January 1, 2011

Happy New Year! How can you start a year off better than fishing and eagle watching on the James River? Taking the day to another level of awesomeness, I fished with a guy named Joe Bass. I mean, how cool of a name is that for an angler? Joe Bass fished with his longtime friend, Bob, and as you can see in the image ... both guys are hold pretty nice fish.  Joe is holding a 20 pounder and Bob's hoisting a blue cat of 37 pounds.  Both fish were on at the same time too! Big fish of the day was caught by Joe ... a 48 pounder! 

The highlight of the day was catching a five-pound fish out of 39 degree water which we fileted and ate for lunch.  After the 'shore lunch' on the pontoon boat the guys were ready to take a couple of filets home for eating. Deeeelicious!

What you can't see in this image are all the bald eagles that seemed to be around us all day long. I've never seen so many bald eagles 'perched' in the trees along the James River.  They didn't seem to fly much today, except to go from tree to tree.  Occasionally, they'd fly around the river in search of a scavenged meal, but for the most part they sat content in the branches of trees along the riverbanks. This day was unique due to the constant calls from these great birds.  All day long ... that high pitched chirp.  We heard over 100 bald eagle calls this day, it was phenomenal.

If you have never heard a bald eagle, and want to hear what an eagle sounds like .... Click here. It will take you to a site that has about 10 different bald eagle calls on it, and they may not sound like you think they should and there's nothing like hearing and seeing on in nature, first hand, but it's close. Joe Bass (and Bob) thought it was awesome, hearing all those eagles, and agreed, "The day of a hundred eagle calls" would not be soon forgotten!

--Capt. Mike