Hurricane / Chickahominy River ??

[Coke]

OK Guys .... We've got a club tournament planned for next weekend (Sept. 22 & 23) on the Chick, staying at RockaHock Campground, we're planning on going down Thursday the 20th. Keep us informed of the conditions after the storm passes this weekend. We made reservations back in January and had to pay in advance to reserve a cottage. Their cancellation policy states they need a 14 day notice or we forfeit one nights rate plus $10 administrative fee, so if we don't get to go we're out $$. Just don't know how the storm and it's aftermath will effect the fishing, the condition of the river, or if the campground will even be open.

Thanks,
Greg

[Joe4d]

I am chief engineer of car ferry right below mouth of Chick. Expecting some really high water. What Ramp are you planning on using ? Honestly at this point in time I would just cancel and see if they will let you reschedule. Area is calling for 15 inches of rain friday ish...

[Fletcha12]

I would go ahead and cancel. Thursday is gonna be when it really starts with the rain. We had reservations to stay at lake Anna state park and they are closing the park so I’m not sure if they are gonna refund me. The chick definitely wont be fishable if it hits where they think it’s going to.

[5pigs]

You will be fine, especially by the 22nd. Chick gets a lil high but is always fishable.

[Joe4d]

inland storm with clockwise rotation will bring in high water and hold the tides in the river for quite some time,,, add rain to that ? By 22 though ? who knows.. I can let you know a few days out what the river looks like at Jamestown

[Fletcha12]

Maybe I should have read a little closer. I didn’t see the dates when I read it the first time. I thought you meant this upcoming weekend. I’ve never been accused of being the smartest person.

[Coke]

Thanks for the replies ... I guess as of now we're in a wait and see what happens state.

[44k1500fom]

Y’all will be fine. It should be great fishing. Due to lack of pressure.

[Joe4d]

We could only run one boat and shut down a bit yesterday due to high water. High tide today is around 5 ish, may be down again. We shall see. Steady wind out of the east,, not horrible but holding water in river. O2 level may drop when winds shift due to draining dead swamp water. Be kinda brief though.

[Coke]

We could only run one boat and shut down a bit yesterday due to high water. High tide today is around 5 ish, may be down again. We shall see. Steady wind out of the east,, not horrible but holding water in river. O2 level may drop when winds shift due to draining dead swamp water. Be kinda brief though.

I'm not quite sure what you are saying, we don't fish tidal water very often, once every couple of years..... You only ran one boat? High tide may be down again? Draining dead swamp water?

[Joe4d]

There is an 85 car car ferry across the James river just below mouth of Chick. One of our boats sits lower than the others, that one was only boat we could run for much of the day because the water was higher than the road used to load the boat. I meant at the next High tide we would have to shut down again.
With the steady east wind wasnt much difference in high or low maybe a foot or so.. As that storm moves north wind will change and will blow water out leading to extreme low tides.
In coastal low areas like this. (NC is alot worse than here) There are big swamps bordering the rivers. That water sits there and gets stagnant. An event like this pushes water into the swamps. Then when it drains you end up with low Oxygen levels as that swamp water mixes back into main river leading to fish kills. They can also get a double whammy as before that the east wind brings in higher salt content so fish are already stressed.

Was bad south of here on rivers that drained into Currituck and Albermarl a few years ago. The James and Chick are more chanelized so not near the dead marsh area, so effect would be minimal.
Worse has past we ran both ferries yesterday. James was about 4.5 foot above normal high tide. Probably not making much of an impact on the Chick.. You might be arriving right about the time fish turn on. Good luck

[Coke]

Joe4d .... Thanks for the reply, and the explanation. We're going to be staying and launching at Rockahock, hopefully we'll have some good weather and catch some nice fish.

[Joe4d]

as I suspected much worse just south of here. Chick and James dont have the Swamp expanses of the Albemarl . Check out the Albemarl fish kill thread in the NC section.
Been having an east wind so the water is a little high but not extreme, maybe a foot higher than normal, probably pretty normal up the Chick.
Hoping to have boat on the water in next couple months, havent fished in awhile.

[fishfry]

Fished today. Water was much higher then usual. Managed to pick up 5 weighing about 12lbs before 8:30 am. Then the bite really slowed down for me. I have no skills, but the fish seemed to be coming off wood, maybe because the water was so high. Not to much debris in the water, but with the tide that high I would try to be on high alert when running the boat. Again I saw very little to worry about. Should be a good event.

[Coke]

Well we made it back home after 4 days on the Chick. The weather was great, just a few sprinkles of rain yesterday (Sunday) morning, there was a big storm rolled through Saturday night. The water was high and stained but not dirty, at high tide the water was flowing back into the lake. The fishing was good, but the numbers were down from the last time we were there. The biggest bag on Saturday was a little over 16 lbs., Sunday was almost 9 lbs.. Each day had a few really good fish caught, 6 and 7 lbs., had one friend catch a 9.83 on Saturday. Looking forward to coming back in the future.