Bad day on the James..

[Catterman]

Well yesterday, we got out on the water around 6:50 am, went and found bait, pulled the gill net out of the water, cranked the boat up, hammer down, and my motor took a crap. From the way it sounds, i think its the fuel pump but i dont know for sure yet. Well, even though my motor took a crap, i could still got about 5-7mph, so we did. We had to stick close to where we were b/c we didnt know how long the motor would still run. We moved around everywhere in the area and nothing.. Headed to another spot, in about 3 ft of water, BOOM!! Coulnt see what it was, but my side imaging showed it to me after id'e hit it.. Im thinking it was a rock pile just beneath the surface (it was low tide). Well, we got to our next spot and i realized that there was a little water in the bottom of the boat, i opened the floor hatch and it is full..!! so i cut the bilge on and pump it all out.. I do this 3 times before we come in. My fishing partners dad caught the only fish. LoL, he had this POS shakespear push buttom reel and crap rod that he somehow acquired and decided he was going to fish with it. He hooked into a 27lbr with it. The line was going out faster than he could reel. HAHAHA, so Will grabbed the line by hand and helped pull it in. I grabbed the net and waited to net it. As the fish got next the boat, before i could swoop him up, he popped off the hook.. The fish is just sitting on top of the water with no hook, so i leaned in, (almost fell in) and scooped him before he dove to the depths..

At least with a bad day, all 3 of us could get in on 1 fish together. Now back to the bad part.. Get the boat onto the trailer, 2 gashes in the fiberglass... So, ive got some money to fork out..

[dearl]

Glad yall made it back to the ramp o.k.

[YadkinCatman]

Hate to hear that man,i know you were looking forward to that trip.Hopefully your next outing will be better.

[Catterman]

Thanks guys.. Yea i was looking forward to this trip. Was hoping to get some good footage this trip but the wind was horrible and I was in no way shape or form to be in front of a camera. I was cussin as much as the day was long. LoL.. We did get a great clip of the one fish we did catch. We'll be able to use it in the dvd. That was the only good side of the day.

[beastmaster704]

man hate to hear you had so much trouble out there my motor is doing the same thing right now ! good to hear you made it out !

[oran]

Man, that sounds rough. Hope the next trip up goes better for yall.

[photocat]

That sounds like the day I had right before christmas, though the motor just died on us and would run till I put some gas to it... turned out I got bad gas and it seperated out and screwed up our plans... Ended up sitting just out side the marina catching 3-6lbers for 3 hrs till the wind and tide died down and allowed us to paddle back in. It's good you found a 27lber atleast.

[Stonewall]

Sorry to hear you came up here and had the problems! What ramp did you put in at and where did you hit the structure?

[Catterman]

put in at dutch gap. Hit the structure coming back from the barge pits where that little island of metal and stuff is in the middle of the river. There is an old civil war bridge right beside where i hit that is above the water at low tide. It was as low as it could be when i hit it.

[Stonewall]

Yep it is nasty through there. That is a old sunken barge but if you stay between that and the beeping boat house there is plenty of water. If you come up again let me know and I would be happy to show you around the river. I know most of the river pretty well. If you don't want to bring your boat you are more than welcome on mine. Just let me know a week or two in advance so I can make plans.

[Catterman]

Originally Posted by Stonewall

Yep it is nasty through there. That is a old sunken barge but if you stay between that and the beeping boat house there is plenty of water. If you come up again let me know and I would be happy to show you around the river. I know most of the river pretty well. If you don't want to bring your boat you are more than welcome on mine. Just let me know a week or two in advance so I can make plans.

Thanks a lot! We fish the James multiple times each winter but i would love to come up and fish with someone who's grown up on the river and knows it better than we do. So more than likely, i'll take you up on that offer!

[JPritch]

Sorry to hear about your misfortunes. Seems when everything can go wrong, it will go wrong. Hope you get it all fixed soon. And nice offer from Stonewall, I'm sure he can put you on some nice fish.

[catfishwillee]

LOL! Dave was soooooo mad. And just to make him even more mad...... the alarm for the engine was stuck on. beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep anytime the engine was on. So here we are idling at mach zero with the horn stuck on. Made for a great time and terrible time at the same time.

But any time fiberglass touches something harder than gel coat it makes me cringe.

[Carter]

Originally Posted by catfishwillee

LOL! Dave was soooooo mad. And just to make him even more mad...... the alarm for the engine was stuck on. beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep anytime the engine was on. So here we are idling at mach zero with the horn stuck on. Made for a great time and terrible time at the same time.

But any time fiberglass touches something harder than gel coat it makes me cringe.

Been there done that!!! All you can do is laugh...when it rains it pours thats for sure!

Good luck on your next trip man. Some hawgs in there have your name on them!

[Catterman]

thanks Carter. Good news is, pretty sure the culprit was water in the fuel that i got in Richmond.. (word to the wise, dont get gas in richmond, especially the gas station across from hardees on the road to dutch gap). The hole in the boat is getting fixed for free and all that is left is to get my tilt and trim serviced. Just wish we wouldve gotten into some better fish that day..

[dumptruck]

Dave sorry to hear y'all had such a bad time on your last trip to the James .Could have been a good thing the motor was acting up ,if it had a been running rite you might of had a hole in the hull instead of 2 cracks . Just a thought .

[Catterman]

Yea, i thought about that right after we hit the barge. lol. We are headed back to the James to film next weekend, saturday and sunday.

[JPritch]

Catterman, there is an ODCC tourney (mods hope it's ok I said that), that Saturday. Would be good to have you all fish it with us. Good luck and hope you have better luck next time.

Sounds like you're making a DVD on catfishing. Have you seen the Monster Cats DVD, or the preview on YouTube? If not, you're in for a treat, and you might get some ideas for your flick. Just search "Monster Cats DVD" on YouTube and you'll find it. Makes me drool every time I watch it.

[Catterman]

Yea Josh, i bought the dvd a couple years ago when it came out. Ive actually fished with Jason Bridges before. I liked the fish they caught, but wasn't impressed of the editing and lay out of the dvd. Believe me, when you see what we are going to do, you are definetly going to be impressed. May not put the numbers of 70lb+ fish in the boat as they did, but the dvd will be a lot more entertaining with a lot better videography quality. I started a thread on here not too long ago about the dvd. Look it up and you'll see some of the ideas we have for the dvd.


BLK WLF FISHING!

[catfishwillee]

Originally Posted by Catterman

Yea Josh, i bought the dvd a couple years ago when it came out. Ive actually fished with Jason Bridges before. I liked the fish they caught, but wasn't impressed of the editing and lay out of the dvd. Believe me, when you see what we are going to do, you are definetly going to be impressed. May not put the numbers of 70lb+ fish in the boat as they did, but the dvd will be a lot more entertaining with a lot better videography quality. I started a thread on here not too long ago about the dvd. Look it up and you'll see some of the ideas we have for the dvd.


BLK WLF FISHING!

Cat's out of the bag, or should i say WOLF!