This would be my third time competing on the James River in Virginia in the last four years. The first two years didn’t go as well as this year.  Going into this event I decided to spend the majority of my practice in the Chickahominy River.  This is a tributary off the James about forty miles from the launch.  Practice went fairly well in that area.  I was catching some fish around cypress bases on buzzbaits, and then pitching a worm around docks.  The bladed jig also got me bites on both the cypress and docks, but was difficult to get them biting in the grass.  So during the event I basically left the grass alone.  Day one of the event I ran to the Chickahominy and started on some cypress with the buzzbait.  For whatever reason they didn’t want the topwater and I ended up catching a quick limit on the texas rigged worm on docks.  Later in the day I caught some real nice fish on the bladed jig one being a 6-15.  After a productive afternoon I ran back to the launch and weighed in.  With 15-11 the first day this had me in 12th place.  The second day of the event I went back and basically stuck to the bladed jig pattern that had produced so well the day prior.  Most of the bites where coming off the white Jackhammer with a Zaco trailer.  With no real big bites the second day I had 12-15 which kept me high in the standings and going into championship Sunday in 15th place.  The final day of the event I ran back to the Chickahminy and worked that bladed jig the majority of the day.  I was getting plenty of bites just not much for quality.  Late in the day I made a change to the cypress bases and docks which this produced lots of bites for me.  Problem was they were all small and no help to the limit.  I made my way back to the launch and with only around 9 pounds for the day I fell to 28th place.  Regardless this was my best finish on the James and I can’t wait to compete there again.