Avant Mine Boat Ramp ???

Does anyone know if the Avant Mine boat ramp on the Oconee River about half way between Milledgeville and Toomsboro is publicly accessible? It is on the Washington county side.

If you go down to hwy 57 you can use the balls ferry ramp. Or you may can get out at the train tracks at Oconee community. It is just a sand bar but used to have a service road that went to the waters edge.

fd1228 said:

If you go down to hwy 57 you can use the balls ferry ramp. Or you may can get out at the train tracks at Oconee community. It is just a sand bar but used to have a service road that went to the waters edge.

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Thanks. You reminded me to update this.

The boat ramp at Avant mine is still accessible to the public, but there isn't much left of it. It was a dirt ramp and it has deep gullies going down it and then a tall mound of dirt at the bottom. No way you'd get anything backed down it. It's fine for a kayak or canoe as long as you don't mind carrying everything down.

We got out at the trestle sand bar in the town of Oconee and it was much easier. We'll go on to Ball's Ferry next time, but just didn't have enough time to go that far on our first trip.

I've never seen so many trees in the river. I don't think I'd want to go through there in a john boat with the water this low exposing so many of them. There were lots of places it was tight getting the kayaks through.

Avant boat ramp

The Avant farm was my family's farm up until a few years ago, when Theile Kaolin finally bought it, after systematically destroying it for the better part of a century.

My buddys and I drove out to the Ogeechee river to do some Kayak fishing this last weekend and we stopped by the farm on the way back to Macon to see how the Oconee river was flowing.

The boat ramp has (all my life) been public access. I can only assume it still is, although it's obviously NOT being maintained by anyone. It is only usable by foot traffic. I took some pictures. I'll try to figure out how to post them later.

It always amazes me how fast this river is cutting. When I was a kid (30+ years ago) it wasn't that far from the bank tops. It's over 20 feet high now in some spots.

There is a drainage pipe that sticks out of the bank, well over your head near the ramp. About 15 years ago, as I was pushing my little Bass Buggy jonboat off of the ramp, that pipe caught my prop and sheared the pin on my 3hp Elgin.

While I was down at the water Sunday, a fellow came up and was talking to my 2 friends, telling them that he leased the property, and that they needed to go. When I came up, I told him who I was, and he changed his request to keeping quiet, because his son was going to be hunting near there in a little while and he didn't want us scaring the deer off. He might be leasing Theile's property, but I doubt that includes the boat ramp, or it's access.

He then told us to be careful, because there is a 12ft alligator that hangs around the ramp. We laughed and all reached in the cars and grabbed our pistols, and he decided to move on. SMH

I appreciated his request and certainly understand not wanting to scare the deer off, but was a little peeved after he left, when my buddys told me what he was telling them.

We only stayed for a few minutes, and headed on back home. I just wanted to see the river. It's very low and moving pretty fast, in the narrow paths that are left.

I think a kayak trip from M-ville to there, would be awesome. And right now, there are plenty of places to camp...

As a matter of fact, I just did the trip from Milledgeville to Toomsboro last weekend. Plenty of camping for sure. The river is low, you have to watch the channel carefully to avoid grounding out in mid-stream. Lots of deadfalls to maneuver around also. 6" more water would make it a lot easier to paddle, 6" less and you may as well stay home.

We spent two nights on the river. Saw a lot of deer, some pigs, bald eagles, osprey and a lot of other wildlife. Fishing was good but not great. All in all a really nice trip.

Thanks to both of you for the updates. We went from Avant to Oconee back in the middle of September. That is about 15 miles in 2 1/2 days. If not for a late start we would have went on down to Balls Ferry which is just over 20. The river was really low and clear then, but it looks like it's at least 6" lower now. It was myself, my wife, and youngest daughter. She didn't want to fish, but my wife and I did alright using zoom u tale worms Texas rigged. Shannon had never caught anything over a couple pounds, but on that Saturday she caught a 3 1/2 pounder early. Then a 6 to 7 at 10:00 followed by a 7 to 8 pounder at 3:30 !! Can you imagine how happy she was catching her THREE personal bests in one day? My biggest fish for the trip was just under 5 pounds.

Milledgeville to Toomsboro is a long fishing trip by river to make in 3 days. A little over 30 miles from the "state" boat ramp I think. We only average about 1 mile per hour when fishing.

Jollyskipper, how was your Ogeechee river trip?

61BelAir said:

Jollyskipper, how was your Ogeechee river trip?

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As a discovery trip, it was good. lol
I had stopped there, coming back to Macon, from Wrens a few weeks earlier in the truck. Fishing from the bank, I caught a nice LM within a few minutes of being there.
What got me, was the topwater hits as far as the eye could see, downstream.
So, I've been dying to get back out there with a kayak, and see what's up.
We had three kayaks and all of our gear loaded in and on my old Forester. ;-)
The water was pretty good at the ramp. It really didn't look any lower, than I had seen weeks earlier.
Once we made it down stream and around the bend, it got really shallow. We pioneered on down, just to see how far we could go, and what was around the next bend, then the next one, and so on.
There were several places, where you could squeeze around logs and trees. We ghosted under one tree that completely covered the creek (I mean river.;-) ).
Once we went past the straight spot from the ramp, there wasn't really any more fishing, until we came back.
Even then, we all were skunked, except for a few bites. The topwater hits were few and far between, but there were some, and one LM breached the water about 50ft from me, that had to be about 3lbs.
It was a good day kayaking and fishing, just not "catching".
Skip

That does sound fun. A coworker has kayaked on the Ogeechee a few times, but I haven't been over there yet. Maybe soon I hope.

Any Updates?

Gentlemen, have any of you got further insight on this portion of the Oconee River (Central State Boat Ramp to Balls Ferry State Park)? We're planning to launch in Milledgeville and paddle all the way to Dublin (Feb. 2-5, 2018). I've come across some reports that suggest dead-fall and portages starting about 5 miles downstream of Central State Boat Ramp extending 30 miles or so to Balls Ferry. Any information would is appreciated.

Last time I did this stretch the river was at 7' and 480 cfs on the Milledgeville gauge. This is about the lowest level and flow I would advise. There were a LOT of blowdowns and standing stumps. Only had to portage around one once but there were a number of places you had to pick your way through pretty carefully. The scenery is great and I usually see a lot of wildlife. Any number of good sandbar campsites a along this stretch.

You da man

SASS249... Thank you. You're welcome to join us! Click here https://www.blackwaterpaddleclub.com/reservations

SASS249 where exactly was the worst of it and/or the portage located?

Can't really say where the portage was located. It was a single tree that blocked the entire channel, but was easy to carry around since one end fell on a sandbar. There was really no worst section, just numerous areas of blowdown. In most cases it was just a matter of picking your way through it. This was nearly 2 years ago now, so lots of things likely have changed. However every time I have been on that section there were similar conditions. Please post what you find on your trip.

Will do!

Here's our trip video...

All that paddlin' an' no fishin'? My arms are sore from just watching that.

Looks like a good trip. You had more water than the last time I did it. I have ti agree with Ramblin Werck, not sure that much paddling is my cup of tea. A 29 mile day, even with the current you had becomes more like work than fun.