James River Journal

Friday, February 29—I’ve been stuck in the office or on the road or on the road for the last several weeks but we got out on the river today to go to Presquile National Wildlife Refuge. Leaving from Hopewell, we immediately saw a mature eagle swoop down and catch a large gizzard shad. What a way to start the day! On the way to the island we saw at least six more eagles, and numerous ducks and geese. The best sight though was the first osprey I’ve sighted this season. It claimed a premier nesting spot on the channel marker at the upper end of Turkey Island cut. When I see the ospreys return, I know that spring can’t be far away. Returning to Hopewell that afternoon we spotted another osprey in the Appomattox. Maybe spring’s closer than I think.

Friday, February 8—We received our latest research tool this week, a 16 foot otter trawl net with a small mesh inner bag. This will be really handy for sturgeon research and for educational purposes. I decided to try it our this afternoon since the weather was so nice.

Since I’ve never fished a trawl before, it took me a few minutes to figure out what I was doing but it seemed pretty simple. Throw in your safety float and tailbag, play out the net, drop the doors and tighten up on the towlines. It all worked as planned and we towed the net for five minutes near the area where we had previously run our setlines. When we got the tailbag back in the boat, we were treated to approximately 150 blue catfish ranging in size from two to eight inches. Anyone who has ever messed with catfish this size knows what a pain they can be to get out of a net.

Regardless of the catfish picking mess, the net worked well and will prove to be an important tool for us.

Monday, February 4—We ran the setlines today that we put out yesterday. The weather was unbelievable for this time of the year, right at 70 degrees and no wind! Bottom line up front—we did not catch any sturgeon. We did catch quite a few blue catfish.

The first string we ran had four fish ranging from 1 to 4 pounds each. The second string had 12 fish from .5 to 18 pounds. It also had one 80 pound test leader broken and one 10/0 hook straightened out. The last string had six fish going from 1 to 8 pounds each. Total number of fish was 22 for 70 pounds.

The gear worked well and was fairly easy to fish. I think this will be a useful tool in our sturgeon research.

Sunday, February 3—It’s Super Bowl Sunday, 6 hours before the game, five hours before the party starts and the weather is beautiful. Too pretty to stay in so the Old man and I decided to take a short trip on the river. I had been anxious to try using baited setlines (a fancy term for a trotline) to see if we could catch a sturgeon with them. This method has been used successfully in other parts of the country and we had anecdotal evidence that other watermen have caught sturgeon this way in the lower portions of the James.

We baited 75 hooks with pickled squid and set out for the area near Presquile where we had seen many sturgeon last fall. We set out three 300’ shots of line with 25 hooks each spaced at about 12’ apart. I’m sure we will catch a lot of blue catfish on the lines but you never know. That’s the neat thing about fishing, the anticipation of what might be on the end of the line. We’ll run the lines on Monday afternoon and post the results.

Sunday, January 27—The Old man and I decided to do a little fishing after church this morning. We left around 10:00 and headed for the sunken ships between Hopewell and the Benjamin Harrison Bridge. Many think these are islands but are actually the remains of Civil War and World War I era ships and barges run up on to the flat to rot. Trees and other vegetation have taken root on the hulks and they provide habitat for numerous birds and fish. The fish must have been hiding inside because we could not get a bite.

After a while we moved to a couple of other spots near Epps Island and Turkey Island with the same results. The fish just did not want to cooperate but catching fish is just icing on the cake. We saw at least 25 eagles, ranging from young to mature birds, ducks and several of the largest flocks of geese we have seen in a while. We were also treated to the ballet that takes place when a tug works to move a large ship off a pier with a stiff current and fair breeze blowing—truly pretty to watch. No fish to clean but as good day on the water.

Friday, January 25-- Matt Balazik, a graduate student at VCU, and I left the dock at 9:00 AM to scout locations to place acoustic receivers for tracking Atlantic sturgeon this spring and summer. The temperature was in the mid-twenties with a windchill of about 8 degrees. It was cold to be sure but Matt had on his flotation coveralls and I had on my float coat so the temperatures did not bother us too much. There is an old Norwegian saying that there is no bad weather, just bad clothes and that held true today.

Many folks don’t think about getting out on the water much after Labor Day but they are missing one of the prettiest times on the James. We only saw two other boats all day—one catfisherman and three waterfowlers. We had the river to ourselves with only the company of the myriad ducks, geese, eagles, herons and cormorants that overwinter here. With all the leaves gone we could see many things we would miss in the summer. Winter is a great time to be on the water for sure, but be sure you are properly clothed and prepared for the cold.