Thanksgiving Weekend 2011 ?

[dumptruck]

I have never fished the James ,but I was thinking about a trip up there at Thanksgiving . Will be going with a buddy that has fished it a couple times . I was just wondering who else might b fishn in the Hopewll area . That might would like to help out a newbie to the area .I also have a vhf radio on my boat hope to get to talk with, an maybe also get to meet a few of you that weekend .

[River Lizard]

I'll be out that weekend but chances are I won't be down at Hopewell. Might be around halfway down from Deep Bottom to Hopewell. If I'm fishing the main river channel I'll be on 13, if I'm off the main river channel I'll be on 68.
Got a friend with a toon that I haven't been out fishing with in a long time, so we decided to meet up on the river that weekend.
I'll watch this topic for any updates from you and I'll let you know if my location for the day is going to change.

[WVBowhunter]

Your gonna have a blast, great week to be on the water down there

[dumptruck]

Thanks for the reply . You using 13 in the channel to be able to monitor the barge traffic ? We don,t have enough barge traffic around Wilmington any more to worry about them ,as far as monitoring them on the radio .

[River Lizard]

Yes, we have barge traffic on the river. If you're anchor'd in the channel it's best to be monitoring the channel and know several key reference points for barge captains...such as Curles Neck Cut, Prequile Cut, Benjamin Harris Bridge, etc.. You can get an idea to their location and direction that they're moving and when they'll be getting close to you. I call them up and give them my location in front of them and asking if they're double wide or single barge wide and to let me know if I need to move for them. They usually say that I'm fine where I'm located at, if not they'll tell you that they need you to move.
I try not to hold discussions too long on channel 13 with fellow catfisher men, I'd rather move to 68 and get off the river channel. Also with 68 you can set HI level on the VHF too, which helps if the the two partys are a distance away.