of good pics for the album.
Name: K Dog
Email:
Date: 05/12/05
Time: 5:30am to 2p
Diascund Reservoir
partly cloudy/breezy
stained
Diascund creek channel.Waharani Swamp
LMB/jakes
Suspending cranks,spinner bait,senkos with Gamagatsu bleeding bait hooks
3 to 10 feet
. My first pattern was to try to find the mama chubby’s on creek channel bends, but no takers. Began fishing the small coves where the creek channel was the closest. Every cove that structure and wind produced bass.
Largest bass was 19"length by 13"girth. Took awhile to find the color they preferred. All fish came off BPS senkos "mistake” color(looks like rainbow trout color to me).A semi fast, short jerking presentation is what they wanted. I’d make casts behind any irregular feature, then would bring it to the side or front and let it fall. BLAM everytime. I believe wind was the key. Saw some very large carp.30 pounders. One was so large it scared the crap out of me. I guess 60pounds.NO had to have been 75plus,sucker looked five feet long. This was at the spillway at the back of Diascund feeder creek. Carp where all stacked up creating a ruckus trying to get to the other side. Gar in the citation range also. Carp and Gar are the only fish I don’t have a recognized citation. Need those to complete my Master Angler patch
Name: Jeff K.
Email:
Date: 05/09/05
Time: 8 - 1
Briery Creek
Blue skies-upper 70's - WINDY!
Stained, lots of pollen, water temp in the 60's
Off 701 ramp midlake to south end
11 Bass, largest little over 4lbs. Rest were 1-3lbs Lost 3 in the trees.
Mostly wacky rigged finesse/trick worms. Caught the big one on a jig-n-pig though.
3-15ft
Beautiful day for fishing but the wind was mean! I didn't even need my trolling motor to make it to the south end, I just started out on the sunny side and let the wind blow me down there, lol. A few times I tied off on a tree in the middle and fished a while.
Name: country boy
Email:
Date: 5/8/05
Time: 10:00-6:00
Sandy River Reservoir
Sunny 70 to 80 degrees
Stained 1 1/2 ft visiblilty
middle to upper end
a few bass and a boat load of crappie
finness worms & crank baits for bass & brown and white crappie jigs
1 to 12 ft
slow
The bass were catchable but you had to work for them. finness worms seemed to be the most productive but with the exstream winds it was hard to fish them. Checked my favorite crappie hole and only had a few takers but decided to try a fallen tree off the main lake while I was still riged and filled a coller. Found that all similar trees in 10 to 13 ft of water was also holding crappie.
Name: Vyper-P&J Fishing Enterprises
Email:
Date: 5/8/2005
Time: 7am-1pm
Sandy River Reservoir
Bluebird Skies, 10-15 mph wind
Clear-61-63
Around main lake in ramp area
Green ones
Jerkbait, jig, C-rig
6in to 18 ft
Slow man, real slow
Caught a couple first thing in the morning on a jerkbait, missed one on a jig and then went to the rig. Had 16 by 1 pm, largest was 4.5. All were suspending in 12-14ft off main lake structure.
Name: Jeffrey Banko
Email:
Date: 5/4/05
Time: 6 - 3
Buggs Island (Kerr Lake)
Sloght Breeze no clouds 7o degrees
slight stain 57 - 60 degrees
Rudds, Rocky Branch, and Buthcer Creek
3 LMB, biggest 4.88 pounds
Weeedless Wacky Rigged Trick Worm, C-Rigged Lizard, Spinnerbait
2-20 feet
Threw weedless wacky rig around gum bushes and trees
Fished Federation REgion 6 tourney out of Occoneechee today. Caught one nice on 4.88 on the weedless wacky rigged trick worm. Lost a ton of other fish on break offs. Was trying to use a new flourocarbon/braid combo today and had problems with the braid cutting threw the flouro. Won't make the mistake of trying new things again on tourney day. If I did not break fish off I would have been culling fish by around 10:00 and I am sure would have been in the money based on the winning weights. Partner also caught two on C- Rigged worms. Did try to fish secondary points quite a bit with no luck seemed most fish we found were in the backs of coves still.
Name: Dan
Email:
Date: 5/7/05
Time: 6am-9am
Motts Reservoir
mid to upper 40s, Wind
56 at dam
Lower end of the reservoir
2 Largemouth
5" Yum Dinger
1 to 10 feet
fished wherever the wind wasn't blowing
I hate wind- especially when worm fishing. Both bass were around 1 to 1.5 pounds and were caught in the last cove on the right by the dam. The grass I was expecting to fish is just starting to turn green.
Name: Wayne P.
Email: purdum43@aol.com
Date: 05/05/05
Time: 9:30-5:30
Sandy River Reservoir
Cloudy, high 65, windy
stained 61-63 degrees
mid and uplake
Buddy caught 31 bass and I caught 21 bass. Both of us caught several bluegills,shellcrackers and crappie
Wacky rigged finesse worm and 1/16 oz.Roadrunner
1'-6'
Fished spawning area drops and visible spawning beds. Also open spaces in the dollar pads seem to hold the largest bass.
Largest bass was 5 lbs. 4 oz. Had a #4 and three #3 Eight trailers in the parking lot when we arrived and three when we left. Didn't catch any bass on beds until the afternoon. Saw the same bass, about #5, on a bed that was there Tuesday-still wouldn't bite.
Name: Bill
Email: BigFishAddict@aol.com
Date: 05/03/05
Time: 1230-430pm
Lower James River
Sunny,and of course, windy
outgoing tide
All my usual favorites around Dutch Gap, then tried a new spot on Jones Neck loop.
Blue catfish. 5lbs - 50+lbs.
Cut eel.
flats and cover,slackwater pools. 2-20Ft
Carolina rig,and gotta have a red bead. 5 rods,fan pattern. Has to be a Gamakatsu 8/0 circle hook, man those things work!
Caught a few 5 and 6 pounders at my usual spots. Nothing big. Then I spotted a nice big slack water pool off a point in the Jones Neck loop. Put the boat on shore and threw out 4 lines. We were actually out on the shore streching our legs when a rod went down hard.Jumped back in and pushed off.Im not gonna lie, it wasnt a pretty fight,boat was in the branches, lines and rods tangled everywhere, my girlfriend struggling to get the net free from tangles.Then the fish got wrapped in a blowdown. Long story short, I landed my biggest catfish yet. It pegged my 50lb scale and measured 46"! My girlfriend, Sandy, I couldnt have done it without her winding in the other lines, guiding the boat, and netting it like a pro. After all, it was her idea to go fishing today!
Name: Wayne P,
Email: purdum43@aol.com
Date: 05/03/05
Time: 10:00-6:00
Sandy River Reservoir
Mostly sunny 40-65 degrees and windy. Frost at daylight
Slight stain ---no temp taken
midlake and upper end
Bass/ partner caught 31 and I caught 25 with largest at 3 lbs 9 oz.
Wacky rigged finesse worm
1'-5'
Fished spawning beds or close to them. Best results was in the afternoon when the water warmed.
Caught most of them around the edges of the spawning flats at the dropoffs.
Name: Jeffrey Banko
Email:
Date: 5/2/05
Time: 5 - 3
Briery Creek
light clouds and breeze
62 degrees light stain
Upper end of lake
50 - 60 LMB
senkos, finesse worms, jigs, jerkbaits, buzzbaits, and poppers
0 - 8 feet
First good day on Briery this year. Fished on flats and basically anything we threw caught fish. Caught at least 50 - 60 fish combined with my buddie, probably more, honestly lost count because at one time we were on a school taking top waters and the action was so fast and furious. Largest fish landed was in the 4 - 5 pound range, but we did hook several bigger fish and my buddy lost one that looked like around 10 - 11 pounds right next to the boat, line snapped. Needless to say he was heart broken.
Name: Jeffrey Banko
Email:
Date: 4/30/05
Time: 10 - 5
Chickahominy Lake
Cloudy and very windy
stained 67 degrees
Tried main lake too windy, went all the way to the top end and fished the creeks coming into the lake
Several Pickerel
Senkos, Spinnerbaits, jig and trailer
2- 15 feet
Senkos rigged texposed, Spinnerbaits and jigs fished around Cyprus trees
Terrible wind today made it real hard to fish. Caught some pickerel, had a few hits on jigs fished on deeper (10 ft plus) laydowns and cyprus trees, and did have one monster, probably double digit fish the spinnerbait.
Name: pikemaster
Email:
Date: 5/2/05
Time: 10-5
Nottaway and Chowan River
partly sunny
63-66 degrees
Creek on the Chowan river
4 bass and 10 blackfish
spinnerbait and fluke
4 ft and less
fished fallen trees and shallows. most caught off of spinnerbait in less then 4 ft of water.
caught 4 bass, all of spinnerbaits and 10 blackfish. Biggest blackfish was 9lbs 2ozs caught off of spinnerbait. he was big so i figured i'll weight him. stuck him in the livewell to get the scale out and all i heard was bam. looked in the livewell and he knocked the spray head right off the hose and almost broke the overflow tube in half. had a time getting him out of the livewell without busting a hole in the side of it, but finally i did and weighted him and released him. missed alot of strikes on spinnerbait. caught a 5lb blackfish off of the fluke trying to follow up a miss on the spinnerbait. caught 1 red-eye bass about 8 inches.
Name: bill r.
Email:
Date: 5/1
Time: afternoon
westneck creek va. beach
sunny
good- stained
humps/ drop offs
preach, bream
slip-bobbers , red worms
6 to 2 feet
toss and let lay
caught a good amount of small white preach, bream starting to move. I think the wife and grandkids caught about 2 doz or so in about three hours. no real big size but just a lot of fun going on watching grand daughters hooking fish and reeling them in
Name: Wayne P.
Email: purdum43@aol.com
Date: 05/01/05
Time: 9:00-5:30
Briery Creek
Mostly sunny 50-65 degrees wind 10-20 mph
1-66 degrees, slight stain
South end and mid lake-shallow
53 bass, 1 pickerel, 1 crappie
finesse worm
>4'
The ole wacky rigged finesse technique pulled them off spawning beds. I just had to allow for the wind get the unweighted worm in the beds.
Caught several in the 5-6 pound class and the rest were 1 1/2 to 3 pounds mostly males. The larger ones had worn/bloody tails.
Name: Jeff Banko
Email:
Date: 4/29/200
Time: 5:30 - 5:30
Briery Creek
Rained,most of the day. wIND FROM THE south
slight stain 59 - 61 degrees
South end of lake
19 LMB. Mostly small. Largest went around 4#
Senkos, Jigs, Buzzbait, Wacky Rigged Finesse Worm
2-20
Senkos were fished texposed and wacky rigged. Jigs were crawled in deeper channel areas, finnesse worms were fished around stumps
Not a bad day, rain was terrible, and wind not so good, but partner and did boat 19. 13 for me and 6 for him. i caught my two biggest on the jig and trailer on deep channel bends. Then two on wacky rigged finesse worm, and all the rest on Senkos on shallow flats. Actually not a bad day we had problably 3 - 4 times as many hits as fish caught. wind made it hard to get good hook sets plus we had 6 break offs on larger fish. Most of the fish caught on shallow flats on Senkos looked like small buck bass. Maybe they are moving back on the shallows to prepare the beds for spawn.
Name: Gaston Mike
Email:
Date: 04/27/05
Time: 10am/5pm
Lake Gaston
bluebird wind from west cloudy late
temp 57-70 clear to staineed
lower lake up to Songbird
10 bass few crappie
spinnerbait-stained water plastics -clear water
shallow
around docks backs of coves
Cold fronts are killing me!!! Saw lots of bass under docks sunning themselves. no pattern I could find caught them all over. From the main lake to rear of coves
Name: pikemaster
Email:
Date: 4/28/05
Time: 8-2
chowan river
sunny and windy at times
63 degrees
New core area
stripers and largemouth
husky jerks and spinnerbaits
14ft and less
Trolled for stripers and caught more than 30. biggest being 5lbs 7 oz. alot of 4 pounders caught. Largemouth were on the bank. Fished for about 30 minutes and caught 2 nice size ones.
any body that wants to catch stripers then now is the time to go to the chowan. the 30th of april is the last day you can keep them in the chowan. nc licenses cost 10 dollars for a day of fishing or 30 dollars for year. its well worth it.
Name: pikemaster
Email:
Date: 4/26/05
Time: 8am-1pm
chowan river
overcast, light drizzle
temp 60-62
down stream of route 13 bridge
stripers and largemouth
stick baits and spinnerbaits
12 feet and less
trolled for the stripers. all came in about 12 feet or less. caught 20 plus off 8 ft divers. largemouth caught off spinnerbaits in creek. 10 bass, 6 good tournament size bass.
first time "really" fishing the chowan river. was suprised about catching qualitiy bass like we did. striper fishing was awesome. beats the nottoway and blackwater river. the stripers seem not to be in the blackwater hot and heavy yet and have yet to catch one in there. water temps seems to be keepin the stripers in the chowan. water temp was 61. the blackwater temp is 65. fished a tourn sunday, if we caught the size of bass we caught in the chowan we would have won the tourn. best 5 bass weighed 13 lbs. sunday 10 lbs won it.
Name: Dwayne
Email:
Date: 4/27/05
Time: 1-4 pm
Swift Creek Reservoir
WINDY, mid 60's
stained
south end of the lake (20 mph south wind kept me off the North side)1-10 feet of water close the the bank
2 bass, 2 pickeral, 1 perch, one bicycle, yes a bicycle.
1 bass on a buzzbait (1.5#) one on a X-Rap (2#) pickeral and perch on the x-rap. One pickeral was a biggun, maybe 3-4 #, didn't wiegh.
0-10 feet
slow jerk with the suspending x-rap.
VERY WINDY!!!
Name: Bill
Email: BigFishAddict@aol.com
Date: 04/26/05
Time: 12n-1230p
private pond in Rockville
sunny and windy
stained, didnt bring a therm.
fished the bank that the wind was blowing against the most
1 LMB, 6lbs, 21"
a gold and green colored rat-l-trap
4-5'
pumping the rat-l-trap
Well I wasnt supposed to be fishin today, but decided to sneak off to the pond today for 30 minutes or so since I always keep a rod in the truck for that reason. Man was it worth it. I caught my biggest bass ever!!! Of course it was because I went un-prepared. (no tape measure,no camera, only had my scale). Luckily the pond owner saw me and came out with his camera and tape. I'll send in the pic as soon as he e-mails it to me.
Name: Dan
Email:
Date: 4/24/05
Time: 6am-9:30am
Rappahannock River
high 40s to low 50s
up a few inches from yesterday, muddied by rain
Between Route 1 Bridge and powerlines just downstream.
73 Shad and 2 Herring...partner got 25
custom-made shad darts, small grubs, gold spoons
2-6 feet?
reel slow and add small jerks every few seconds
I was suprised to find I was the first on that water this morning. After a few casts I was skeptical, just watched stripers jumping, but then they turned on like crazy. Bit every cast for three hours, probably hooked over 100 and landed 75. My fishin' partner was five feet away and only managed 25 (guess I found the spot).
Name: Vyper- P&J Fishing Enterprises
Email:
Date: 4/23/05
Time: 7-2
Buggs Island (Kerr Lake)
Overcast in AM, clearing mid morning. 10-20 mph wind
Clear. 65-67 degrees
Bluestone, Buffalo, Orange, Grassy
2 green fish!
Blade, jig, crankbait, buzzbait
6in-18ft. Water was 303 and in the bush.
I tried all I could think of! :)
Missed a few fish and lost a couple. They were hitting very light, really had to feel for them.
Name: Jeff Banko
Email:
Date: 4/23/05
Time: 7-4
Lake Gaston
Windy, mostly cloudy, cold front moving in.
Slight stain
Pea Hill
None for me 2 for my partner
jogs, finesse worms, spinnerbait, c-rig, rattle trap
2 - 20 feet
Two fish that were caught were on a slider head rigged with a finesse worm fishing docks.
Fished the Federation REgion 6 tourney today. Horrible day for me only a few solid hits and no hook ups. Partner Willy Kinder caught two that were in the 12 - 14 inch slot. only bite we could even somewhat put together was the finesse worms on docks. wind made that real hard though. My past two tourneys bit for me to say the least I just don't handle these cold fronts well at all right now.
Name: Rich K
Email:
Date: 4/22/05
Time: 5 PM - 7 PM
Lower James River (Appomatox)
Overcast clearing
Dingy 62'ish
Old River Channel
2 LMB 1 - 1 1/2 Lbs
Jerkbait/Senko
1-5'
Slow
Took my Neighbor kid fishing for his first time (on a boat), we didn't have a lot of time for the VAFISHING "research" that I would have liked as the tide was getting where I have a lot of succes in this area when we had to leave. He caught the bigger of the 2 on the senko T-Rigged with a light slip sinker to fight the current at about the same time I caught mine. We made a few more casts and then left.
Name: Wayne P.
Email: purdum43@aol.com
Date: 04/22/05
Time: 8:00-6:00
Briery Creek
Cloudy 50-65
62-66 dingy at the South end clear with pollen at midlake
South end and midlake
33 Bass
Wacky rigged finesse worm
3'-10'
Fished drops near spawning areas, painfully slow with the weedless wacky rig to get deeper. Used a small finishing nail in the worm head get longer casts and a faster sink rate.
Caught my personal best largemouth at 10 pounds and 4 ounces. The guy that uses a ladder on his boat for sight fishing held the fish in his livewell until I could get my camera set up and then he weighed it and took the pictures. Blackielee was there too and saw it. I'll send Jeff a picture.
Name: mark s
Email:
Date: 4-20-05
Time: 2 pm to 7 pm
Briery Creek
lil windy warm
great
by ramp at dam
l m b
lizard, fluke
5ft to bank
slow rolling at bank
guys it is on, water 70 degrees they are on beds with companion buck bass they are really hot today, full moon friday so the first eave should spawn. now is the time to get her guys. good luck. the board is getting filled up at worshams
Name: D Cook
Email: cookster764@cox.net
Date: 4/17/05
Time: 8:30am-3:15p
Briery Creek
72 degrees slight breeze
clear-cold 58-61 degrees
South of 701 dock-then back North of 701 dock
1 LMB-small
Whole tackle box. Finesse worms, spinner baits, crank baits, Texas rig, Carolina rig, top water. Tried everything.
Shore to 14 feet
Fast, slow roll, jig to no avail.
Tough day, I think the cold water temp layed them down. I did see several beds, but only one had Bass. (approx 2.5 - 3#) tried for 1/2 hr to catch. Senko, lizzard, worms. Nothin' doin'.Try again next week. Hope with warm week, water temp will come back up and turn them on.
Name: Trey Goodman
Email: hookpuller@yahoo.com
Date: 4/16/05
Time: 7:00-4:00
Lower James River
WINDY
1-2ft vis
Pits
LMB
Carolina rig, spinnerbait
1-14
fished the hooters tournament yesterday on the james. Tough day of fishing, very sunny and windy. We only had 4 bites all day. Broke one off and landed 3 that went 11.82 total.
Name: Jeff Banko
Email:
Date: 04/16/05
Time: 7 - 3
Buggs Island (Kerr Lake)
Sunny but windy
Stained 54 - 56 degree temps
Eastland Creek and Butchers Creek
None
Everything, jigs, Creatures, Crankbaits, Spinnerbaits
1-30 FEET TRIED IT ALL
Club tourney today. Pretty tough day other than a few guys most were lucky if they caught one that just made the size. Had some hits but nothing real solid. Wind made it real tough. In hindsight should have run around more to find warmer water areas as that seemed to be where anybody who did good was. Oh well live and learn.
Name: Wayne P.
Email: purdum43@aol.com
Date: 04/16/05
Time: 6:30-3:30
Smith Mountain
Sunny 32-60 degrees, Windy 10-20 mph
clear 49-54 degrees down lake of the State Park.
Wind blown points from State Park to Craddock Creek and in Craddork Creek
4 smallmouth, 3 largemouth- best 4 was about 12 1/4 lbs
3/16 oz. chartreuse spinnerbait with double chart. willows
3'-8'
Threw spinnerbait on wind blown points with retrieve about 2'-3' below surface
Fished a bass club tournament with a 4 bass limit. Two limits were around 11 1/2 pounds and mine was about 12 1/4 pounds-1st place. Air temp was around freezing at daylight and got to low 60's in the afternoon, very windy. Most of the club members fished uplake from the State Park and the water was 5 or more degrees warmer. Largest smallmouth was 4 1/4 today and I caught a 4 1/2 smallmouth practicing Friday. Total for two days was 10 smallmouth and 4 largemouth
Name: Dan
Email:
Date: 4/15
Time: 7 to 10am
Rappahannock River
low 40s to 50, 10-13 mph E wind
clearin' up nicely
between Rt. 1 bridge (fall line) and some power lines just downstream
46 Shad
chartreuse grubs, various colored shad darts
1-6
Casted out about 30 feet, stripped about three feet of line off before closing bail, waited a few seconds to let the line tighten and start to swing towards the shore- then quick jerks with slow reel winding in between. I'm only so specific because people next to me couldn't catch them until they changed up their presentation to match mine.
Was a great morning despite the wind. Will be very crowded this weekend with the beautiful weather on the way.
Name: Hokie Bassin42
Email: scweaver@vt.edu
Date: 4/9/05
Time: 7 am / 3 pm
Smith Mountain
Sunny with wind gusts
Stained/ 60 degrees
Hales Ford bridge and down lake to beaver dam
Largemouth
chartruese 6'' lizard, wacky rig watermelon w/black flakes yamamoto senko, 4-8' crankbait
3-10'
Slowly bumped the lizard around docks and points. Slow presentation with the wacky rig around docks. Fished the crankbait on wind blown points.
Outstanding day for SML. Caught a 4.5 and a 4 lb fish on the wacky rig around docks. On the lizard I landed a 3lb and several more around the 10-13 inch range. My buddy caught a nice fish over 3lb on a crankbait fishin a wind blown point. The key with the soft plastics was definitly making sure you were patient.
Name: Bill
Email: BigFishAddict@aol.com
Date: 04/14/05
Time: 1pm-330pm
Sandy River Reservoir
Sunny but very windy
Clear
Wind was whitecapping the lake here too so fished some coves and points trying to get out of it.
Same as Briery this morning. None!
Mostly spinner baits.
drop offs on points and shallow in coves
Since Briery wouldnt give one up to us this morning I thought for sure we would have better luck at Briery. It wasnt meant to be today. Wind again played a factor, or so I keep telling myself. Havent caught a bass since fall, Im ready to break this slump. I went home discouraged and depressed, but I'll be back.
Name: Bill
Email: BigFishAddict@aol.com
Date: 04/14/05
Time: 8am-1230pm
Briery Creek
sunny but very windy
white caps on the main lake
up lake of the 701 ramp.
didnt even see one much less catch one.
Jig & Pig, rat-l-trap, c-rig lizard, spinners. Too windy for the wacky rig worm.
1-20
Well we went. It was a very discouraging day. The wind was AWFUL! If you saw us you might have thought we were fly fishing the way the wind was whipping line. Made it hard to fish and even harder to control the boat. Did talk to another boater that got a 6.5# and a 2# on spinners. We only got stuck a couple of times and my T/M is still intact.We gave up and headed to Sandy around 12:30.
Name: Bill
Email: BigFishAddict@aol.com
Date: 04/13/05
Time: mid-day
Lower James River
Was supposed to be raining, almost called it off but it cleared up, windy though.
Getting clearer up river.
Between I-95 bridge and the R/R tracks.
White Perch and lots of them.
Sabiki Rig with six hooks.
Well the weather turned out to be pretty decent after all. Went with my regular fishing partner and we caught close to 100 White Perch! On some casts we were reeling in 5 at a time. The fishing was awesome. Kept several for eating and threw the rest back for another day. Had a couple that were very close to citation size but not. Catching that many I had hoped for a citation.
Name: Bill R.
Email:
Date: 04/09
Time: 2 to 600 pm
Westneck Creek Va beach
partly cloudy, winds blowing n-ne 10+, but layed down to lite wind around 430
lightly muddy
points, windward side of creek, sturcture off shore lines. water was down almost 2 feet
white preach, bass (big bass was 14" 1 1/2 lbs
round head jigs, white or pumkin
5 to 2 feet
slow, jumping on bottom around wood and stumbs
alot of fish moving the bait around but only a few bites, talked to dewry at westneck mariner, crappie and bass was biting strong until the strong n.e. winds blew water down
Name: Dan
Email:
Date: 4/12
Time: 8am to 10am
Rappahannock River
Windy, mid 40s
High/Fast/Muddy
above and below Rt. 1 bridge
8 Shad
shad darts
2-6ft.
sweep and reel technique. hooked 12, landed 8. from half a pound up to 3 pounds. few more days til river calms enough to catch em every cast.
Name: Rich K
Email:
Date: 4/11/05
Time: 1 - 5 PM
Lower James River / Appomatox
Clear upper 60's windy
62-64 deg heavy chop below Benjamin Harris Bridge
Mouth of Herring Creek/Old Appomatox River Channel
1 LMB in the Appomatox
Spinner through wood
1-14
Bounced spinner through laydowns
Well, I managed to sneak out and get on the water finally. I was aiming for some shad at first, but I lost any hope for it as the further down river I went the bigger the chop got. Two foot white caps, and strong winds downstream of the B.H. Bridge. I tried to fish anyway, but way too windy. I was seeing huge schools on the fishfinder. I motored back up through Hopewell, and fished the old river channel for the rest of the day. Managed (1) 13.5" LMB, and numerous short strikes before calling it a day.
Name: Trey Goodman
Email: hookpuller@yahoo.com
Date: 04/11/05
Time: 8:00-3:00
Lower James River
Sunny
stained
Pits on lower James and Appomattox rivers.
Bass and Crappie
Tx rigged plastics, spinnerbaits, 1/32oz Crappie jig
2-15
Started off the day hitting the pits. Caught a few bass on plastics and one on spinnerbait. Decided to run up in the Appomattox and try Crappie fishing. Caught 25-30 in about an hour and a half. Later in the afternoon we were fishing in the Meads pit and I happened to see a huge gar cruising just below the surface. I see lots of them in the river but this one was a monster. I couldnt resist pitching a floating worm to him......game on!!!!!! He stripped about 60ft of line off then the hook popped out.
Name: Bill
Email: BigFishAddict@aol.com
Date: 04/11/05
Time: 12p-430p
Lower James River
Beautiful day, Sunny and warm, no clouds
still a little muddy
Upper end of the lower James near the head of tide, between the I-95 bridge and the R/R bridge.
White Perch, Shad, Blue Herring, and one baby Crappie.
Sabiki rig on light rod and reel
everything
cast and sweep
After getting blanked at Briery yesterday, I was in need of confidence builder, so I took my son shad fishing. It was his best day fishing ever and pretty darn good for me too. We caught and released 86 good sized, hard fighting , shad and blue herring in 4 1/2 hours. Also caught about a dozen nice white perch that I gave to my neighbor for dinner. Boy we wore them out today. It made up for yesterday in my book.
Name: Wayne P.
Email: purdum43@ao;.com
Date: 04/11/05
Time: 8:30-6:00
Briery Creek
Sunny 60-75 degrees, windy afternoon
stained, 61-64 degrees
South end most of the day and mid-lake the last two hours
32 bass with largest 7-9
Spinnerbait, Rat-L-Trap, wacky rigged finesse worm
3'-8'
Fished areas with sloping bottom since the shallows are weedy and slimy. Largest fish were on deeper horizonal logs/trees. Smaller ones were on stumps. Used a nail weight to get the finesse worm to the deeper depths faster.
Did not catch any shallow and saw a few beds in 2'or less depths. Mid lake, I saw a bass making a bed 4' deep by a submerged log-caught it, 3 1/2 lbs. Used the spinnerbait and Trap in 3'-5' depths and the finesse worm in 3'-8' depths.
Name: WLD Nitro
Email:
Date: 4-10-05
Time: 8:am to 7:pm
Briery Creek & Sandy River
Partly Cloudy
Light Stain
Briery Creek - Dam to Mid Lake Sandy River - Dam to Left Branch
Bass- Boat #1-2 / Boat #2-11 / Boat #3-1 / Best Fish 3lb
Crank Bait, Worm, Spinner Bait, Jig
2'to 10'
Was slow try every thing we could
We had 3 Boat out today, My Cousin all went out & hit all over both lakes , --- Briery Creek ------ Sandy River ------ Boat #1 2 0 boat #2 5 6 Boat #3 0 1
Name: Wayne (CajunBass)
Email: CajunBass@AOL.com
Date: 4/8-9/05
Time: 9-6, 12-6
Ni River Reservoir
Decent.
Clear
All over
Largemouth bass, chain pickerel
Spinnerbaits, carolina rigged worms/lizards
0-10
Slow rolling spinnerbaits, carolina rigging points
Had a fairly good day Friday, with six small bass, and one pickerel that was 24" inches. Saturday was a post cold front day. High blue skies, a bit of a breeze, but warmer. We only caught 4 fish, but I had one over 3, and my wife had one about 5.
Name: PIKEMASTER
Email:
Date: 4/10/15
Time: 2-7
BLACKWATER RIVER
SUNNY WITH A LITTLE BREEZ
63-65 DEGREES
DOWNSTREAM FROM 189 DIRT BOAT RAMP.
BASS, BLACKFISH, PIKE
CRANKBAIT, SENKO, C-RIG LIZARD, T-RIG CRAWDAD
1-8 FT
START OUT WITH A SENKO AND CAUGHT A BASS OFF OF IT. HAD THREE PIKE HIT IT AND TOOK THE SENKO RIGHT OFF THE HOOK ALL THREE TIMES. SWITCHED TO CRANKBAIT AND CAUGHT 2 BASS IN 10 MINUTES. ONE BEING OVER 3 LBS AND FAT AS CAN BE. WHERE I CAUGHT THAT 3+ BASS I C-RIG A LIZARD IN THE SAME SPOT AND CAUGHT A 5 POUND BLACKFISH. THOUGHT I HAD A BIG BASS ON FOR A COUPLE OF SECONDS. SO I THREW THE CRANKBAIT AGAIN AND FINALLY CAUGHT MY NICKNAME, A PIKE. FIVE MINUTES LATER I CAUGHT MY SECOND BLACKFISH OFF OF THE CRANKBAIT. RAN BACK UP THE RIVER AND LANDED MY 3RD BLACKFISH OFF OF A T-RIG CRAWDAD. NOT BAD FOR 5 HOURS OF FISHING. 3 BASS, 3 BLACKFISH, AND 1 PIKE.
ALOT OF PEOPLE TROLLIN FOR STRIPERS. DIDNT TRY 2DAY. ON ONE SHORE LINE THERE MUST OF BEEN 30 GAR ALL TOGETHER. ONE WAS ABOUT 5 FT LONG, THOUGHT IT WAS A LOG AT FIRST. TRIED FISHIN FOR THEM WITH RED COLORED BAITS. COULDNT GET 1 TO BUDGE. MUST HAVE BEEN SUNNIN THEIRSELVES. GOOD LUCK
Name: PIKEMASTER
Email:
Date: 04/09/05
Time: 11-5
NOTTAWAY RIVER
WINDY
63-66 DEGREES
FISHED ROUND GUT AND BRONCO CLUB
PIKE
PINK SENKOS
1-4FT
TRIED CRANKING, CR, SPINNERBAIT, TEX RIG. SENKO WAS THE ONLYTHING WORKIN. LOST 2 BASS OFF THE SENKO AND CAUGHT 4 PIKE. DECIDED TO CHANGE MY NAME,,,,,,,,THE ONLY THING I SEEM TO CATCH IS PIKE. TRIED PUTTIN IN AT ROUND GUT, HAD THE WHOLE TRUCK IN THE WATER, IT WAS WAY TO SHALLOW, SO I DECIDED TO GO TO 258 RAMP AND RUN TO ROUND GUT. TOOK AWHILE WITH MY LITTLE 9.9. NICE RIDE ON A WINDY DAY GOIN 17MPH.
SEEMS LIKE A TOURNAMENT WAS HELD AT 258 BOAT RAMP. HOPE YOU ALL HAD BETTER LUCK.
Name: Jeffrey Banko
Email:
Date: 4/10/05
Time: 7:00 - 6:30
Briery Creek
Very Sunny, light breeze
Light Stain temps from 58-60
From Powerline all the way to the south end. Then some of the mid lake Western Shore
1 LMB Small, 1 Pickerel
Jigs, Magnum Worms, Rattle Trap, Assorted Crankbaits, Weedless Wacky Finesse Worm
5-30
Only fish caught and best hits were on the magnum worms pitched towards tree. Had some hits on Jigs but all short strikes. Bunch of short strikes on the magnum worm also. Just could not figure out a good solid bite today.
Fished with BassinBill today to show him around Briery. At least he got to see a lot of the lake. Fishing for us was not so good.
Name: country boy
Email:
Date: 4/10/05
Time: 10:00-5:00
Sandy River Reservoir
Sunny & Warm
mid to upper end of lake and at the bridge
Bass & crappie
suspending cranks, road runners & sink-o's in the evening
1 to 6 ft
medium to moderate retrieve
The big ones are at the beds if you want to take time to go after them. This usually translates into Briarys conditions So they should be bedding there to.
Name: Wayne P.
Email: purdum43@aol.com
Date: 04/09/05
Time: 8:00-5:30
Briery Creek
Sunny/ WINDY northery-15-20/ 45-65 degrees
Stained 58-62 temp.
South of the powerline
21 Bass-no big ones
Rat-L-Trap, spinnerbait, plastic crawfish-Tx rigged
1'-6'
Fished the trees/stumps close to channel drops. Too windy to use my favorite finesse techniques.
It was cold and windy in the morning and warmed up as the day progressed, but the wind remained at a steady pace. Parking lot was about 1/2 full, I guess the post cold front conditions kept some away. Spent a lot of time removing green slime off the lures.
Name: mikey t
Email:
Date: 04/07/05
Time: 3:00p-7:00p
nottaway river
windy, windy, windy
white caps and current
mouth of blackwater and 1st corner past 258 bridge
bass
cranbait
2-8ft
caught all the bass on 1st corner. 2 dinks, 1 3.5lbs, 1 2.5lbs, 1 2lbs. fished cypress trees. cast cast and more cast.
Name: Trey Goodman
Email: Hookpuller@yahoo.com
Date: 04/07/05
Time: 9:00-1:00
Sandy River Reservoir
Overcast/Windy
1-2 ft vis
Went to left under bridge. Fished coves and pockets staying out of wind as much as possible.
10 bass....9 less than 2lbs and one 4.5lbs.
TX rig plastics
2-12 ft
Fished the best I could trying to stay out of wind. Fishing was good today but it was hard to feel a bite with 6ft of slack in line from the wind.
Name: Kc188
Email:
Date: 4/7/2005
Time: 10 - 2 p.m.
Lower James River
Cloudy and Very windy
Muddy
Actually fished the Appomattox river.
Large mouth Bass
Spinnerbait, crankbait, soft plastic craw
5-7 feet
slow presentation is what I caught the fish on.
Wow, it was windy. I had to locate areas to get out of the wind. Started with spinnerbait and crankbait without a hit. Then switced to a soft plastic craw and caught two nice LMB. Both of these came out of the same area, off of a rocky bank. Water temps were a consistent 60 degrees and muddy
Name: Wayne P.
Email: purdum43@aol.com
Date: 04/05/05
Time: 9:30-5:30
Briery Creek
Sunny high 75
stained 54-64, clearing in the creeks.
mid to upper areas
27 Bass
Rat-L-Trap, wacky rigged finesse worm
0-6'
Fished channel edges until the water temp got above 60 and then fished shallow. Caught some against the shoreline and middle of the lake under logs by dragging the worm over the logs and letting it fall beside them. Largest was 6 lbs. 4 oz. and several in the #4-#5 class. Fished the Trap along the channel drops and drops on the edge of open water.
10 trailers in the 701 parking lot when I got there. Met a couple of guys from Pennsylvania that read the FishinMusician site.
Name: Basskat
Email:
Date: 04/03/05
Time:
Buggs Island (Kerr Lake)
Sunny and windy big time
Heavy Stain
Ivy Hill
Bass
Spinnerbait, crankbaits, jerks, and pig/jig
3 to 10
slow medium
Fished Bassmaster Weekend Series Sunday. Not a bad day, Finished 61st of 169 boats with 6-3Big time windy, never seen that big of rollers on an inland lake. Water over the bow many times and bilge running wide open. Lot of fish caught, think most everyone stayed in Nutbush and wasn't crazy like my boater and me running up the lake. Tightlines
Name: Blackie Lee
Email: blackielee2003@yahoo.com
Date: 04/04/05
Time: 7:00AM4:30PM
Lower James River
Windy
Muddy
Dutch Gap area
Striper/Blue catfish
Cut shad
2ft.to 27ft.
Bottom fishing
Water was high but not as high as I thought it would be. Lots of stuff in the muddy water. Oh and a little windy too. Doug and I was able to catch one little striper about 18 inches and three catfish 18,20 and one 31 pounds. And did I mention all caught and released in the Dutch Gap area.
Name: mikey t
Email:
Date:
Time:
nottaway river
cloudy
56 deg in coves
past monroe bridge coming from 258 boat ramp
4 bass, 1 catfish (7lbs), 1 yellow perch, 1 pike
tex style lizard, pumpkin/chart
2-10ft
drag on bottom near fallen wood.
check out the web site three rivers bass club. this is local club out of franklin club that holds tourn on the nottoway river on 258 boatramp. it is new and needs club memembers. if you never had the experience to fish a tourn for fun this is the place to do it. you have a chance to do what you love to do and a chance to win money. so check out the web site for rules and regs.
Name: Bill
Email: BigFishAddict@aol.com
Date: 04/02/05
Time: 12-130pm
Lower James River
Heavy rain
high and muddy
Ancarrows landing, same place as yesterday.
American Shad, Blueback Herring, Alewife
Sabiki rig
Sweep and reel
Caught a few more today but the rain was pounding. Couldnt take it for too long. River is still a mess. Caught all fish by snagging them, mostly in the tail. Im still waiting for some clean water for the bite.
Name: Jeffrey Banko
Email: vafishing@comcast.net
Date: 4/2/05
Time: 7:00 - 3:00
Buggs Island (Kerr Lake)
Windy, heavy rain at times
Stained
Nutbush, by Henderson Point.
1 LMB 3.5 #. Partner had one around 2 lost at the boat
Jigs, Spinner Baits, Speed Trap, Rattle Trap, C-Rig
5 - 14 ft
Pitched to trees in flooded areas, but very selectively to trees that would normally be in the water.
Tough fishing conditions. Real heavy waves all day due to the windy conditons. Tried just abouit everything but only bite we had was on the pitched jigs. Wind made it tough to tell bites so missed a couple of others with late hook sets.
Name: Bill
Email: BigFishAddict@aol.com
Date: 04/01/05
Time: 1pm -2pm
Lower James River
overcast but comfortable
high and very muddy, big debris has mostly subsided
On the stone wall above Ancarrows landing on the south side of the James in Richmond.
8 fish in 1 hour. 4 American Shad, 2 Alewife, 1 Blueback Herring and 1 confused blue catfish.
Sabiki Rig,6, #8 gold hooks with wings
all
cast as far as you can then retrieve with a sweeping motion
They're here!! I have been trying for a few days with no luck. Rivers a mess. Tried again today and caught one on the 1st cast. Only had an hour to fish before working the evening shift. It payed off. All fish were caught snagged, not mouth hooked. This tells me the river is still too muddy for the fish to see the lures but also tells me there are significant numbers of shad in the river to be able to snag that many in an hour. All fish were big for shad and they fought surprisingly very hard. The blue herring I caught was the biggest of all and the biggest one I have ever seen or caught. I was in my dress clothes and didnt have scales or tape. We luckily missed todays rain. If Saturdays downpours dont happen we will be into them big time. Im going back in the morning. I didnt see anyone else fishing for them because of the high water, but they are there. Bill
Name: Trey Goodman
Email: hookpuller@yahoo.com
Date: 04/01/05
Time: 9:00-4:00
Sandy River Reservoir
Cloudy, Breezy
Varied
Windy Banks, Points
Bass
Spinnerbait, Jig, and Shadrap
2-10
Slowrolled a spinnerbait most of the day today. Caught 12 fish. 2 good ones. Water was muddier the further you went from the dam in either direction.
Name: Gaston Mike
Email:
Date: 03/30/05
Time: after 9-3ish
Lake Gaston
great all week
slight stain to clear
started the week in the creeks lower lake now the whole lake is good
bass and lots of them
everything
shallow out to 7
slow, plastic works best,shallow areas near deep channels even the main lake is working
Name: Tim Davis
Email: Tdavis596@pmtnet.net
Date: 3/30/05
Time: 2pm-6;30
Smith Mountain
beautiful 70 degrees
stained and found water to 59.9
becky and bettys
6 largemouth from 2-3 lbs each nothing under 14 and all fat . missed 6 I guess they were hitting blades . would just about jerk rod out of your hand when they hit it
terminator spinnerbait
2-8 ft
some were in 2 ft. of water or less and some were off dock poles half way back in creeks
wished I could have fished all day
Name: BIG WORMER
Email:
Date: 03/27/05
Time: 8:00 - 2 :00
Buggs Island (Kerr Lake)
overcast and 60 degrees
slightly stained
near Merifield landing strip, dropoffs, and blowdowns
Largmouth Bass (3) biggest being close to 4 lbs.
White Yamoamoto Kreature baits and Chatreuse Booyah 3/8 spinner baits with tails
1' - 18'
flipped and pitched the plastic and slow rolled the spinnerbait
good day all in all. found most fish shallow in heavy cover and deeper off of drop offs
Name: Trey Goodman
Email: hookpuller@yahoo.com
Date: 03/29/05
Time: 10:00-4:00
Lake Gaston
Partly Sunny and WINDY!!!!!
1-3 ft vis
Poplar Creek
Bass (6)
Rattle Trap, Zoom craw
2-15
Caught one with the trap on rocky point and the rest on docks with the Zoom Craw. Couldnt really fish many docks that I wanted due to the crazy wind. All of the fish were less than 2 lbs.
Did I mention it was windy today????
Name: mark s
Email:
Date: 3-28-05
Time: 3 pm to 6 pm
nottoway lake
cloudy, rainy , overcast
53 degrees, 2.5 ft visibility clean
points if creeks and grassy areas from shallow 6 to 8 ft to 20 ft
largemouth bass, 1 bass 7.7 lbs, 1-- 4 lbs, 2-- 3 lbs
worm, shad rap
shallow to deep main points
slow
beautiful lake looks like a mini briery. man caught a 10.9 last week on minnow. picture may be on photo page, if webmaster will do it since it is not real big fish.
Name: Rick
Email: Richard_Hajecki@VWR.com
Date: 3/25&26
Time: ALL Day
Buggs Island (Kerr Lake)
Cloudy and Calm
Stained
Bluestone on Friday and Grassy on Saturday.
5 Bass each day
Firetiger and Chartruse crankbaits/1oz spinnerbait
Shore to 10ft
Cranked deep clay banks.
Fished on Kerr for the first time on Friday and Saturday. Didnt kill them but we put a limit in the boat each day. Fish ranged from 10in to 3.5 lbs. Fished bluestone on Friday and Grassy on Saturday. Used firetiger and chartruse crankbaits on clay banks with depth in front of them. It was a very interesting experience and cant wait to come back. Thinking about coming back during Thanksgiving. Any input on that time of the year for Kerr. Oh yeah by the way I would like to put in a request for some weeds please! Boy was it diferent then the lakes in NY.
Name: Ken Jackson P&J Enterprises
Email:
Date: 03/25/05
Time: 7:30-4:00
Buggs Island (Kerr Lake)
Heavy overcast...some ligh drizzle
Slight stain...51-53 degrees
Rudds and main lake
Caught 4...all 2-3 lbs.
Crank bait
0-8 ft
Slow...kept the bait digging. Fish seemed to be cruising the flats.
Name: Ken Jackson P&J Enterprises
Email:
Date: 3/25/05
Time: 7:30-4:00
Buggs Island (Kerr Lake)
Heavy overcast...some ligh drizzle
Slight stain...51-53 degrees
Rudds and main lake
Caught 4...all 2-3 lbs.
Crank bait
0-8 ft
Slow...kept the bait digging. Fish seemed to be cruising the flats.
Name: WLD Nitro
Email:
Date: 3-26-05
Time: 9:am to 6:pm
Lake Gaston
Cloudy
50 Degree & Vis 2'
Peahill to Gaston Dam
8 Bass from 1 1/2lb to 2lb
Crank Bait
5' to 10'
Slow Cranking
Well my cousin had a good day, he caught 7 of the 8, well he getting me back for last year,we caught all 8 in peahill creek well better luck on catching the big one next time. WLD Nitro
Name: WLD Nitro
Email:
Date: 3-25-05
Time: 9:am to 6:pm
Lake Chesdin
Cloudy to Rain to Cloudy
Vis 1'
Mid Lake to Dam
1 Bass/ Small
Crank Bait
5' to 10'
Slow Cranking
Fish all day, my cousin caught one around 5:pm, well better luck next time. WLD Nitro
Name: Tim Davis
Email: Tdavis596@pmtnet.net
Date: 03/27/05
Time: 8-4
Buggs Island (Kerr Lake)
cloudy,damp and cool
stained 53 degrees
Rudds creek
largemouth-one 5and a couple ounces ,one 4.25, one a around 3 and one dink
spinnerbaits and crankbaits
8-12 ft
slow rolled spinnerbbait over water 12- 14 ft
fishing was tough but we finally got a few on the main creek channels
Name: Tim Davis
Email: Tdavis596@pmtnet.net
Date: 03/27/05
Time:
Buggs Island (Kerr Lake)
Name: bill riggs
Email: bassin231@verizon.net
Date: 3/26
Time: 10. to 3:30
westneck creek
partly cloudy
dirty down about 1 ft
wind side of upper west neck creek
white preach, biggest caught 111/2 inchs and about 14 oz
small to mid. minnows
5 to 2 ft
floating bobbers around structure and drop offs
best the water looked lately, alot of fish moving on surface on windard side of creek,wind was out of east to northeast 5 to 10 at all times
Name: gjd
Email:
Date: 3/25/05
Time: 7:00-3:00
Lower James River
cool light wind 50
55 stained, outgiong tide.
barge pitts
CAUGHT TWO, 1 1/2 LB AND 4 1/2 LB. many missed strikes
SPINNER BAITS AND RATTLE TRAPS
10 ft.
BURNING RATTLE TRAPS OVER COVER. ROLLING SPINNER BAIT 1 FOOT BELOW THE SURFACE
Name: Jeff Banko
Email: vafishing@comcast.net
Date: 3/26
Time: 6 - 11:30 am
Lower James River
Cloudy and Breezy. Occasional light drizzle
Muddy
Pye Alley on the Appomattox and Barge Pits
1 dink largemouth
jigs and spinnerbaits
1 - 10
jig and trailer slow drag. Spinnerbait slow rolled
Tough day, water seemed way up was muddy with a good ammount of debris. Did not think we had that much rain the other day. Only fish I saw all day were on the spinnerbait. Had a few short strikes before I finally boated the dink. Probably could have caught more if could have used a trailer hook but so much garbage in the water made that undoable.
Name: Wayne P.
Email: purdum43@aol.com
Date: 03/26/05
Time: 9:30-4:00
Briery Creek
Cloudy 45-50
Slight stain in feeder creeks,clearer with 2' or greater visibility downlake 49 midlake,53 uplake
Feeder creek area on the edge of the stained incoming water.
9 bass and 1 pickerel
1/2 0z Rat-L-Trap and 1/4 oz. Super Spot
3'-8'
Slow retrieve-Ripped lipless cranks through weeds Did not catch any on plastics even though I tried a flipping tube,Sweet Beaver, Senko, Trick Worm and Finesse worm.
Warmest water was on the edge of the stained runoff and only went up 1 degree in the afternoon with the Northerly wind.
Name: Vyper of P&J Enterprise
Email:
Date: 3/26/200
Time: 7am-4 pm
Buggs Island (Kerr Lake)
Overcast,mild wind, air temp-low 50s
slightly off color
Grassy Creek, Rudds Creek
Four largemouth
Traps, Shad Raps, Jerkbaits
0-18ft
Traps were burned, cranks were a moderate retrieve, jerks were stop and go.
Glad I caught the four I did, talked to a lot of guys and everyone was struggling.
Name: Jeff Banko
Email: vafishing@comcast.net
Date: 3/25/05
Time: 12 12:15
Innsbrook lakes
Cloudy, slight drizzle, maybe 50 degrees
Muddy
Lake by innsbrook Pavillion
1 LMB 3#
Jig and Trailer
?
Slow drag.
Popped into the Innsbrook lake by Innsbrook Pavillion today (Can fish it because my company has offices in Innsbrook). Fished for like 15 minutes on lunch, caught one chunky 3# Largemouth.
Name: Trey Goodman
Email: Hookpuller@yahoo.com
Date: 03/24/05
Time: 10am to 3pm
Lake Chesdin
Cloudy and a little windy
1-3 ft
Main lake points
LMB
Shad Rap, Jerkbait, Jig, Rattletrap.
2-14 ft
Started off with jerkbait moving aound looking for warmer water. Warmest found was 53deg. Caught 6, one fish on shad rap in a creek but the rest came off of the rattletrap fished slow on main lake points.
Name: Rich K
Email:
Date: 03/22/05
Time: 1:30 - 5:30
Lower James River (Appomatox)
Clear, w/light winds
outgoing tide 52 deg avg
Pye Alley, old river channel
(2) striper, 5 - 7 Lbs
Super Fluke
1-2'
Threw into where the birds were diving as a school passed by, and just light twitches of the rod tip.
Had a few pick ups while bass fishing with jig n' pig on channel points, but I haven't yet mastered the finesse style of fishing. I saw the birds diving and heading straight toward me as I was packing up, so I threw the fluke for the heck of it. The two Stripers were caught on consecutive casts. Made one more cast, and left for the day. I talked to two retired gents at the ramp while loading up, they had about 25 cats under 5 lbs.
Name: Richard Garner
Email: richardgarner@spotsylvaniabassanglers.com
Date: 03/19/05
Time: 8am-4pm
Lake Anna
partly sunny, windy, 55 deg
49 deg mid lake, 55 dike#3
dike #3 / splits
3lb bass/6lb Bass
texas rig twin tail grub-3/8 oz white spinner bait
3ft-4ft
slow rolled spinner
Bass are moving shallow!! bigger fish were caught this weekend!
Name: Wayne (CajunBass)
Email: CajunBass@AOL.COM
Date: 3/22/055
Time: 9 am-3pm
Ni River Reservoir
Sunny cold, warming to 60, but cold wind came up and clouds moved in late.
Clear to slightly stained at the upper end of the lake. Surface temp was 50 when we started.
All over the lake
Largemouth Bass
Spinnerbait, Charlie Brewer Slider Worms, Ratteltrap, Big O crankbait, Carolina Rigged Zoom Lizard.
1-15 feet
Misty and I fished Ni River Reservoir today. Our first day out this year, and it wasn't too bad. We caught 10 bass, from 10" to 5 1/2 lbs. All came on Carolina Rigged Zoom Lizards, fished around beaver huts. (There are a bunch of huts in the lake.) The 5 1/2 came off a main lake point, fishing the outside edge of a grass bed. The water temp was about 50 when we got there, but our temp gage broke so I don't know what it warmed up to during the day.
Misty and I fished Ni River Reservoir today. Our first day out this year, and it wasn't too bad. We caught 10 bass, from 10" to 5 1/2 lbs. All came on Carolina Rigged Zoom Lizards, fished around beaver huts. (There are a bunch of huts in the lake.) The 5 1/2 came off a main lake point, fishing the outside edge of a grass bed. The water temp was about 50 when we got there, but our temp gage broke so I don't know what it warmed up to during the day.
Name: Blazenzeek
Email:
Date: 3/19/200
Time: 8-5
Buggs Island (Kerr Lake)
Overcast - moderate winds - 55-60
stained in creeks - slight stain in main lake....temp 45-50
Rudds / Butchers / main lake
20 crappies / 1 bass
Crappies came on 2" jig tipped w/ minow...bass came on crank bait
Crappie...12-14' Bass 8-10'
All crappie came on a 2" jig tipped w/ a minow. Some caught from bobber - 4-6' deep. Others came w/out bobber...12-14' 2 1/2 # Bass caught on main lake point
Figured I would dedicate one day to catching slabs. Fished for slabs form 8 - 3:30. Bite was moderate. Couldn't stand it and had to spend 45 min trying for bass after I got word they were hitting pretty good. Caught the one pretty quick. Should have been fished for them all day :( Will be back Friday....BASS ONLY!!! :)
Name: Bill
Email: BigFishAddict@aol.com
Date: 03/20/05
Time: 12-6pm
Lower James River
mostly sunny, some showers
pretty clear, outgoing tide the whole time
Osborne landing to the spray pits and all along in between
Catfished. Surprisingly, couldnt buy a bite.
Fresh shad and perch.
deep to shallow
Well it was a pretty day on the river. Very nice sunset but I couldnt get a bit to save my life. Very unusual for this time of year. Even ran all the way up to the spray pits in the warm water. Lots of fish jumping up there but not catfish. It still beats sitting at home. Bill
Name: WLD Nitro
Email:
Date: 3-20-05
Time: 9:am to 4:pm
Lake Prince
Cloudy Cool
Clear 50 Degree
1/2 mile west & 1/2 mile east of the Lake Prince Bridge
1 Bass, small fish
Carolina Rig Worm
20' to 2'
Flats & Dropoff near creekchannel
Well was a real slow day, fish everything & try different pattern & lure & depth with no luck, saw a real big bass sunning, look to be around 6lb, best guess, nice fish. WLD Nitro
Name: Bill Riggs
Email: bassin231@verizon.net
Date: 3/19/05
Time: mid day
westneck creek
partly cloudy
dirty, and trying to raise
drop offs/points
none (again)
tubes/crank baits
5 to 3 feet
slow
water was down about 2 feet, wind was gusting 10to20 between east and south east.water was dirty from rain, temps was running from 54 to 58 degs. clouds came over about 2:00 and air temp started to fall.
Name: Wayne P.
Email: purdum43@aol.com
Date: 03/19/05
Time: 7:00-4:00
Buggs Island (Kerr Lake)
Sunny 35-55 degrees
slight stain 46-53 degrees
Upper end of Grassy Creek
Three bass for #8.24
Bandit 200, mistake color with white/chart. dressed Owner treble for back hook.
3'-6'
Found a lot on bridge rip-rap on Friday but they were gone on Sat.-so much for practice day. The second points in coves off the main channel was the pattern I found as was verfied by just about everyone fishing in my club tournament as well as using a crankbait or spinnerbait.
My bass club uses a 4 bass limit and only two limits were brought in. First place was just over #11 with 4 and third was about #6 1/2 with 4. I got second place with my 3 bass. I was the only one that fished Grassy as most of the others fished the main lake,Bluestone and Buffalo.
Name: Jeff Banko
Email: jkbanko@comcast.net
Date: 3/19/05
Time: 7 - 3
Chickahominy River
Nice but breezy
Very light stain
Upper River below the dam
3 largemouth biggest 4-4 total weight 8-15oz
Bitsy Jig and Mini craw trailer.
14-5
Slow crawl.
First Tourney with my club this year and I won it. It was tough out there but was able to pick up a pattern on fish sitting on ledges that were about halfway to the total channel depth. Caught the 3 that won it. Also lost one bigger one and several smaller ones. Good day for me for this time of year on the Chick.
Name: WLD Nitro
Email:
Date: 3-19-05
Time: 8:am to 4:pm
Nottoway River / Chowan River NC
Partly Cloudy
Main River-Stain / Back Creek-1'
4 Bass 1 1/4lb to 1 1/2lb
try Jig, Crank Bait, but caught fish with Spinner Bait
2' to 5'
Fishing was slow till noon, caught all four fish at one hole after tryin everything else for 4 hr, just hit the right hole around noon. WLD Nitro
Name: mark
Email:
Date: 3-18-05
Time: 9 am - 3 pm
Briery Creek
nice little windy 55 degrees
flat too little wavey in middle
put in 701 went down towards dam in middle 13 ft water to left very shallow
bass 1 5 lb bass beautiful fish, mix between florida and regular i believe, beautiful looking fish
everything in box 1 bass hit minnow
22 - 13 ft where only fish caught
Name: rattlesnake
Email:
Date: 03-14-05
Time: 12:30p-6:00p
Smith Mountain
mostly sunny
stained
Hales Ford bridge and up lake
largemouth, striper
crankbaits, spinnerbaits, jigs, plastics
10-15'
Fished Smith Mt. on the 14th. Can't report much on catching, just the conditions. Water temp. ranged from 42deg. to 47deg. Clouds gave way to sun around 3:00. Went back in some creeks with no luck at all. Came back out to main lake and managed (1) striper, 5lbs. on a crank bait, and (2) dink largemouth, one off riprap on a crankbait and another off a dock on a senko. Found warmer water back up in a few small cuts and creeks but no bait to speak of and never got a bite.
Name: Tim Davis
Email: Tdavis596@pmtnet.net
Date: 3/13/05
Time: 9-2
Smith Mountain
fair
clear and 47 degrees
beck and bettys creek
Had one beside boat over 7 e-z had whole hand in his mouth and was trying not to get hooked bass was at least 27 inches long tried to get hand under belly and he spit my spinnerbait back at me . best basss I have seen in a long time on smith . Had two more strikes but no hard hits , even the big bass was sluggish till I got my hand in his mouth .Back of creeks
matzui spinnerbait
around 8 ft
SLow rolled over rocks and past docks that came close to old road beds
Name: Bill
Email: BigFishAddict@AOL.com
Date: 03/11/05
Time: 11:30-3pm
Briery Creek
rain, wind, sunny, kept changing
clear
Around the covered pier, both coves
Nothing
Live jumbo minows, Wild eyed swim shad, 7.5"trick worm
Dont know what it is.
Drop shot, wacky and slow retrieve.
Well I said I may fish a farm pond in Rockville today but at the last minute I decided to make the long drive to Briery without the boat again. That will be my last trip without the boat. I had no luck, no bites. The weather was terrible. The highlight of my day was having the Game Warden check my license. I also threw a bird nest so bad that it would make a crow proud. It was so bad I had to cut all my line off and re-spool. Better luck next time.
Name: Barry Ingram
Email:
Date: 3-10-05
Time: AM
Briery Creek
cold / Windy
Stained
Powerlines and the flats.
Afew small ones
Plastics and spinnerbaits
Shallow
I have read on the other site where they pulled a monster out of the lake. I was talking to some of the locals over at the lakke and they said several bigger fish have been taken already this year!
Name: Jeff Banko
Email:
Date: 03/07/05
Time: 11 - 3
Chickahominy River
Beatiful 70 but really windy
Stained and heavy chop
Fished trees up near walker dam
1 bass
Rat L trap
5 feet
Slow retrieve
Tough day. Only really fished for like an hour before wind got real bad. Wanted to head back into some of the creeks for shelter from the wind but my trim broke so wind up just making the run all the way back to Powhatan Resort in my crippled rig and leaving early.
Name: Dan
Email:
Date: 03/07/05
Time: 11am to 2pm
Grant Lake (Wilderness)
Sunny, 60s, 20mph wind gusts
43 degrees, slightly stained
2 Chain Pickerel, 1 Crappie, 1 Largemouth
Black and Silver Rapala Jerkbait (small, sinking)
various depths
Twitches with short pauses in between.
Just wanted to get out on the water on a nice day. Fish didn't even put up much of a fight on four pound test. Better than not fishing though.
Name: bill r.
Email: bassin231@verizon.com
Date: 3/6/05
Time: 1;AM TO 5:30
northwest river
SUNNEY
DIRTY
POINTS, DROP-OFFS
no fish caught, alot of short bites
mega tubes, spinner baits
8 to 3 feet
pumkin color tubes and dark color spinners. fished very slowly
water temp was running 42 to 46 deg. water was muddy color
Name: Rich K
Email:
Date: 03/06/05
Time: 12:00 - 2:00
Chickahominy Lake
WINDY
Temp 40-46, vis 4+', choppy
Submerged humps
None, too windy for my brother-inlaw. Crying to go home after the first 1/2 hour
traps, spinners, jig n'pig
4-6'
slow
First time on this lake. Beutiful lake except for the wind, can't wait to go again.
Name: WLD Nitro
Email:
Date: 3-6-05
Time: 10:am 4:30pm
Lower James River
Cool, Windy
1 Ft
Barge Pits
One 3lb Bass
Crank Bait
3ft to 8ft
Slow roll
We had 4 hits & my cousin findly caught one, the wind was no fun, nor was the tide, we fish mostly incoming, the first hr of outgoing he caught one. WLD Nitro
Name: Wayne P.
Email: purdum43@aol.com
Date: 03/06/05
Time: 11:30-3:30
Briery Creek
Sunny, windy and 55-60 air temp.
43.6 temp. 6'-1' clarity
mid lake
7 bass up to #6 1/2
Red Super Spot
4'-6'
Slow rolled Spot on grass edges and ripped free to get reaction strikes.
Too windy for any slow presentations about 20mph from Southwest
Name: Vyper-P&J Fishing
Email:
Date: 3-5-05
Time: 1200-1500
Buggs Island (Kerr Lake)
Cold, windy and overcast
off color slightly, average 44 degrees
Rudds Creek, main lake points between Rudds and Goat Island
1 6 pound largemouth
Traps, jerks and jigs
0-30 ft
Was burning the trap, but fished the jerkbait and jig SLOW.
Name: Bill
Email: BigFishAddict@aol.com
Date: 03/05/20
Time: 10am-Noon
Briery Creek
snowing,cold,windy.Perfect right? Air temp 33*
clear, temp 38* around shore
Bank fished around the 709 covered fishing pier and coves for about 1 1/2 hours. Fished around the 701 ramp for 1/2 hour but it was bitterly windy up at the 701.
Caught? No, sorry.
Drop sot rigged live minnows. Jig and Pig. Wacky rigged worm.
unknown
Tried what I've heard may work in these conditions.
Well I finally made my first trip to Briery. Didnt bother taking the boat due to weather. Mainly wanted to see the place first hand before taking the boat there in spring. Great looking lake, cant wait til it warms up a little. Im sure this is going to be my favorite new spot. Also stopped by Sandy for the first time. Tried my luck there too but only managed to lose a jig. Come on Spring!
Name: Jeff Banko
Email: vafishing@comcast.net
Date: 2/27/05
Time: 10 - 3:30
Briery Creek
Cloudy, Cold Mid 40's and very windy
Stained, 43 - 45 degrees.
Launched at 701 Ramp and fished main creek channel all the way to the South End of the Lake
None
Jigs, Brish Hog, Lizards,
4 - 17 feet
Fished with Don Arbaugh today. We knew we would not kill them because it was so cold but thought we might pick up one or two if the South end of the lake was a little warmer so we headed that way. Water temperature never really left 43.5 degrees except in the Little Briery Creek Cove, that one was 45 and the temp. change did have a bunch of shad back in there going nuts. Just no bass would take. Think the cold front that came in with this winter storm coming in tonight shut them down hard. Did have a few pick ups on the main lake fishing the Briery Creek channel but the wind made it near impossible to hook them with how slow you have to fish this time of year.
Name: Ken Hatcher
Email: gastonbass@earthlink.net
Date: 2/19/05
Time: 8AM-2PM
Lake Gaston
Clear w/light winds 50 degrees
2' visability 47 degrees
Main lake northern coves east of Eaton's Ferry
Largemouth
Speed Shad and Rattletrap
3 to 8 feet
Had 9 good fish. Best was right at 5.5 lbs. Best 5 total was easy 15 lbs. Lost the best fish of the day right at the boat. I didn't realize how big she was and she spit my trap right back at me. Huge fish, I know she would have gone 10 lbs or better. All of the fish had their color so they had been up for at least a week or more. Both baits were fished extremely fast. They would only hit when it was ripping by them. Tried slow rolling on no takers. Noticed a lot of fish suspended in 10 to 15 foot range.
Name: Jeff Banko
Email: vafishing@comcast.net
Date: 02/19/05
Time: 12:00 to 6
Lower James River
Clear sky but windy and cold. Maybe hit 40 today.
Muddy, 42 - 44 degrees on main river and appomattox, 56.5 in the barge pits.
Appomattox and Barge Pits
2 largemouth one 4 one 3.5
Both fish caught on a chartreuse spinnerbait, also lost one on a rat l trap.
varied
Pretty much used the spinner bait and rat l trap all day. Slow rolling both of them.
Not a bad day for February. Started out from 12 to 4 in the appomattox. Fished Pye Alley, and Conjurors neck with no success. Ran up to the barge pits to end the day and had a few hits and caught the two nice fish. Had the tide going out all day.
Name: Don Arbaugh
Email: arbaughbunch@direcway.com
Date: 02/19/05
Time: 10:00-2:00
Private Pond
Sunny/Light wind
Stained
Dam
Citation Bass was 23 1/4 inches and weighted in at 7.8 lbs
Minnows
Shallow
Fished minnows about 4' deep.
Bass was sluggish, but was fat & healthy. Measured and weighted than released.
Name: Tim Davis
Email: tdavis596@pmtnet.net
Date: 2/16/05/
Time: 10am-3Pm
Briery Creek
windy and cloudy
stained
backend of briery creek below 701 ramp
largemouth and pike caught 3.5 # ,4# ,lost one approx 2# beside boat .One pike between 2-3 #
terminator spinnerbait
3 - 4 ft
slow rolled thru stumps
started off a nice day but weather front came in with high , cold winds . Bass were on flats at back of cuts .
Lake Anna
Partly Clody
Clear
Lower Lake
Large Mouth Bass
Floating Worm
5FT
Slow
Only boated two. Both around 2.5 Lbs.
Name: Vyper of P&J Fishing Enterprises
Email:
Date: 2/12/05
Time: 10am-5pm
Buggs Island (Kerr Lake)
Clear-20 mph wind
Muddy, temps 42-46
Bluestone, Little Bluestone, Clarcksville area
No bass
Traps, jerks, flukes, blades and jigs
0-30ft
SLOW!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well dudes, went to Buggs yesterday, we launched at Bluestone and fished in Bluestone most of the day. We did try around the bridge at Clarksville a little but no luck. The water was muddy as heck and between 42-46 degrees, it was the same color and temp and the mouth of Blustone and in the back of Little Bluestone! We didnt catch and green fish and when we tried for some crappie we could only get three of them. The few other people we saw on the lake reported the same luck, I guess it was just a slow day!
Name: Don Arbaugh
Email:
Date: 02/08/05
Time: 11:00-4:30
Briery Creek
Sunny/ No Wind
Stained
FROM POWER LINE UP
2 1/2 FOOT PIKE (1) BASS 4.4 LBS. 8 CRAPPIE TO 2.4 LBS.
MEDIUM MINNOWS, AND LIZARD
8'-10' OF WATER AROUND TIMBER
ONE OF THE BETTER WEATHER DAYS ON LAKE, WITH THE ONLY DRAWBACK BEING THE STAINED WATER CONDITIONS.
Name: Rich K
Email:
Date: 02/06/05
Time: 12:00 - 4:45
Lower James River
Clear
Vis 2-3' 52 deg
Barge pit
1 LMB, 1 Catfish
Spinner Bait
1-5'
Slow roll, Stop and go
No size to the bass, 12.5", Cat was about 8 lbs. The cat broke the wire on my spinner bait, pretty much ended the day.
Name: Wayne P.
Email: purdum43@aol.com
Date: 2/6/05
Time: mid day 1 hr
Briery Creek
upper 50's
cold
Shoreline of gravel parking lot at dam
None
Jig
10' and less
Dragging along bottom
Made the 80 mile trip to check the water level and amount of ice. NO ICE and normal water level. The drawdown as done the past two years did not happen. Talked to the game warden and he said that the drawdown did not affect the grass as they thought it would so it was not done. Took along a rod just in case, should have taken my boat-wont't happen again. One trailer at the 701 ramp and three at the dam. Talked to a guy fishing from the shore and he had caught one and has been to the lake just about every week this winter and said the ice has never gotten real thick or covered the whole lake.
Name: bill riggs
Email: bassin231@aol.com
Date: 02/05/05
Time: mid day
northlanding river
sunny
very low -3 to 3.5 ft.
could not launch, try westneck creek, munden point,black water creek. have not seen water this low in awhile. most ramps were down to wash out holes
Name: Don
Email:
Date: 02/05/05
Time: 11:00-3:00
Briery Creek
Sunny/Windy
Stained
Out from the 701 ramp
Crappie/Bass
Small minnows,and soft plastic, and Jig.
Various
Worked underwater "Humps" holding fish.
The famous Briery Creek winds blew straight down the lake from the upper end towards the dam. All fish were caught on the back side of points that were sheltered from the wind!
Name: Jeff Banko
Email: vafishing@comcast.net
Date: 02/05/05
Time: 11 to 3
Lower James River
50 degrees, clear skies but really windy
Muddy
Dutch Gap to Jorden Point
1 catfish 10 lbs
Cut shad
25 feet
fish finder rig
Wanted to bass fish but wind was so bad decided to just cruise the boat to get through some more break in hours on my motor. Did stop for a little while and throw some cut bait underneath the 295 bridge. Caught the one cat right on the channel edge where it dropped from about 8 feet to around 20 feet.
Name: Bill
Email: BigFishAddict@aol.com
Date: 01-27-05
Time: 9am-2pm
Lower James
very cold and windy
42 degrees with whitecaps
around Dutch Gap
ZERO, thats right, nothing. Were fishing for big blue cats
fresh cut white perch
tried everything
carolina rigged, half a bait on a 8/0 circle hook
When the wave spray turns to ice on your jacket and boat and your anchor line becomes rigid because its frozen solid, it may be too cold to fish. Maybe.
Name: Mark Brannock
Email: markbrannock@aol.com
Date: 1-12-05
Time: 10am-5pm
Buggs Island
Sunny
Clear water temp 50
Nutbush,Eastland
10 Largemouth Bass all between 2-3lbs.
Lucky Craft Jerkbait
6-10 feet
Slow with a long pause.
Found pattern around 2pm-main creek points with rock and shad.
Name: Javelin
Email: stratos20@centralva.net
Date: 1/1/05
Time: 12 pm -4 pm
Smith Mountain
clear and sunny
clear 49-51 degrees
Bluff walls in river channel bends
4 smallmouth 2 largemouth
3/4 ounce white spinnerbait single colorado
15-20 ft
Slow rolled the spinnerbait with the boat sitting in 40 ft of water throwing up on the lip of the bluff letting it bounce back down til it was under the boat .. Parallel to the bluff walls ..
Fish were aggressive for this time of year but the weather was nice so I had to go .. They would kill the blade when they hit it .. Also lost three other fish .. Not bad for jan 1st ..
Respondent Name: = Rich K
Respondent Email Address: = fightflame@aol.com
Place Fished: = Appomatox River
Date Fished: = 1/6/05
Time Fished: = 3:30 - 6:00 PM
Weather Conditions: = Clear - Light overcast
Water Conditions: = Visibility 2' outgoing tide
Water Temp.: = 48 - 50
Locations Fished: = Proceeding up river, the cut before pie alley to the end of
pie alley.
Types of fish caught and sizes: = 2 LMB at sunset 2 - 3 lbs. Decent fight
for this time of year
Types of lures/bait: = 3/8 oz spinner bait w/colorado blades
Method/Presentation: = slow roll/stop and go in and through fallen timber.
Depths fished: = 2 - 4'
Additional Comments: = Decent end to a frustrating day. (Radiator in truck
popped a leak while hooking up the boat). Outgoing tide is the only time I
have ever caught fish in this area. Also saw a few stripers popping
around.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Respondent Name: = Wayne P.
Respondent Email Address: = purdum43@aol.com
Place Fished: = Sandy River Lake
Date Fished: = 1/1/05
Time Fished: = 10:00-4:00
Weather Conditions: = Dingy Uplake
Water Conditions: = Slight stain mid and lower lake
Water Temp.: = 44-47
Locations Fished: = Mid to uplake
Types of fish caught and sizes: = 3 Bass approx. #1 1/2 each
Types of lures/bait: = Wacko and Zoom Finesse worm
Method/Presentation: = Both wacky rigged with a nail in the finesse worm to get
deeper.
Depths fished: = 4'-10'
Additional Comments: = Nice day, calm winds and 73 degree air temps. Partly
Cloudy. Less than 10 boats out.