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Interview
with
club member
Kenneth
(paraguayguy)

Do you remember the first time you went fishing?  I was 4 or 5 when I started fishing with my Grandfather in the ponds on our home place.  My brother and I would catch brim on cane poles for Granddad to use as live bait for Bass.

What’s the best memory you have of fishing? Netting a nine pound bass from our pond for my Grandfather when I was 11 years old.  The summer I turned 15, I spent two months fishing in Ontario with Granddad

When was the first time you fished for catfish? When I was 9 my family rented a log cabin on the James River above Lynchburg in Amherst County. It cost $50 a month and the chimney was so leaky, when you had a fire on cold days you would almost die from the smoke.  That cabin had a dock where we would fish for Channel Cats.  Biggest we ever caught up there was 8-9 pounds and most were eaters.  My brother and I bought a 10 ft jon boat and a 5 ½ hp Johnson when we were 13 with paper route money.  My first taste of freedom!  We hung limb lines and stretched trot lines all over the place.

Fishing on the James, which seasons do you prefer and why? I pretty much only fish for cats when the water is cold.  I go a few times in the fall starting in Nov. but mainly start hitting it hard after Jan 5 when Striper season in the Bay is over and I am done shooting deer.  I worry the fish once a week at least from Jan thru the end of April.  Once the spawn starts I am either in South America or doing something else.  I just don’t enjoy the summer fishing for cats.

Any other bodies of water in Virginia that you fish?  If so, which ones? I fish the Mattaponi, Pamunkey, and Rappahannock rivers for Croakers, Flounder, and Stripers.  I love the Chesapeake Bay and fishing for stripers in the fall.  Anybody that  invites me offshore for bluewater fishing, I am first in line.

Tell us about your boat and fishing gear. I have a 20 foot aluminum Lund Alaskan with a 60 HP Mercury on it.  Underpowered but heck, but so am I.  Mileage is what dreams are made of.  A true sipper of gas.  I do have a nice sonar, a Humminbird 997 and about ten or so rod holders on the boat.  I usually fish 6-8 rods depending on my mood and if I have company on the boat.

What’s your favorite rod/reel combo and why? I have two that I am crazy about and can’t really say which I like best.  I love my Shimano Charter Special Level wind lever drag reels.  I fished off shore in NC one time and a charter captain was using them to live bait white marlin and I fell in love with the reel.  I have several and I put them on Quantum BigCat rods.  I love my Shimano Baitrunner Spinning reels.  I have them paired up with Penn Slammer rods.

What other hobbies do you have? I love to hunt.  I don’t care what it is.  Deer, turkeys, waterfowl, quail, pheasants, doves, or whatever.  If its game, I will hunt it.  If it’s a type of hunting that involves dogs, even better.  I also love raising a vegetable garden and carving wooden duck decoys like the old timers did.

What’s your view on the future of catfishing? I think as more states catch on to the value and economic benefits trophy catfishing brings an area, we will continue to see it expand in popularity nationwide.  I am spoiled being so close to our wonderful James River.  I am also painfully aware that we must never let our guards down and stay involved to maintain what we have.  I have firsthand experience watching the wonderful fisheries in Paraguay be destroyed over a 30 year period by commercial gill netters and trotliners. I will do my part to see it doesn’t happen here.