One Saturday in August of 2012, my wife, son, and I loaded up the kayaks and headed to the town of Buchanan (VA) for a “fish-n-float” on the James River. We had the coolers packed with food and drinks, plenty of sunscreen, and more fishing tackle than the three of us could use. Our first stop was Twin River Outfitters, a kayak/canoe company located right on the banks of the James. Twin River Outfitters offers a shuttle service to different locations on the river which allows us to take just one vehicle and enjoy some more time together. They shuttled us up to an area of the river known as “Springwood” which is approximately 5 miles up river from Buchanan. It wasn’t long before we were geared up and on the water. We fish the Springwood to Buchanan section of the river quite often with our sites set on countless numbers of Smallmouth Bass. That section of the river is FULL of smallmouths, and it’s nothing for the three of us to catch 40 fish on a single float, with some in the 3-5 lb. range. This particular Saturday was just like the rest: Countless numbers of smallmouth. And if there is one thing I love as much as kayak fishing, its watching my 9 yr. old catch tons of fish in his own kayak, grinning from ear to ear. I should add that I believe some of our “good fortune” on the James comes from my secret 3.5″ plastic weapon: the Gitzit Tube in “motor oil” color.
I was put onto these plastics by some good friends in the fishing department at Sportsman’s Warehouse in Roanoke. Boy do these tubes do work!! The smallmouth bass simply can’t leave these things alone. So we continued our float down the James, catching smallmouth, taking pictures, and even giving each other the occasional paddle splash. Nearing the latter section of the float, I noticed a nice deep section of the river somewhat close to the bank that had tons of large rocks/boulders scattered through it. The first cast into one of these dark sections produced a nice 2-3 lb. smallie. The section proved to be so full of fish, I decided to paddle back up stream a ways to fish it once more. My first cast after paddling back up river was one I will never forget. I tossed the tube right beside a bolder in a deep, dark pool of water and let it sink to the bottom. I lifted the tip of my rod slowly to “bounce” the nose of the bait along the bottom. I felt two bumps and then what I thought was a strike. I jerked the rod back and thought “Aww man, Im hung up”. A few pumps of the rod seemed to confirm this so I set the rod in my holder and began paddling towards the supposed hang. I soon noticed, however, that as I was paddling towards the hang up, my line remained taught. I specifically remember having that “huh?” moment as is just didn’t make sense. Realizing that the physics just didn’t add up, I picked the rod back up. I felt a slight bit of movement, and then the line started moving to the side.
As I was starring at the line as it moved out to the side, what I had thought was a hang moved into a ray of sunlight coming through the overhanging trees and literally took my breath away. It was a musky. No, It was a BIG musky! And no sooner than I saw it, it saw me, and the fight was on! I was using a medium action bass rod with 10lb. test line, so I immediately loosened the drag a good bit and started looking around to see if anyone was close enough to help me land this beast or at least be witness to the hookup. No such luck. As I had paddled back up stream to fish the section again, my wife and son had continued down river and were about 500 yards away. I started waving my free hand frantically trying to get there attention. I think I even yelled “hey come back!” a few times. Meanwhile this fish is literally pulling me up stream and down, back and forth, burning up my cheap river set up rod and reel. All I could think was “Nobody is gonna believe this story…I have to land this fish”. What seemed like an eternity went by (probably about 10 minutes) and then I saw a group of paddlers coming down the river. As they neared I noticed that my ordeal had caught the attention of one of the paddlers so I said “Hey, ever seen a 20lb. musky!?” He quickly came paddling over to where I was and asked what he could do to help. I’ll never forget the expression on his face when he caught his first glimpse of that fish. “OH MY GOD!!!” “THATS BIG!!” I think at that point, he became more nervous than I was! The only plan we could come up with was for him to paddle along the bank and attempt to scare the fish away from any potential trees or snags that could cut the line.
So he did just that, and it worked! Together we battled this fish for at least another 15 minutes, up and down the river. At this point his entire party and my wife and son had paddled over to see what was going on. There must have been 10 or more kayakers just watching our epic battle. As the fish finally wore down and I was able to get it close to the yak, I realized its teeth were going to be a problem as I did not have my fish grips with me. At this point, nothing was going to keep me from landing this fish, so I handed my rod to the kayaker/stranger who had helped me thus far, and did the only thing I could think of. I reached over the side with both arms and barrel hugged that fish, pulling it up into the kayak and almost tipping over in the process! I seriously couldn’t believe that I had landed such an amazing fish. I handed my wife the phone and said “Take as many pictures as you can!!” After a few quick camera shots and a measurement I lifted the musky back into the water and held her there to recover. Apparently she was just as tired as I was as it took a quite a few minutes for her to regain her strength. We even took some video of the release as she swam back to that deep hole she called home. I collapsed back into the seat, and probably didn’t stop smiling for the next hour. After some handshakes and some spoken congratulations, we were all back on our way down the river. The only word to describe that fishing trip: EPIC. Truly was the fish of a lifetime.
