Decided to make a late Winter trip North for some catfish action.  Up bright and early Friday morning and up to Hopewell, VA.  We arrived at the river to 15-20 mph sustained winds, gusts to 25-30.  The air was a balmy 25 degrees.  We got dressed and off we went in search of bait.  John had been on the river before but it was my first time.  We looked at a few areas for bait and did not find much.  We eventually headed up to the Deep Bottom ramp and found all the Threadfin and small Gizzard Shad you could ever want.  We put a few hundred in the cooler and bait tank and decided to go fishing with them even though we really wanted some of the big Gizzard Shad that work so well on the river.  We set up on a spot that had a lot of birds working and found good structure and bait. 

We did pretty good there and the few other spots we tried until dark.  The final total for the day was eight catfish from 3 pounds to 36 pounds.  Pretty decent for a very windy cold day with little baits.  I got a motel for the boat for the night and off to the hotel and the Mexican restaurant we went.  I did make a wrong turn into oncoming traffic with John behind us.  I apologize to all the azaleas that had to die in the median in front of the Hopewell CVS pharmacy.







Day 2 started out colder but less windy.  18 degrees is refreshing!!!  Started off going right to a better bait spot and after a few throws of the net, we had all the nice Gizzard Shad we would need for the day.  We fished two spots primarily that were dictated by the wind and the tides.  We did OK today with a total of 12 more catfish up to 23 pounds and several big pulldowns, break-offs and various other malfunctions. 













The James River is a great fishery and  a place I will return to as often as I can.  We watched three Bald Eagles fly all around us at the end of the day right as the sun set.  We had to put back in to perform a rescue of a stranded boat after we had taken out and were about ready to leave.  Those were two cold people and were glad to see us.   
Looking forward to returning.

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