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Spirit of Moonpie and I spent June the 9th through the 11th on the Nottoway below Delaware. The water was clear, normal and 75 degrees. Air temps ranged from a chilly 51 to 89 degrees. I saw no water quality issues and hardly any trash. I did remove two abandoned limb lines that had been left in the water at least two weeks. 

Once again, the catfishing was terrible for us. I caught one measly 2-pounder the first night. The second night JR came out, and we fished hard till nearly 4 a.m. Moving several times we still caught no fish. We even tried several different baits on the four rods we ran that night. I just don’t know what has happened to the monster cats. On the other hand, that first day I caught like 15 largemouth. The biggest was only 2 pounds, and I caught one that was smaller than my lure. Most were caught on a modified Mepps. I also caught an 8.5-pound gar that was the hardest-fighting gar I have ever caught. I’ve caught two in my life over 15 pounds, and they did not fight like this thing. It was actually towing the pontoon boat around! If I had lost that fish without seeing it, I would have sworn it weighed 20 pounds. It was 41 inches long. I also caught two large chain pickerel; one was almost a citation at 3.14 pounds.

I just don’t know what has happened to the big catfish. I know last year there was a small catfish kill from lack of D.O. or high-water temps or both. Maybe more were killed than I thought. Anyway, I’ll try it again next time I go on the two rivers we call the Nottoway and Blackwater.

Jeff Turner is the Blackwater Nottoway RiverGuard. To contact him about river issues, send him an email at blknotkpr@earthlink.net. He can also be followed on the Blackwater Nottoway RiverGuard Facebook page. Just type in “Blackwater Nottoway RiverGuard” in the search field on Facebook.