Here's a thought. We could have a small get together over on the James in January. A little "snowball" tourney. Launch out of Osbourne Landing or Hopewell. Can't imagine we get too many of us but it does seem a few of us are crazy enough to brave the cold to try and catch a fish. How many would be interested in doing that?

Jeff

If I don't have to work, I'm in!

I'm game. But I'll have to be a co-angler.
Russell

Oh you KNOW I'm in! Just give me a date before I have to write the January work schedule.
Bill

Crazy enough here. I know I will be in MD the first week of January. Other than that I'm in.

Let's say second weekend in January then is Sat or Sun better for everybody. Russell you can ride with me, I got the nice full windshield to keep that cold air off of us at 65 mph.

Jeff

LOL my boat will get up to about 55-60mph....but a few weeks back I was "cruising" at 25 mph due to the temprature of that wind LOL

Anyways, a Saturday is best for me.

Hey are all ya'll nuts, crazy, out of your minds. Count me in, well maybe., we will see.
Blackie,

Here are the tides for those two weekends:

Sa 7 Low 4:06 AM
7 High 9:48 AM
7 Low 4:56 PM
7 High 10:20 PM

Su 8 Low 4:59 AM
8 High 10:46 AM
8 Low 5:58 PM
8 High 11:20 PM

Sa 14 High 3:39 AM
14 Low 10:18 AM
14 High 3:55 PM
14 Low 11:05 PM

Su 15 High 4:22 AM
15 Low 11:01 AM
15 High 4:38 PM
15 Low 11:44 PM

Looks like Saturday the 7th will be the best as the tide will be outgoing pretty much all day so let's set it for then. Now we just need to decide if we have a temperature were we scrap it. Me personally as long as the water isn't frozen I'll go what is everyone elses thoughts.

Jeff

Yea the 7th would work for me...

Hey Jeff, mark it on your calendar.

O.K so the date is set we will fish on the 7th. I am thinking we launch around 9:30 or 10:00, don't want to be to early since it may be cold. We can fish until 2:30 or 3:00.

Now do we do it as an individual thing 5 fish per person or as 5 per boat. Also have to decide how much we want to put in to create a pot.

Jeff

Are we going to be fishing for bass or catfish?

I say Bass because I have one track mind...If we can get enough people we could probably do both but right it only looks like 5 or 6 of us so it going to have to be one or the other.

Jeff

If Blackie Lee, Bill, and Jeff are in .... I'm in. 7th is good for me. Would need to ride if that is ok .... the motor is off my boat right now and will be for a couple months.

$10-20 a person sounds good to me ..... but I would like to see others input as well.

JK

I was trying to fit it in, but that is the last day of shoot'em up, so I'll be in the woods. maybe next time. Jeff great finally putting a face to a name. Tightline and everyone have a great holiday season.

Hey Jeff K, you can fish with me if ya want.

What a great response for January or ANY time!
OK, I will fish for the green fish if I have to. Im in! Jeff can make up the rules. Keep it simple.
Bill

Blackie Lee .... done deal ...... I with ya partner!!

Hey Bill, I get to make up the rules. All right everyone else starts at -3 pounds me at 0 LMAOL.

Seriously How does $20/person paying $15/person to most weight and $5/person to big fish sound. Would love to pay to more spots but just don't think we will have enough guys to make it worth doing that. Of course if we do get more then we could change that payout. The most weight category will either be paid to the person or to the boat, personally I am leaning towards to the boat because I just don't think it fair to charge the guys fishing as non-boaters the same and not have them have an equal chance at winning something. What does everyone else feel.

Jeff

Yea that sounds good....except the switch on my aerator is broke and constantly runs the motor so I unplugged it at the battery....lol....I may have to go OLD SCHOOL and bust out the stringer ;)

I think it'd be cool to have a catfish tournament where you have a 2 fish limit, heaviest stringer wins.

Either way, whatever ya'll decide will be cool to me.

I'm in as long as work keeps me in Richmond. Also, if anyone else needs a ride, I've got a spot. And, unlike Jeff B, my windshield is complete .

Im in. Although Im not familliar with fishing the James or anywhere other than the Appomattox...Im sure I can hold my own. Can I ride with you Rich? My rig is dry for the winter.

Jeff,
The rules and payout sound good to me. I dont have an aerator, so I'll have to string them too Ego.
I would offer my extra seat, but my regular fishing partner wants in. Did we decide on Osborne since we are going to the pits?
Bill

We will have to figure something out as far as aerators/livewells go unless of course you want to keep the fish you catch. I just hate to have fish on stringers getting released, especially since I am leaning towards doing this as a Bass T. I can actually help you out Bill. I have a portable aerator that goes into a cooler. You could probably use that as your livewell. The thing cranks so fish will definitely have no problems in there. Ego maybe I can meet you and we can look at your livewell to see if we can get them to work. We have a few weeks. Let me know.

Jeff

This is looking like a good time for all! What a great gathering of good people. We should organize these more often in the future Jeff. Looks like about 10 people so far. The thing that made me feel good about this the most, was how fast every boater offered their extra seat to a non-boater, often people they have never met. Before I even had a chance to offer my seat to Jeff K., Blackie Lee did. It looked like every one had a ride, so I gave it to my partner. I will spread the word. I may even be able to get my boater neighbor interested. Believe it or not, he doesnt have a computer.
Oh and Jeff K., when you are fishing with Blackie, dont worry if you see a black snake fly over your head. Its just Blackie Lee's hand poured, 14", black killer worm! Your secret is out Blackie,lol.
Bill

LOL...I think I might fish this first one alone just to spare myself the embarrassment of coming home empty handed ;)

I will take you up on your offer Jeff. Thanks.

I might too Jeff :)

I'm pretty sure that it's the switch under the dash because first my aerator went out.....and then my bilge....

Scratch that, they didn't go OUT, they are just permanently turned "on"....The only thing I can figure is the switches under the dash have gone bad. If I plug them back in at the back of the boat, the motors stay on and don't go off. I found out the hardway when my battery was dead one morning when I went to go to the Mattaponi :(

There is always problems with stuff like that on a boat. I guess from being around the mositure all the time. May try working your switch on and off and unpluging the wires from the switch and cleaning them first. Worked on mine this last time. And I think this time of year if you keep your fish in a cooler, they will live a long time with out being aerated unless you have a lot in their for too long. Don't see that happening, not for me anyway. Lets say a five fish per boat limit, think I would have to be pretty lucky to get, that many this time year.

Blackie,

My man Jeff B hooked me up with the switches I need on West Marine. They were only a few bucks so I picked up two, I'll give them a shot.

Thanks Jeff. I also picked up some power trim oil too, hopefully this will take care of all of my issues :)

Now if I could only catch some FISH!

This is shaping up pretty good. We have so far
Me - Russell
Ego
Bill - His partner
Rich K - Randy
Blackie Lee - Jeff K.

Few rules:
-We will fish for Bass just because I think we all know how to try and catch them but a few of us are lost if it comes to catfish, plus one of us is afraid of the whiskered fellows (not me, someone who breaks windshields apparently got spiked good by one).
-Five fish limit per boat, 12 inch minimum size. No penalty for short fish it just won't count.
-anytime the main motor on the boat is running PFD's must be worn.
-bring insurance papers for the boat just so that I can verify it is insured.
-I'll have a pretty basic waiver to sign, any of you guys that have fished T's know what it is, pretty much says that Fishingva.com is not held liable for anything, yada, yada, yada...

That's it for now. i will probably think up a few more.

Jeff

Last place buys the Tourney a round at the local watering hole.


Bring some coin Ego...



(Can we trash talk now?)

lol....no way, with Christmas time being just a few days before this thing, I need all the $$ in my pocket I can get.

I may invite my friend to come fish with me since he's fished tournaments before...

Hey aren't you supposed to be out on the water EGO...

Jeff

Yes...I am.

I woke up at 8am and was greeted by a rather strong snow shower...I had left the cover off of my boat last night in preperation for a quick departure in the morning....the casting deck was covered in snow :(

I went back to sleep lol...woke up around 10am and the snow had turned to rain. About 30 minutes later it stopped raining.

By that time I figured I'd just stay home today and watch football....work on the boat a little bit for the rest of the morning.

I found my motor manual and pinpointed where my lower unit oil goes and where the hydraulic oil goes for the trim. I drained the trim oil and it was black yet milky looking so I think it needed changing.

I have the new switches for my aerator/bilge and hydraulic oil coming on Tuesday so I should be good to go for our Jan 7th fishing date. In fact I'm off the 24th through 28th so I plan on a little "prefishing" then lol

Hmmm, there was snow on my casting deck too, but I still caught 12 catfish fish today on the James in 2 hours . I looked for ya Ego. You cant catch fish from bed man . Jeff K didnt show up either, he had to work so I fished solo.
I still cant post my fishing reports. I THINK I am using the latest setting for this site. Who knows. I am not good with computers.
Bill

Yea now that I have to go back to work tomorrow I'm regretting not going today!

No problem Randy, your with me. And ahh, by the way, no one said we have to stay in the barge pits did they? I know Banko will beat us to my good spots, but he may not know ALL my favorite spots.
Jeff B, I appreciate that! When exactly do you want your glass? LOL

That's it, I think someone needs to share this infamous windshield story with us...

It's not much of a story really, you had to be there for my reaction when it happened. But, I will say this, when tempered glass breaks, it shatters into about a billion tiny pieces. I felt really horrible about it when it happened, And, for the rest of the day I was too scared to set the hook on any fish.

Shoot me a email Rich so we can coordinate.

Oh, just for the record, my name is MIKE...

I don't wanna show up and everyone have to call me "Ego" lol..

MIKE!

Sent - my cell is attached to the e-mail.

My apologies again Bill for the no show (and called an hour late) ..... darn restaurant business of my wifes is so darn unpredictable. BELIEVE me I would rather have been fishing/hunting/painting walls/WATCHING paint dry than working Sunday.

Anywho .... looking forward to this little get together ..... Blackie- shoot me an email, discuss the particulars. Which boat are you taking?

Bill ..... I've seen the snake and its pretty dang cool ....... and it looks like a nice snack to those Briery hawgs!

All the rules/$$ sound good to me.

Damn man...I just spent the last 20 minutes writing a long a** email Rich...Just to have the adelphia server time me out and dump it. POS!

Anyway...when is a good time to call you?

Im going to try to make a trip up to Green Top this week. I need a new St. Croix, Curado and whatever else. Christmas Bonus was just handed to me today. Momma already got her cut and mine is burning in my hand.

Having never fished a tournament, what happens if no one catches a bass >12"??
By the way, if you havent been to Osborne recently, they have built a really nice covered picnic table area complete with a fireplace and chimney. They even have real bathrooms now. Perfect for the weigh in and "Awards Ceremony", lol.
Bill

Have never seen it happen. With 10 of us out there someone should catch at least one. If it does though and since this is intended to be more of a friendly get together then all entries will just be returned.

Jeff

You cant beat that. Too bad we cant get a few more entrants in here. Get the pot up a little more. I am talking it up. Just no takers for a January bass T.
Jeff, you need to do this in the spring and summer too. It will be big!
Bill

So are we doing a $20 a head fee/pot? I dont remember reading a exact amount.

I was thinking of it being a team type event just so that the guys in the back of the boat don't get screwed. Figure $20 per boat plus $5 per person for big fish pot. I can probably get some more guys in. I'll ask some of my club buddies if everyone is o.k. with that.

Jeff