James River Blue Catfish

[JDTuna]

Decided to do something a little different this weekend and headed down to the James River in Virginia to target giant blue catfish. Met up with my friend Darrell and we drove down Friday night to fish Saturday.

Hit the river Saturday morning to very windy, but warm conditions. Right off the bat we* pulled the hook on a small fish and Darrell got a nice fish in the 20's, which was quickly released.

After that, we bounced around a bit and hit several spots. We had bites at every stop, but the fish were being very picky. They would mouth the bait, then drop it. It very surprising and frustrating to have such large catfish be so gentle with the bait. We ended up pulling the hooks on another fish.

The wind was steady all day, and fishable spots were limited. Our last stop was a sheltered area. We sat for a bit, then one of the rods got slammed and thr tip quickly dipped to the water. I picked up the rod and could tell this was a much larger fish. After a short fight, the net was slipped under a 41lb blue catfish. The fish was probably the fattest catfish I had ever caught. After a few pics, the fish was released and swam strongly back to the depths.

Called it a day after that. Fishing was on the slow side, but we still managed some quality fish.