Name: D Cook
Email:
Date: 4/29/06
Time: 8:00-12:15
Briery Creek
Sunny and Very Breezey
701 Ramp up to creek channels
LMB
Flukes, spinner baits, plastic worms, crank baits, senkos and live shad
2-8 feet
Caught 2 LMB-one 2# for my partner and one 5.5-6# lmb for me. Caught both back to back about 1/2 hr after fishing. Then the wind kicked up and blew us all over the place. Our trolling motor battery killed over and had to cut trip short. We'll get 'em next time.
Name: BassKat
Email:
Date: 04/29/06
Time: 1045-1400
Local Farm Pond
overcast breezy
clear
banked fished with the kids at a family farm pond
bluegill and largemouth
nightcrawlers and oldest did horney toads in the lilys
bobbers set at about 4 feet, toads word eraatic over grass and lilys
Having fun with the kids bank fishing and watching the bobbers. I guess you could say slow
My little girl spanked the boys today. Her first cast caught her first length ciation at 24 inches. Have pictures that I'll send to Jeff. Skinny fish about 4 maybe 5. The fish had spawn and was in about 3 feet of water. Gold #1 hook with a 1 inch piece of worm. Who would of guessed. She also had a total of 7 hand size bluegill. Oldest boy had 7 nice bass on the frog, just nothing like my little girl. Tightlines
Name: Wayne P.
Email: purdum43@aol.com
Date: 04/24/06
Time: 9:30-5:30
Briery Creek
Sunny Windy 80 degrees
Muddy and Clear 67-71 degrees
South end
57 bass-two largest were 6-14 and 7-1 4 pickerel
Finesse and Trick worms, spinnerbait-1/8 oz., 1/4 oz Trap
6" to 6'
Weedless Wacky for the worms- Very fast retrieve with the spinnerbait and Trap to keep from fouling in the grass.
About 1/3 of those caught were chasing shad in the creek channel at the clear/muddy area-they were 2 1/2 to 3 lbs. The rest were next to floating logs, holes in the grass, and stumps on creek channel drops. None were caught in the muddy water and it seemed that the fish were concentrated and holding on the slightly stained to clear water at the edge of the muddy water. Hooked several that were close to the largest ones caught, but they pulled off in the grass and stumps. Didn't catch or see any on beds.
Name: Bill
Email: BigFishAddict@aol.com
Date: 04-23-06
Time: 12-4pm
Lower James River
mostly sunny and warm
stained
Ancarrows outflow
Blue Herring and Alewife
Sabiki
shallow-8'
What an awesome day on the river. Weather and fishing were perfect. Put in at Osborne and motored up to 95 bridge just for the ride. Lots of fishing and rec boats on the river. Fished the outflow and caught so many fish it was almost like work! Must have caught over a hundred, several times 4 and 5 fish at a time. Also saw LOTS of cats being caught up and down the river.
Name: Mike
Email:
Date: 4/21
Time: 8am-10am
Lower James River
Overcast & rainy
high tide, lots of debris in the main channel
Wastewater discharge below Ancarrows
alewive herring
sabiki's
less than 15 feet
cast and catch :)
Got out around 8am with my father - caught one on the first cast of the day. We caught several, probably about a dozen or so before the rain really started coming down. We fished for a while in the rain gear until we saw lightening and heard a clap of thunder. That was enough for us. By the time we got back down to Osbornes ramp the rain had lightened up but we weren't sticking around....just not the right day to fish. Still, we had fun for a couple hours.
Name: Wayne P.
Email: purdum43@aol.com
Date: 04/20/06
Time: 9:30-4:30
Bowler's Mill Lake-Gordonsville
sunny 80 degrees
clear 70 degrees
The parameter of the whole lake (75 acres) and all the shallow areas.
16 bass and two pickerel
finesse worm and spinnerbait
less than 3'
Weedless wacky rigged finesse worm and 1/8 oz. spinnerbait thru dollar pads looking for spawning beds.
Hooked several in the 5-7 lb class that pulled off in the pads. Largest one landed was 5-3. Saw several larger ones crusing, but couldn't get them to hit.
Name: BassKat
Email:
Date: 04/20/06
Time: 0630-1500
Briery Creek
foggy am then blue skies and hot
clear
Started south of 701 then went midlake
4 Bass 1 dink, 2 in the 2.5 to 3 and one at 5
soft plastics.
shallow to 12 feet
Trickworms/ senkos worked at about 3 foot depth
Tough day for me on the lake, hadn't had that bad of a day there in a while. Lot of empty beds. Looks like I'm late again. Did see a few bucks still there but as soon as the bait laid in the nest they spooked and left. They would come back but I didn't want to spend all day trying to get them to bite. All fish came in about 5 to 6 feet of water, right were the grass line stopped. Hope it helps someone. Caught nothing on wood. Saw some schooling chasing bait and one blew up in the shallows that was bigggggggggg.About 30 boats on the water today at 701. Sandy River is next before BASS event in May Tightlines
Name: Bill
Email: BigFishAddict@aol.com
Date: 4/13-19
Time: spare time
Lower James River
vary
shad, herring, white perch
sabiki rig. Tipped with worm for perch.
Sorry I havent posted. Been busy with some things going on. Ive been fishing every day in my spare time. Catching lots of fish down at the Annabelle Lee docks. Some times better than others but always catching fish. Sometimes herring, a few big shad and lots of white perch. Had a perch that looked like citation. Took it to Popes. It was just shy. Released it alive back at the docks.
Name: Jeff K
Email: jsk2d@yahoo.com
Date: 04/14/06
Time: 8:30 - 4:00
Briery Creek
Cloudy all day/strong t-storm's
61-63 degrees
south end
18 LMB 6.3 big one of the day followed by four 3lbrs, four 2lbs and everythings else was peckerhead to 1lb
finesse worms/strike king worms/trick worms/flukes/minnows (this is only what I caught fish on, fished many other lures)
0-14ft 8ft seemed to be just the right # thought today.
T-rigged the flukes, wacky rigged all worms, hook-n-bobber for the minnows. Hit mostly structure and a few open flat areas
Figured with the overcast day T-storms thar rolled through that maybe the fish would move out a little and stage away from the shallows. No sun really so couldn't do much sight fishin. 20-30 cars at the 701 Caught 3 lmb from 8:30 - 11:30, up to 2 lbs. About 20 min before the storm hit (just as everyone was high tailing it to the boat ramp) the bite really turned on and stayed that way through the whole storm. I got bone soaked but it was worth it ..... those that left should have stayed!! Here is the best part, I took about a dozen to dozen and a half minnow with me .... trailored one behind the boat at all times ..... during the time I was slaying off the front of the boat, I kept missing them on the minnow rig. I would be messing with a fish, turn around and see my bobber under but by the tine I could get to it, fish off. I used EVERY minnow I had and only caught 4 fish off minnows ..... so that means I missed at least 8-12 more fish that way. Hey ..... at least I fed em lunch!!! lol I picked up 12 lmb during the storm, including the 6.3 girl. Wanted a pic since I know how to do the remote now but it was raining buckets. Picked up the last 3 lmbs after the storm. Little after 3:00 saw the second sets of T-storms rolling in and I fished as I made my way back to the ramp. I didn't care to get soaked a second time. Good fishin.
Name: Mike
Email:
Date: 4/14
Time: 5:45am - 3pm
Chickahominy
Gorgeous, Sunny then overcast all day, warm
avg 65 degrees lots of pollen on the water
Put out of Eagles landing
2 Bass, 5 pickerel, 1 bowfin
You name it, we used it
0-6 feet
You name it, we tried it
GORGEOUS day - we got there before the sun was coming up - saw fish jumping and breaking the surface EVERYWHERE. First fish of the day was a big bowfin on a top water scum-frog that I'd just purchased 30 minutes earlier in Providence Forge. Caught in the lillypads directly out from Eagle's Landing ramp. I made the mistake of trying to bring the fish into the boat by picking it up by the line....6lbs test and a 5lbs fish....you can guess the rest. SNAP goes the line, bye bye goes my new lure. Ah well, it was a good fight. Took us a while to catch our next fish - ran up into a creek and started catching pickerel on small bass assassins. Ran back toward the ramp and felt like the lower unit bumped something in the water - around the ramp the motor starting sounding a little weird so I trimmed up to find a rats nest of fishing line caught in my %!)#$! prop.... Cut the engine and fished the shoreline near the ramp and that's when I landed the big fish of the day, approx a 3.5lbs bass which destroyed a top water lure....beautiful strike. Followed that up 2 minutes later with a 2 pounder on a purple worm. Sat on a dock and cleaned the trash out of my prop, engine performed well after that. Ran down to Walkers Dam for lunch and to watch the folks fishing for Herring. Came back when a small front came through and dumped some rain on us for about an hour. Last fish of the day was a small pickerel on top water... Called it quits at 3:30pm, very fun day.
Name: Ray
Email: v23842@aol.com
Date: 04/13/06
Time: 8:00--3:00
Lake Chesdin
Hot but beautiful
Clear for Chesdin
Lower end of the lake
Four LMB
Rat-L-Trap, Pumpkin Lizard, Shad colered Bomber Model A, fluke
5ft. to 1 ft
Rat-L-Trap was fished on a high line to keep it from snagging the bottom, worm was used in lay downs.
Three fish came on a Rat-L-trap and one on a Lizard. All small with the biggest around a pound and a quater
Name: Rich K
Email:
Date: 4/11/06
Time: 2:00 - 6:30
Lower James River
Clear w/light wind 70'ish*
High water 61-66*
Made a long run down river around Grays creek, and up into the upper Appomatox
1 shad, 4 LMB
Shad dart, t-rigged creatures
1-20
Had a chance to go out for a while since I had worked out in Dumfries the night before. I was pretty tired, but had to take advantage of the day. Ran into Randy out enjoying the day with his family around sun set. Nice to meet them.
Name: Wayne P.
Email: purdum43@aol.com
Date: 04/11/06
Time: 9:00-6:07
Briery Creek
Sunny 75 degrees, calm to 15 mph winds
Clear, 57-65 degrees
South end
50 bass and 1 pickerel
Finesse and Trick worms, spinnerbait
less than 3'
Rigged the worms weedless wacky style-of course. Caught most on beds with the largest ones beside stumps. Only caught 6 on the spinnerbait-1/8 oz.
Largest bass was 6 lbs. 11 oz. There were several out of state trailers at the 701 ramp. Had 45 bass at 4:30 and it took me until 6:07 to catch the 50th one, then I quit. Had a lot of misses with the bass just talking the end of the worm instead of the whole thing.
Name: Jeff Banko
Email: vafishing@verizon.net
Date: 4/10/06
Time: 6:00 to 3:00
Briery Creek
Nice day, cool early but then warmed up to the 70s. Very light winds generally from the south and little clouds
Clear
Mid Lake to South End
11 LMB
Senkos, Flukes, Jigs, and live minnows
0 - 22 feet
Worked artificials over weedbeds and also around wood cover along weed edges and channel edges. Minnows were fished on slip bobbers
Last day of my buddies trip down here. Since fishing was tough all weekend we decided to even give live bait a shot today. only caught 4 fish on the minnows and nothing big, largest went maybe 3#. All other fish were caught on Senkos, and Flukes, and on a jig, Largest fish of the day was just over 3#. Did see some total pigs cruising around on some of the flats but could not get them to hit. Looked like they were still pre-spawn and had not committed to any beds yet but were close.
Name: Jeff Banko
Email: vafishing@verizon.net
Date: 4/8/06
Time: 10:30 to 5
Nottoway Lake
Overcast, drizzled at times, very windy again
Stained
Whole lake
15 LMB
Everything but all fish caught on flukes
0 - 15 feet
Fished flukes around shallw cover and all over shallow flats
Second day of my friend from Conn. trip here. Got a late start as the weather early sucked as the first front that came in Friday was finishing coming in. Tried pretty much everything in my boat but only bite we could find was on flukes fished over shallow flats and around shallow cover. Caught 16 but mostly small fish. Around 3:00 the second front of the weekend came though, a real strong cold front that completely turned the winds around and whipped them up, that shut things down so we went home.
Name: Jeff Banko
Email: vafishing@verizon.net
Date: 4/7/06
Time: 6:00 - 3:00
Briery Creek
Windy, Windy, Windy
Light Stain
Mid Lake to South End
16 LMB
Rat L Trap, Husky Jerk
0 - 20 feet
Fished the Rat L trap and husky jerk over submerged weed beds.
Had a friend from Conn. come down to fish for 4 days, this was the first. Just his luck a series of fronts hammered us all weekend and made fishing tough. On this trip we managed 16 fish, most were caught on Rat-L-Traps over weed beds. Tried a lot of different stuff but that was really the only bite we could find. Wind was super bad like 30 MPH out of the South as the fronts started to come in and mess things up.
Name: Bill
Email: BigFishAddict@aol.com
Date: 04/09/06
Time: 11am-5pm
Lower James River
60* surface temp.
Sunny and windy
From 95 bridge down to below the outflow.
Shad, Herring and Bluecats to 8lbs.
Sabiki for shad and fresh caught live herring for the cats.
all over.
Good day on the river. Saw a few guys I knew out there.
Name: Mike
Email:
Date: 4/9
Time: noon to 5pm
Appomatox River
Mild
clear
Petersburg & Colonial Heights banks/shore lines, I believe one place was called Riverside park, the other was in downtown Petersburg
1 blueback shad, 1 bluegill, lost 2 gizzard shad
Sabiki's, Shad X-Rap
1-15 feet
slow
Went out with a couple of old friends from Prince George, just pounding the banks for shad/herring/stripers around Petersburg/Colonial Heights....I lost 2 nice gizzard shad and saw one HUGE one swimming around the base of the rock I was standing on. We fished all over the place, driving from one spot to another.....didn't see many people catching anything though. Got stopped by the game warden once and a Dinwiddie (spelling?) cop once. Went to a park I THINK is called Riverside and had to walk freakin 2 miles back to the dam where I caught one bluegill, broke a new rod, and lost a damn 6 dollar X-rap lure.....yea that pissed me off.
Name: BassKat
Email:
Date: 04/08/06
Time: 0700-1600
Lake Gaston
heavy rain/storms at times
clear to 4 feet
docks
lmb
creature and senko
shallow to 10 feet
slowwwwwwwwwww
tough day for bfl on the lake. winning weight 17.6 boater and co (forgot since it was not me) Pattern was hard docks with deep water near by. I broke off 2 loss another. Boater had 2 for 7. Still batting zero for the year. Need a trip to briery to get monkey off the back. Tightlines
Name: Bill
Email: BigFishAddict@aol.com
Date: 04/08/06
Time: 10am-5pm
Private pond and Lower James
Cloudy, light rain, cooler
Fished a private pond in Goochland near Wakeview on the upper James, then went down to the Annabelle Lee dock.
LMB, shad, herring.
Rat-L-Trap and Sabiki.
Went to a private pond this morning despite the weather and cold front. We caught 5 LMB to 3lbs around the beaver hut and killed 90 clay pigeons. This pond has a lot of beaver activity and that 20lb Spyder Wire Stealth braid really came in handy pulling up snagged sticks.Stopped by the Annabelle and broke out the Sabiki. Caught lots of herring and some big shad.
Name: Don Arbaugh
Email:
Date: 04/06/06
Time: 11::00-5:00
Briery Creek
Partly Cloudy
Clear
Mid-Lake
6 LMB
Yum Dinger and Minnows
Shallow to 8'
Slow presentation with Yum Dinger, with the majority of hits during the fall.
Lost a "good" fish with the minnow to underwater structure.
Name: Wayne P.
Email: purdum43@aol.com
Date: 04/06/06
Time: 9:00-5:30
Briery Creek
partly cloudy, lower 70's
clear 5'-6' visibility 57-62 degrees
Mid and upper lake
A friend and I caught 30 bass and 2 pickerel
finesse worm- tried numerous other baits and nothing else worked
1'-6'
Wacky rig at shallow stumps/logs and holes in hydrilla
Sure was slow fishing for us. Saw numerous beds and some being constructed with very few occupied. Caught a few close to the beds though. No big fish either. 27 trailers in Rt. 701 parking lot this afternoon.
Name: Bill
Email: BigFishAddict@aol.com
Date: 04/05/06
Time: 430p-530p
Lower James River
Partly cloudy
Annabelle Lee dock
American Shad
Sabiki
Starting to get a little crowded on the dock now, but when you only have an hour or two its not worth taking out the boat. I caught a few American Shad today to 3.5lbs. So did my neighbors who were down there.
Name: Bill
Email: BigFishAddict@aol.com
Date: 04/04/06
Time: 330p-530p
Lower James River
sunny
Not too bad considering yesterdays rains
Old Annabelle Lee dock
A mess of sunfish
Sabiki
just jigging it up and down
I went down there this afternoon to fish for shad. I happened to see schools of Sunfish in the water between the ship and the dock. I dropped my Sabiki down there and twitched it up and down. Some others were catching them with worm pieces.
Name: Russell Holmes
Email: rholmes910@aol.com
Date: 04/02/06
Time: 2pm - 6pm
Upper James River
mostly sunny, wind 5-10, temp 70
visibility 4'+, temp 64
Watkins Landing
2 largemouth bass
Senko, Big O, X-Rap
I fished the downed timber along the shoreline. I caught both bass off of the Senko (1 wacky & 1 T-Rig) and I had a couple of bites off the senko and the big O
Name: Russell Holmes
Email: rholmes910@aol.com
Date: 04/01/06
Time: 08am - 04pm
Sandy River Reservoir
Sunny, wind 15-25 mph, temp 75
visibility 2-2 ft, temp 63
entrance of coves to inside of coves, the S bend in the lake
17 bass, 1 catfish
X-Rap, Pointer 78, Rattlin' Rap, Shakey head worm, Senko, Shad Rap, Husky Jerkbait
I threw the crankbaits starting from the entrance of the coves to the back of the coves, and I threw the Senko only against the shore and work back to the boat. I fished the shakey head worm (which I learned from Jeff Banko)in the S bend in the lake, tossing it against the shore and working it back and tossing it into the down timber and jigging it.
I caught 6 off the shakey head and lost about 3 more, but my 3 biggest bass (2 -3 lbs) came off of the x-rap. My biggest fish, 4lb catfish, came off of the Pointer 78.
Name: Ken
Email:
Date: 04/02/06
Time: 8am-4pm
Lake Chesdin
lite overcast in the am/sunny afternoon
Namozine Creek am / main an whipponock creek pm
LM
lizards, CB
2' t0 8'
slow , fished edge of weed lines
Rough day for me one reel out for the count , and 2 LM lost at the boat, but I know where I will be next weekend.Was a very nice day out and found myself a few nice areas to fish .
Name: Bill
Email: BigFishAddict@aol.com
Date: 04/02/06
Time: 10am-2pm
Lower James River
Mostly sunny, warm
surface temp 63.5
Below Ancarrows at the outflow
Lots and lots of Herring
Sabiki rig
shallow
Took my son out for a few hours today. STILL cant get a shad bite on the main river by 95. Went back to "Old Faithful" and wore out about 12 packs of Sabikis. Ranger690 was fishing next to us with his kids. A boat came to us looking for catfish bait. We moved so he could position into the outflow. One throw of his cast net and he brought up a weeks worth of bait.