James River Memorial Day Weekend 2010

Looks like the James will be blown out this weekend. Heavy Rains tonight from Bent Creek to Powhatan, water levels will rise quickly, water will be muddy. Calling for rain all day friday into saturday morning. Was planning on going to Bent Creek on Saturday but looks like this trip will need to be postponed now for at least a week.
Katie's coming home this weekend also. Her wedding is just a week away. Maybe we can get some pond fishing in while she is still my little girl!

Tommy's pond 5/22/10

Got home from CA around 12:30am Saturday morning. Got up around 8am, Vada and I cut some grass and then he went to get his hair bleached for baseball, a regional/state finals thing at Powhatan. Looked like it could rain any minute so I went down to Tommy's pond instead of going to the river. Threw a Case-Jack's worm in green pumpkin along the dam....nothing, not even a nibble. Heading back to the truck to get another lure, I fished my way back across the dam and had a 4lb'er take it. Here's a picture.

Worked back to the truck and caught another couple 1lb'ers then the rain came so I loaded up and headed home; was only there for about 45 minutes. You can see Molly, our dog, in the picture so if there are any doubts on size, she can confirm!

River Smallmouth Fishing new release

Stuck in Chino, CA all of this week for training. Will be home late Friday and hopefully can get on the river Saturday. Looks like the forecast keeps bouncing back and forth with rain, VA has had some rain all week, so we'll see what the river looks like this weekend.
Ordered Tim Holschlag's new book tonight, "River Smallmouth Fishing". Here is the link to his site. Check out the new book:
http://www.smallmouthangler.com/site/angler/index.php

I've only heard great things about his previous book "Stream Smallmouth Fishing" and the new book looks to be loaded with great info.

Windy Chesdin, Pond was good

Went to Chesdin with Tater this past weekend. Wind blowing, cold front coming in, fished all day and we each caught one. Chesdin has not been good to us this year!
Went to Tommy's this afternoon. Caught a dozen or so 1lb or less and worked my way to the dam. At the overflow tube I threw a Case Jack's worm, green pumpkin, and hooked a 4lb'er. Decent fight, checked him on the scales for weight, but didn't take a picture.
Got a couple new rods and another Citica baitcaster last week at BPS. Looking forward to getting back to the river soon. Need to leave the large lakes alone, it's a different game.

Maidens

Went to Maiden's Landing on the James this afternoon. Took my kayak and paddled upstream about a mile. River's looking good, stained to just muddy, on the high side of what I would consider normal levels. Threw a white spinner bait, chartreuse spinner bait, green pumpkin grub, chartreuse grub, Sammy 100 topwater w-t-d minnow, tiny torpedo, green pumpkin lizard, tiny paca craw. Fished around a couple of exposed rocks, tree limbs, middle of the river, plopped them off the bank, eddies, brush piles from high water......nothing, not even a bite. These baits covered top, middle, and bottom of the water column as well as shore and mid-river. Couldn't see thru the water to the bottom to check for beds. Thinking they are on the beds now or the beginning of post spawn and making fishing difficult. Also, this section of the river is not smallmouth heaven but I have caught some thru this stretch in lower/clearer water. Saw 2 other yaks but never saw them land a fish either. Couple of jon-jets but they were heading further up river than I wanted to paddle. Hopefully I can try the islands/rocks/tree piles at and below the state farm bridge later this week. This areas usually holds lots of smallies. Still love fishing from the yak but that jet will allow me to cover more water and find the fish.