By MLF Communications Staff

RICHMOND, Va. – The fifth Major League Fishing Invitational event of the season will take place this week at the James River. Competition days are Friday through Sunday

Although MLF history on the James River was mainly limited to one-day BFL tournaments in the past, the last two pro-level events were examples of what the river can produce over multiple days. Nick LeBrun won the June 2022 Pro Circuit event with 17 pounds, 9 ounces on the final day, and he had 47-11 on the scale through three days. Last year, Skeet Reese won the Bass Pro Tour event on the James, held in late June. The Bass Fishing Hall of Famer put up 23 bass for 54-3 on the final day.

In the Pro Circuit event, LeBrun did almost all his damage in the Chickahominy, though that event saw anglers utilize a lot of the river. Reese used the Chickahominy as well, but did most of his work on the final day in the Appomattox, which is quite close to takeoff at Osborne Landing compared to the Chick.

Between the James and its tributaries, there are numerous options for the competitors. Expansive fields of spatterdock, cypress trees, docks, rip rap, brush and some submerged vegetation give anglers and bass plenty of choice. Given the time of year, fish should be postspawn and in summer patterns, and the fishing should be pretty good.

“The key is going to be finding where those big ones are,” said Jason Tibbetts of Centreville, Va., a second-year pro on the Invitationals and a local to the James. “The James has a lot of sneaky little areas, we have plenty of fishing area. It’s that guy that’s going to find that bigger than 2-pound average fish and really capitalize on that and possibly have a kicker – if you can go 18, 20 pounds each day, I think you’re going to do very well, if not win it.”

One of the big decisions on the James is where to fish, or, if you’re going to attempt to fish everywhere. Running the tide and hitting many areas on a long stretch of river is a tactic that local anglers tend to have a huge edge with. Alternatively, there are plenty of creeks and sections of the fishery where an angler could stay all day. But the James is not the easiest fishery to navigate, and it is very spread out.

“It used to be the Chick was where you would go run,” Tibbetts said. “There were big fish, but with years and years and years of tournament fishing, they’ve kind of transported a lot of those big fish up to Osborne Landing. So now in that area you have a good chance of catching some big fish, but they are scattered, and they’ve got a lot of places to go.”

Last year, the Appomattox was key in the BPT event, and Tibbetts thinks it could play well again this time.

“The Chick will have the grass and the pads, but the Appomattox, which isn’t anywhere near the run to get to the Chick, is starting to get a lot of grass and pads in it as well. So that may be a big player,” he said. “People might overlook that. They’re thinking, ‘Oh, I’m going to run all the way down to the Chick.’ You run all the way down to the Chick, you don’t really have a lot of time to come back and hit the Appomattox. So, if you find fish in the Appomattox and they’re good fish, you’ve got a lot of fishing time.”

Anglers will launch at 6:30 a.m. ET each day from Osborne Landing, located at 9530 Osborne Turnpike in Richmond. Weigh-ins will be held at the landing and will begin at 2:30 p.m.

In Invitationals competition, the full field competes in the two-day opening round on Friday and Saturday in a five-fish, weigh-in format. Only the Top 30 pros, based on their two-day cumulative weight, advance to the final round on Sunday, where they will compete for the grand prize of up to $115,000.

The MLFNOW! broadcast team of Chad McKee and Rob Newell will break down the extended action live all three days of competition from 7 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. ET. MLFNOW! will be livestreamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app and Rumble.