James River report...help Dayton!

[drb]

Mainly wanted to run the ghosts and goblins out of the outboard, but day was perfect. Water temp 44. Fished last of incoming, first outgoing on structure below Richmond. Mostly the piers, pilings and breakwalls of the gravel loading docks. I caught a 5" crappie and a 6" crappie. hahaha. I was fishing 14-21 FOW. I didn't mark very many fish. I was vertical jigging the downtide structure (i.e. behind the piling, out of the tide) thinking the winter fish are lazy and want out of the current. A couple of decent marks on humps in the channel, but no luck. My question for Dayton or any other tidal river fisherman. What type of structure do the crappie orient to in the winter? Full disclosure is that I was using bucktails and jigs (see in the pic). Perhaps with minnows I would have found more fish? Anyway, a very nice day on the water. Some guys were catching some decent catfish in fairly shallow water.

[OrangeAgent]

I havent caught crappie out of the big oxbow lake behind the power plant at dutch gap but the hot water discharge keeps it much warmer in there. Especially when they have both stacks burning. Last time I was down that way a fella told me he caught a 2lb crappie drop shotting for bass on his first drop on a barge. Might try down there. I have had some decent bass days close to the city with crankbaits and pitching jigs to pilings but it is definitely not loaded with resident fish up there.

[woodduck1956]

Try the barge pits down river. Still have to deal with the tide but not the current. Use medium minnows, for some reason they don't like the smalls as much.