I'm with ya. Been stinking it up in 2017. I have not caught a crappie since Christmas. Been on the James 3 times, not even a sniff. We have caught some catfish, up to 40 pounds for my brother in law Shawn. So the BPS Big Cat Quest came to town yesterday on the James River. Running out of Osborne landing. Can start fishing at 6am. Scales open at 8am. They payout 4 places every hour until 3pm. $400, $300, $200, $100. They also post random "target fish" slots, that pay $100. Typically, 1-1.25# or 3-3.25 or 5-5.5. They stay open until claimed. So we try to catch some small fish in hope to fill a slot. Well the fishing was awful for us. We had two small fish at 11:30. Road to weigh in to see what was happening. At 11:55, there were only two boats tied up to weigh a fish. So I put a little fellow in my bailing cup and headed to the scale. Fish weighed 0.75 pound (they wrote it down wrong as 0.45). Anyway, this little guy took 3rd place for the 11am-Noon hour. 4th place went unclaimed. Guys are reluctant to come from way down river to weigh in until late in the day, so a little luck and timing can sometimes pay off.
Here is our $200 fish.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNt30sAHgJI
All money is paid out at the end of the day. The Weigh master Ken Freeman made quite the spectical out of my fishing catch prowess. He also gave me a new landing net (bait net) to commemorate the smallest fish to ever win money in his tournaments! Proud moment for me.
Me and my money fish are in the photos on the BCQ facebook page. I"m ready for next year now.
https://www.facebook.com/Big-Cat-Que...PAGES_TIMELINE