Anyone have an ice breaker handy?

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awesome guy
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Anyone have an ice breaker handy?

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Not talking about a joke for sales, something to break through the ice on the James River. I need to get out!

I'm thinking my buddy Dutch Gap will save the day with some open water via warm water discharge. AG needs to get his fishing on during this global warming!
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RiverguyVT
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Re: Anyone have an ice breaker handy?

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Dress accordingly.
Cartersville gauge (yeah, I know...way upstream) showing 32 deg
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Re: Anyone have an ice breaker handy?

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RiverguyVT wrote:Dress accordingly.
Cartersville gauge (yeah, I know...way upstream) showing 32 deg

That's the magic of Dutch Gap, it'll be 50-60 in there near the discharge. There's another discharge in Hopewell that's super heated and will have an aquarium density of fish, but the river has been so low that it'll be too difficult to get into it, even in a skiff. I'll have to travel over the mud flats to get to it and they've been less than a foot deep the last month. Not to mention that the Hopewell City Marina is frozen over and the ramp is an ice sheet and the flats to get there are frozen over. Limited options this time of year, but I'll hit the Chick next week after that opens up a bit.
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RiverguyVT
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Re: Anyone have an ice breaker handy?

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What do you wear?
Drysuit? Wetsuit?
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Re: Anyone have an ice breaker handy?

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RiverguyVT wrote:Dress accordingly.
Cartersville gauge (yeah, I know...way upstream) showing 32 deg

I just checked the VA trout stockings, looks like Shields Lake is too cold or frozen to stock with trout. Bummer, I wanted to kayak that at the next stocking to get the trout out of range from the bank. This past fall, I had some success on a kayaking trip to Lake Erie where I caught some nice steelhead trout. Hope to replicate my tactics, only scaled down, on their smaller VA cousins. The sign says 12 foot max boat length. Mine is 13.5, doubt they'll say anything about being 1.5 feet over size.
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Re: Anyone have an ice breaker handy?

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RiverguyVT wrote:What do you wear?
Drysuit? Wetsuit?

I'll go in my skiff there because I'm not risking hooking an 80 pound cat in the winter by myself near ice sheets. I have a base layer of Under Armour Gold Gear, layer of fleece, bibs and jacket over everything. Whiskey keeps me warm on the inside. I'll also go to the Elizabeth River in the kayak this time of year. I have the exact same clothes only instead of the bibs and jacket outer layer, I have waders for the bibs and a second fleece. I typically don't need as much protection on the kayak as I'm moving most of the time. Unless we're bobber fishing for monsters, that frankly sucks in a kayak as you're just sitting there praying for coffee and a 30 inch speckled trout. I like going out in the main river and casting swimbaits at them in the current, I stay warmer and are fine catching 18-26 inch speckled trout. The skiff is the way to go in the winter as kayaking is more of a man vs nature type of thing than realistic chance at catching something. Catfishing in the dead of winter is also a power fishing game. The cats are going to be stacked up on top of each other instead of spread out like in the summer. So the game plan is to power fish, make big moves every 15-20 minutes to locate them. I'll get skunked at 9 spots doing this. But then when I hit the 10th, it'll be chaos with 4-10 trophy cats one after another. It's seriously like a production line of casting in and reeling out. They'll nail a bait soon after it hits the water and it's like jail with the biggest fish eating first. So I'll stay and fish out the 50+ pounders, then the 40 and 30s. I move by the time the 20 pounders hit and find the next hole. Really need a motorboat for that style as I'll cover 30 miles in a trip.
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Re: Anyone have an ice breaker handy?

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awesome guy wrote:Not talking about a joke for sales, something to break through the ice on the James River. I need to get out!

I'm thinking my buddy Dutch Gap will save the day with some open water via warm water discharge. AG needs to get his fishing on during this global warming!
I have pulled some rigs off of frozen ramps and my best bet is lake fishing so I will be waiting for it not to be 15 at night, sliding down a ramp is not a pleasant feeling
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Re: Anyone have an ice breaker handy?

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cwtcr hokie wrote:
awesome guy wrote:Not talking about a joke for sales, something to break through the ice on the James River. I need to get out!

I'm thinking my buddy Dutch Gap will save the day with some open water via warm water discharge. AG needs to get his fishing on during this global warming!
I have pulled some rigs off of frozen ramps and my best bet is lake fishing so I will be waiting for it not to be 15 at night, sliding down a ramp is not a pleasant feeling

oh yeah, pucker factor is high. That's what makes Dutch Gap great though, the warm water extends to the ramp so the only ice is above the tideline. I'll bring a shovel and rock salt to clean off the ramp before launching to avoid the backslide. Especially there, the downside is it's a steep ramp. Hopewell is like a luge track right now. I'll have a buddy come along with his 4 wheel drive to help pull me out if I get into trouble. But I have 4x4, locking differentials, etc and so shouldn't have any problems. I'll also have him back me in with me in the boat and in the middle of the ramp so if I do slide then there's more room to not jackknife into the dock. If I launch at Hopewell, I'll time it to launch and then return at high tide so the truck is on the flat part of the ramp. That's unfortunately not an option at Dutch Gap.
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Re: Anyone have an ice breaker handy?

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I must say that I have no use for this weather. If I lived in a place where it was like this all winter, I would seek to move somewhere else.


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Re: Anyone have an ice breaker handy?

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ip_law-hokie wrote:I must say that I have no use for this weather. If I lived in a place where it was like this all winter, I would seek to move somewhere else.


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Hence my move from VA to the sunshine state, although we're stuck in VA a few extra days than normal post holiday
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Re: Anyone have an ice breaker handy?

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133743Hokie wrote:
ip_law-hokie wrote:I must say that I have no use for this weather. If I lived in a place where it was like this all winter, I would seek to move somewhere else.


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Hence my move from VA to the sunshine state, although we're stuck in VA a few extra days than normal post holiday
VA winters are fine. And I don’t want any parts of Flo Rida in the summer.

Maybe a winter home.


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Re: Anyone have an ice breaker handy?

Post by 133743Hokie »

ip_law-hokie wrote:
133743Hokie wrote:
ip_law-hokie wrote:I must say that I have no use for this weather. If I lived in a place where it was like this all winter, I would seek to move somewhere else.


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Hence my move from VA to the sunshine state, although we're stuck in VA a few extra days than normal post holiday
VA winters are fine. And I don’t want any parts of Flo Rida in the summer.

Maybe a winter home.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
It's my winter home (November thru April), except for the month of December when we're back in VA. We also pop back down every so often in the summer. I'm in NE Florida, on the coast, Amelia Island. It isn't even that bad there in the summer. With the breeze it's no hotter than Richmond.
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Re: Anyone have an ice breaker handy?

Post by awesome guy »

Nevermind, it's super frozen. I literally drove my truck on Swift Creek, frozen solid at least 9 inches deep.
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