This past weekend, my little brother was in need of a boat captain for a high school tournament on the James River. I hauled the boat home from WVU on Friday, and we woke up bright and early Saturday to go put in a day of practice.
Low tide was around 10am, which made for good fishing conditions early in the day. We started out in a well known creek near the ramp, and we found a few, but they were small. The previous year, my brother found good fish on main river wing dams, so we decided to give that a shot since the tide was right. No dice, not that fish are supposed to do the same thing each year though. We tried several different locations and presentations, but couldn't buy a bite on the main river. Since we were fishing close to low tide, which is typically the best time to catch them, it told us that it probably wasn't a viable way to fish, we decided to fish more creeks. Our consensus was that since water has been so high and muddy this summer, the fish probably haven't been "living" on the main river, since creeks had cleaner water and probably ample food due to the high water.
There are very few creeks in the upper section of the tidal James, which makes things easy since you can cover it all fairly quickly. The tough part is that fishing pressure can effect these areas very easily. We barely slid over a mud flat and made it into a tiny creek, where I caught one 2.5 flipping a drop shot (something people do on the James because of fishing pressure). That gave us a clue as far as how to get the pressured fish in creeks to bite. We had been pitching jigs and Texas rigs at wood cover, but maybe they had just seen enough of it this year, they have had an entire summer getting things dropped on their noses.
We tried one more creek, and had good success there. At this point we had already decided to shake off all bites, since the creeks are small and fishing pressure would probably be a factor. It doesn't take much weight to do well at the James, so we couldn't risk hooking anything he would need on tournament day. In that creek alone, we shook off around 10 fish, and they "felt" to be decent sized. My brother was pitching a 7" power worm on a 3/16oz weight, and I was tossing the ol' wacky senko behind him. I was getting many more bites, which was surprising considering how dirty the water was, but we chalked it up to fishing pressure making them behave that way.
We tried some different backwater areas to no avail, by now the tide was coming in pretty strong, and raising water levels. My brother told me he wanted to go look in the Appomattox River to check on water conditions. We assumed there wouldn't be great fishing at the current tide, but he wanted to get an idea on if that would be a good backup plan if there was heavy fishing pressure in areas we had already found. To our surprise, we found a great area on a high, incoming tide. I hooked two solid 2+lb bass on a chatterbait, and caught another 2.5+ flipping a texas rig in a bush. My brother and I began shaking off fish after that, we tried 3 other creeks but our bites only came in one 100 yard stretch in the first creek we stopped at.
Our practice was the "perfect storm" for a tidal fishery, we found a good bite for both the low and high tide, low tide was around 11:00 on tournament day, so our plan was to fish the first creek until the tide started coming in, and then head to the Appomattox, where the other creek was, to finish out our day.
We drew boat number 1 out of 40+, we were thankful that we would get 1st dibs on the creek we planned to fish close to the ramp. My role as boat captain is to drive the boat and not offer information during the event, I do get a handful of "time outs" when I can tell the guys to stop fishing for a few seconds and make a suggestion.
We had fine-tuned the wacky rig setup from the day before, with black and blue senkos for the dirty water, and a heavy 12lb fluorocarbon leader, to help with abrasion resistance and muscle the bass away from the wood. I also told my brother to pick up a 1/4oz black buzzbait from the tackle shop, we hadn't tried one in practice but I had a feeling it could be a player early in the morning. Besides that, the only other baits we planned to put to use were the chatterbait, and a heavy texas rig, both of those were for the other creek at a higher tide.
When we got to the first creek, boat wakes were pretty thoroughly churning the mouth of it. The tide was still pretty full, but on its way out at a good pace. You would think they would position on cover and feed accordingly with the current, but that was not the case. They fished for a solid 30-40 minutes without hooking a fish, covering most of the good water from the day before in the process. Finally, my brother put decent keeper in the boat on a senko. There is one small stretch of creek that is grassy with gradual banks, a sharp contrast from the steep banks and wood in the other 90% of it. I couldn't tell him, but I was a proud brother when he set down the wacky rig and picked up the buzzbait once he saw this change, and he put another keeper in the boat shortly after making that switch.
We had run out of water, but the water level had dropped considerably by now, and the boys began working their way out, fishing the same stuff over again. Wouldn't you know, just like "they" say, those tidal bass had flipped on like light switch. With the same baits, a mere 30 minutes later in the day, the boys got to work. Fish number 3 and 4 were actually a double hookup, I can't net the fish so they both swung them in the boat, and we were excited! My brother's partner put number 5 in the boat 2-3 minutes after #3 and #4, and they quickly began upgrading.
We made our way to the mouth of the creek, and my brother saw a fish boil on his senko as he brought it out of the water. He backed the boat up slightly, and made a couple more tosses to the same spot. He hooked what was our biggest fish of the day at the time, about a 2.5lber. As they netted it, he excitedly said "there was a 4 pounder chasing it!". When that stuff is going on, you have found the right area. He put another over 2lbs in the boat after that, and told me he wanted to go fish the tiny creek from the day before to give this one time to rest, before fishing it again.
The call to give the area a rest was a good one, and I would have done the same. I wouldn't have gone to fish the other creek, but he proved that he made a good call. They landed one fish that didn't help, but on the same log that I caught the 2.5 on the day before, he pulled out our biggest fish of the day, a chunky 3.7lb river bass! After this, we headed back to the other creek, and once again had it to ourselves. I called a "time out" and told my brother to cut off the buzzbait, and rig up an Evergreen Shower Blows 125 in a bone color. The 4lb fish chasing the hooked 2.5lber is what prompted me to make this suggestion, I told him it was just like one of the little rivers we kayak fish back home. There, fish will get on shallow wood and wolfpack, and topwater is the best way to get the big bites. I told him he may not catch many, but it would be a good way to look for a better bite.
He had one miss the topwater on his 3rd cast, which was a good confidence booster. He began working his way into the creek, and about 10 minutes later a solid 2.5+lb fish annihilates his bait right beside a tree! After that, all hell broke loose and the kid couldn't be stopped. He was putting on a show, and I had a blast watching them eat the bait. Despite the dirty water, he would see them nose up on the bait when he paused it, and then it was a toilet bowl flush when he would twitch it one more time! He culled to the point where our 4 smallest fish were all in the 2-2.5lb range, and decided it was time to go to the other creek to try and upgrade, the tide had switched and was just "getting right" for the other place.
Upon arrival, things looked good and he started his way in with the chatterbait. We saw 3 fish wake behind his chatterbait but they did not eat it, they didn't eat the senko either when he tried to follow-up. Once again, we made it through the entire productive stretch without a hookup. He picked up the shower blows, and this proved to be the right move, one that I'm not sure I would have made honestly. Within 10 minutes, he upgraded a few ounces, and began catching more fish, fishing through the same stuff on the way back out of the creek. You could almost call the shots, the creek was mainly grassy, but every time there was a creek bend with some wood in it, that's where they were. He would walk the bait in place and make sure to keep it over top of their heads for quite a while, that did the trick. With about 45 minutes of fishing time left, he made the final upgrade of the day with another solid fish over 3lbs. We thought they needed one big bite in the 4-5lb class to seal the deal, but it never came. We headed to weigh-in knowing they had definitely qualified for the state championship, but curious to see how everyone else did.
It turns out they didn't need a kicker, and they actually had the tournament won at about 10:30am, proceeding to put several nails in the coffin throughout the day afterwards! They had 14 and change, besting 2nd by 4lbs, and 5th by 7lbs. They did a great job, they kept their feet on the gas and didn't get too cocky or careless when fishing was good. Execution was great as well, there was one mishap with a net early on but the fish was hooked well and ended up in the boat. Besides that, every fish hooked was put in the boat, pretty impressive for close quarters around heavy wood cover!
I love being a captain in high school events, I had many generous people do the same for me when I was their age, so I feel as though I owe it back!
