Top 5 Patterns From Day 2 On The James
Kelly Pratt, of Williamsburg, Va. took the day-one lead in Rayovac FLW Series Northern Division action on the James River with 33 pounds, 4 ounces. Pratt’s targeting spawning fish in areas flooded by full moon tides and east winds.
Click here to read about Pratt’s leading pattern. Here are the details of the rest of the top five.
2nd Place — Troy Morrow — 31 pounds, 1 ounce
Gaining two spots today, the FLW Tour pro from Eastanolee, Ga., again committed his day to the Chickahominy — a major James River tributary known for the quantity and quality Morrow sought. Today’s limit added 15-14 to Morrow’s total.
“I caught them all day again, but still no size early,” he says. “Every once in a while I’d pick off a big one.
Morrow says he’s been catching fish on several types of shallow habitat from wood to vegetation, but one particular bait has produced all of his weight. He wouldn’t divulge the particulars, but he did say it was a bait “that moves a little.”
Like most, Morrow saw his better action on the outgoing tide, but he says he also caught fish on rising water, as well as the slack tide period. The latter is usually a desert, so how did he tempt bites during still water?
“That bait starts moving a little more,” he says, only half-jokingly. “You have to go for a total reaction bite in that slack water.”
Looking ahead to day three, Morrow thinks his biggest concern will be recreational boat traffic – particularly the big cruisers known for their massive wakes that pound the shallows.
3rd Place — Ryan Powroznik — 30 pounds, 13 ounces
Splitting his time between the James and Chickahominy rivers, the pro from Prince George, Va., caught one of the day’s best sacks – a limit that went 17-8. Sticking with his day-one game plan, Powroznik fished a mix of shallow water habitat and fared best on the outgoing tide.
“The only change I made today [Friday] was moving around a little more,” he says. “I made the same presentations and just started fishing new water. I think some of the area I fished yesterday got beaten up pretty bad, so I just kept doing what I was doing and looking for similar things.”
In addition to his primary mix of subsurface reaction baits and flipping/pitching baits, Powroznik says he also picked up a couple of keepers on topwater baits.
“The bites were a little more frequent this afternoon, as opposed to this morning,” he notes. “But the way I’m fishing, if I do get a bite, it’s usually a good one. So, really I’m not looking for that many bites. I got fewer bites today than I did yesterday, but they grew a little bit.”
4th Place — Bo Boltz — 29 pounds, 14 ounces
The pro from New Kent, Va., decided to avoid the long run to the Chickahominy because he had found good fish closer to the take-off site at Osborne Landing. The bite had been slow due to high water and the recent influx of colder rain runoff, but today Boltz found the fish more aggressive.
“It slowed down a little bit, but they bit good enough,” he says. “The northeast wind blew that tide in and there was water everywhere. The tide looked like it did a little better today. It dropped down more like it was supposed to.”
Friday, Boltz found a good topwater bite and augmented that with Texas-rigged soft plastics. As in the opening round, his better action came later in the day when the outgoing tide fell low enough to position the fish and stimulate feeding.
5th — Bryan Elrod — 29 pounds, 4 ounces
With his second-day limit of 18-7, Elrod tied sixth-place Cory Johnston for the event’s heaviest pro sack. Elrod’s catch included the day’s Big Bass – a chunky largemouth that weighed 6-13.
“I just ran down to the Chickahominy River and worked my way back with the tide,” Elrod says of his day-two plan. “I went about midway back into the Chick, worked my way back up and got five good bites.”
Targeting a mix of grass and wood, Elrod fished a mix of baits in what he termed typical postspawn junk fishing.
“I think I got five fish on five different baits,” he concludes. “I did that yesterday; I just go lucky with five big ones today.”
LIST TOP 6-10
6th — Cory Johnston, Peterborough, Ont. — 29 pounds
7th — Dave Lefebre, Erie, Pa. — 27 pounds, 14 ounces
8th — Glenn Browne, Ocala, Fla. — 27 pounds, 12 ounces
9th — Clay Lewis, Sandston, Va. — 26 pounds, 6 ounces
10th — Jeffrey Ware, Warrenton, Va. — 25 pounds, 14 ounces