James River help

[jrbdad]

Putting at Hopewell after work this evening to hopefully fish for couple hours.

First time fishing James river. Looking for little help on where to go that is close to Hopewell marina. Do I head up river or down?

Just looking to catch a few fish out of my new boat.
Thank you

[JINXBASS]

I know nothing about the river down there but if you go up river to Meade's pit and at Dutch gap good fishing there. About a 10 minute boat ride.

[vafishing]

If the water has cleared up you can head up the Appomattox and fish. You can also go down river below the Benjamin Harrison bridge and head to Herring Creek and should be able to get on some fish there. Also almost right across the river from where the App enters the James is Shirley Pit and there should still be some fish in there.

[javelin90]

Jeff been doing much fishing this year?
some for me so far. James seems to be good again this year too.

[utinator]

Hey, don't be giving away all my best spots. I want to catch fish there too.

[1bluemcm]

About going up the Appomattox, I'd like to explore this area more too, but have been afraid due to submerged dangers. Can you pretty safely get up as far as the White Bank ramp on Swift Creek? And on the Appomattox proper, there are all those channels, at least 2 main ones, should you stay in the channel to the east? I assume that's the one that's been dredged the most. Whenever I go over the Temple Ave bridge, I always thing I'd like to explore in there, but I definitely don't want to wreck anything.

I fish for fun and with the fam, if that helps with the flow of info....

[jrbdad]

I drive across the Temple Ave bridge every day myself and wonder. But I don't know anyone that fishes up that way. I might have to try it when it stops raining.

Want to go and fish James out of Hopewell marina tomorrow, but not sure about all the rain we have had.

[javelin90]

You can run to white bank ramp on high tide and on plane starting from the 4-way intersection split. If your not familiar it is best to run river eastern side (Appomattox small boat harbor).
Best thing you can invest in is a navionics map card and turn the sonar feature on from updated community editing. Generally will show more topo but keep in mind that information is a guide and a lot of people that upload it do not accurately measure the keel to transducer depth and it can be off. The river on the western side is navigable but any storms or high water it changes again. It is full of stumps and can get hairy on western run of river. At high tide I have put in many times as the ramp behind walmart-adjacent to the animal shelter in Colonial Heights at high tide. There are some large rocks at end of ramp and if you miss the higher tide you will be lucky to get a bass boat back on the trailer.
Leaving the ramp at animal shelter you can navigate under the 95 bridge. About 50 yards from the bridge trolling motor only till you pass the rocks near old trestle. If you do not know what your doing it will mess of your boat and or injury. .
Read the tide and keep in mind it changes all the time.

[1bluemcm]

So it clearly sounds like a place to go with someone in the know first. Thanks.

[javelin90]

Definitely. Once you pass through Comstock behind fort Clifton heading up river. The bottom channel constantly changes and when you think you have it figured out it changes again. Pockets behind treatment plant petersburg side can be good