Last week, Mark Finley had a day to remember as he fished on the Chickahominy River. His wife was going to join him, but cancelled at the last minute, so he hooked up his bass boat, drove down to the Chick and fished by himself.
Mark, who owns Finley’s Service Center in Charlottesville and has been fishing bass tournaments for 30 years, put in at Walker’s Dam, fished for couple hours and couldn’t buy a bite. Then, the wind picked up, the tide picked up and it became overcast. To make matters more difficult, the tide was going hard in one direction and the wind pushing in another. Mark had been fishing grass and lily pads but switched to a jig and started throwing to wood structure.
Bang! A 5-pounder, then, another and another. For three hours, it was non-stop action. Mark said he caught 25 bass including at least 5 bass at five-pounds or greater and he didn’t catch a single fish under about 14 inches. His limit of five bass would have weighed around 30 pounds, quite a catch for the Chickahominy River – or anywhere, for that matter.
Then, the sun came out, the wind subsided and the red-hot bite ended as quickly as it started. But for three hours, Mark said that it was as good as it gets.
Sometimes it pays to be in the right place at the right time. It also pays to be a persistent and highly-skilled bass angler like Mark Finley.