James River
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James River Fishing Reports
Stay up to date with the latest fishing reports from James River . Reports are submitted by local anglers, fishing guides, and our team of fishing experts.
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- Species
Largemouth BassTechniqueBladed JigsSeasonSpring (Post-Spawn)StructureReedsFish were caught on outgoing tide on the outer edges of Arrowheads with stumps or other wood close by.
TheKurrentBronze Ambassador
SpeciesLargemouth BassTechniqueSwim JigsSeasonSpring (Post-Spawn)StructureShadFished a memorial day tournament out of Osborne Landing and practiced for a few hours the day before. Bite wasn't lights out, but when you did get a bite, it was a decent fish. While practicing, I caught them on laydowns, docks, points with hard spots and in the backs of pockets. Fish came on the Bucca Brand Trick Shad, swimjig and jackhammer—somewhat junk fishing, but I knew they wanted moving baits. Nigh before the tournament, air temps dropped and on the morning of, the water temp dropped 3-4 degrees. I expected a morning buzzbait bite with the rain and gloomy weather, but to my surprise, no takers. Went back to the glidebait and this time, picked up the Raid Osakana Slide and quickly rounded up two solid fish for the bag: a 3 1/2 & 2 1/2 pounder. Bite slowed for a while and then all the sudden, it was like a light switch—was casting around with a swimjig and BOOM, an easily 7 pounder eats, I set the hook poorly, she runs right at me, jumps and spits the jig... The next 15 minutes was rough mentally, but I kept casting the swimjig in the same area and filled out my limit with a couple 2 quality fish and a squeaker. After getting that big bite and the many that came after, I decided to stick out the hour left in the derb in this area, but to no luck. One rat in the bag and total weight ended up at 12.43. Unfortunate to have the kicker come unbuttoned, but a fun day of learning. Even caught one with a tag in it from the VDWR and the fish was SUPER healthy!
SpeciesLargemouth BassTechniqueTexas Rigs (Pitch/Flip)SeasonSummerStructureStanding TimberPicking apart cypress knees with some light flipping.
SpeciesLargemouth BassTechniqueBuzzbaitsSeasonSummerStructureLily PadsGood early morning bit on buzz baits around pads and laydowns. As the sun got higher and temps warmed up, bite shifted to a wacky rig in shady spots.
- SpeciesLargemouth BassTechniqueShakey HeadsSeasonSummerStructureLaydowns
Fish were grouped up on lay downs in 5ft and less. Would catch multiples on each lay down that were holding them.
SpeciesLargemouth BassTechniqueTexas Rigs (Pitch/Flip)SeasonSummerStructureStanding TimberFish positioned themselves on the cypress in different areas depending on the tide.
- Species
Smallmouth BassTechniqueBuzzbaitsSeasonSummerStructureBouldersOur fourth club tournament of the year and we were very fortunate to bring home our third first place trophy. We had low clear water conditions on most all locations of the upper James river. The first fish of the morning was a bluegill that hit a popar and almost got eaten by a giant musky, then we found the smallmouths in the faster moving water, best bait was the buzz bait, and Zoom fluke also produced well.
Omnia Community MemberBronze AmbassadorSpeciesLargemouth BassTechniqueWacky RigsSeasonSpring (Post-Spawn)StructureStumpsWacky Rigging 5" Watermelon Red Flake Senko's rigged with VMC Crossover Rings, 7mm, Green Pumpkin, VMC Weedless Neko Hook, 1/0 and 10 lb test Trilene XL on a spinning setup. Fishing cypress knees in 2-5 feet of water at low tide, and beginning of incoming tide.
