Memphis is known for their Blues, but so is the James River, but it’s blues as in catfish, not music. Hauling in a monster blue cat on a cold winter day and hearing the reel scream as the line peels off is music to a sportsman’s ears.
Blue catfish, immigrants from the Mississippi are now well established in Virginia. They are in all our major rivers and most lakes, and they get big – like 100 pounds big. Sometimes more.
The lower James in the Petersburg area is a hotspot for blue catfish. There is plenty of bait available in the form of shad and deep water like the blue cats love,
I fished this part of the James several years back with Parks Rountree, a light line enthusiast. I used a rig with 4-pound test and boated a 24-pounder, but my fishing mate used 2-pound test and we had the world record within 2 feet of the landing net when the 30-pound plus fish escaped.
Parks said you can catch huge blue cats on light line if you are patient. He said they will pull as hard as you do. If you try to horse the fish in, he’ll horse back, and that’s when many fish just snap off. But if you pull slow and easy, the catfish will eventually tire and come to net.
To catch these big fellas (and they bite throughout the winter), you’ll need fresh shad for cut bait and a boat to set up on the edge of the channel which drops off to 40 feet or more. The cats work their way up out of the deep water to feed and there are lots and lots of fish in this area of the James.
So, bundle up, get your casting net ready and head out for some James River Blues – even in the middle of winter.