Oct. 9 Trip

[mini moe]

We started out bad, we bummed out for three days before they started bitting. The water temp was 68-71 and the tide didn't seem to be as strong as usual. The shad were thinner than normal too, what's up with all these changes lately? We have always been able to get big thick shad but the last two trips they were thin. We had 7 over 3o lbs. the largest being 57lbs. They were long and not filled out with fat bellies and skinny tails.

[martineta]

Pretty work. Congratulations. I'm heading out the door and hope to catch one myself.

[mini moe]

You should do well Martineta, you're far enough away from a front in both directions for them to bite.

[martineta]

I fished from 10:00 AM until 5:00 PM. Beautiful Day,,,Bait was easy,,,Marked more fish than Carter has Pills, At the end of the day, a few pan size cats and a baby striper on the two little rods I put over. Only one so so pull down on one of the big rods. Did see my pet sturgeon jumping around! Made a new friend. I saw an old man on the dock fishing by himself at the ramp at Deep Bottom. I invited him along, and great company he was. Oh well,,That's fishing.

[mini moe]

Was the bait as big as normal or were the shad thinner as we encountered?

[martineta]

two nice big cutters, the rest mediums and skinny

[wasabi]

Hey Moe. Glad to see you out. Think you have enough crap in the boat with ya?!?!!?! Nice fish!

[mini moe]

It's nice to be out Wasabi. Have you been latley? It seems that every trip we catch fish on the last day of our trip. It's usually so windy or some kind of bad weather 'til the last day, then we catch a few. I think we'll just start comming up the last day from now on. The wind in our past trips was the culprit, is was so bad you would blow all over the place when anchored and it made it hard to travel long distances. Then the last day when leaving we would cross the BH bridge and the water would be as slick as a babys' butt. I think fishing close to a front had a told on our numbers this past trip, and yes we do carry the kitchen sink in the boat, it wouldn't be normal for us to have room to move in the boat.

[wasabi]

Moe,

I went crappie fishing on the James recently and did pretty good. Caught a lot of small catfish too which are fun on light tackle. I haven't been big cat catfishing in awhile.

I know that wind can be frustrating. I almost always use a drift sock behind my boat to try and keep me straight, it helps but isn't the cure-all when it is really windy or the tide goes slack. I would go find some spots up river or up creeks when the wind gets that bad.

[mini moe]

We use a drift sock also when we are anchored, it does help some. On the crappie, we caught a bunch in the cast net. Those devils can be picky about what they hit. We use different colors for different lakes around here. On one lake they like red and white and another yellow and white. That's weird for them not to hit a hot color for another lake. We mainly use mini jigs. What's the size limit and creel limit on the James?

[wasabi]

I don't know about the size or creel limits. It was my first time fishing the James for crappie. I bet they make decent catfish bait.

[mini moe]

OK Dayton, it's time for you to chime in. You're the man on crappie. What's the length and the creel limits.

[rit.05]

I've gotten a few cats on crappie, but only when they are aggressively feeding. Still can't beat the shad...