A Good Day
The definition of a good day fishing varies from just being able to get out of work to catching a citation. For Ostrander, a good day in December means he or his clients have boated four to six fish over 30 pounds. He expects most trips on the James to give up a fish or two over 40 pounds, coupled with what he calls medium-sized fish up to 25 pounds.

"Last December, on an outing, we landed four fish on a full-day fishing trip of nine hours," he noted. "Three of the fish weighed over 50 pounds and the fourth one weighed more than 60 pounds."

Gear
When huge fish are involved, quality gear is a must. After checking with Ostrander, we got the rundown on what he has his clients equipped with to horse in the bruisers.

He starts with a Abu Garcia Ambassadeur 7000 C3 reel spooled with 30 Trilene Big Game, solar collector green color mounted on a 7-foot medium-heavy Fenwick Seahawk rod. His rig is composed of an 8/0 Gamakatsu Octopus Circle Hook, a 1 1/2-foot leader of 50-pound fluorocarbon tied to a barrel swivel with a fish-finder rig. Typically, he uses anywhere from 6 to 10 ounces of weight to keep his baits down on the bottom.

Launch Sites
Anglers will find launch sites at Osborne Landing or Deep Bottom Landing in Henrico County, Dutch Gap in Chesterfield County, and the ramp at the end of the Benjamin Harrison Bridge located at Jordan Point Marina.

BUGGS ISLAND
Buggs Island is home to Virginia's record blue catfish, taken by William Zost. That fish pushed the scales to 92 pounds, 4 ounces. Buggs is full of forage, which equates to a great catfish fishery. VDGIF biologist Vic DiCenzo also pointed out that the blue cat fishery is growing.

"The blue catfish are expanding their territory. Once, they were most common above Clarksville. Now, they are being caught in good numbers and size lakewide."

Forage possibilities for catfish at Buggs come in many forms, but gizzard shad and threadfin shad once again get the spotlight as the main course in a blue catfish diet. Catfishing is very serious business on both sides of the lake and many catmen gather at local country stores to trade tips, stories and plan the next trip out on the big lake for a monster cat.

Weston's Grocery Store is just one of the locations where catfish anglers gather. Warren Weston is one of the sponsors of The Catfish Showdown, which runs tournaments on Buggs. Weston's is also a good place to get local information, tackle and bait. One of the regular customers at Weston's is Chan Puryera. Puryera is an eighth grade science teacher at Parkview Middle School in Southhill, Virginia. When he is not in the classroom, he is prowling the lake in search of his next big catfish. Puryera loves to fish Buggs when the temperatures drop and the water gets cold.