It’s bluegill time at the Chickahominy Lake. Some are still guarding beds, but all are hungry and a decent angler can fill a cooler. The late Jack Randolph once described Chickahominy bluegills as the prettiest of all. They often have deep blue and purple markings to go with bright orange bellies. And the clean water of the Chick assures they’ll be first rate on the dinner table. If you need a guide who can put you on all sorts of fish in the Chick, try Capt. Art Conway of Conway’s River Rat Guide Service (804-746-2475) out of Ed Allen’s Boats. His weekly report is below.
Chickahominy Lake mid-day water temperatures were in the high 70’s to low 80’s in the main lake and in the major creeks on Wednesday. The lake level was a few inches above the top of the dam. The water was light to medium brown and slightly to moderately in the central lower lake.
Most blue cats and bullheads were on flats and along drop-offs in the main lake and hitting live minnows and cut bait. Crappie were on mid-depth flats and wood cover, but some were along shorelines and on shallow flats. Active crappie were hitting live minnows, Wright Bait Co. and Southern Pro curlytail jigs, small tubes, Kalin Crappie Scrubs, and small swim baits. Yellow perch were scattered or in loose aggregates in creeks and on flats in the main lake and were hitting live minnows, small swim baits, and small jigs. Bluegill and shellcracker s were scattered on shoreline flats or on drop-offs in the main lake, usually offshore of traditional spawning areas, and were hitting small jigs, Nikko nymphs, small swim baits, and live worms. Some bass were on flats, along drop-offs, or in channels in the major creeks and the main lake, while other bass were on shorelines. Pickerel were in creeks or on shorelines or around wood cover or vegetation. Bass and pickerel were hitting live minnows, spinnerbaits, swim baits, stick worms, crank baits, jerk baits, and jigs. Fishing with Capt. Conway, Tom Porter had 38 bluegills, 2 crappie, 2 yellow perch, 1 white perch and 1 bass.
News From Mossy Creek Fly Shop
By The Gang at Mossy Creek
Here we go! We are now in and operating at the Mossy Creek headquarters! We appreciate everyone’s patience during this major transition period. Nothing seems to ever go as planned when it comes to purchasing and building property. The new location was closed on over a year ago in March of 2016. We had plans of rezoning and then building through the winter months to be operational for the spring season. That was obvious wishful thinking as ground was not broken until late January of this year. This posed an obvious challenge, as we knew we would be building and transitioning through our busiest season. We will spare everyone the details of what went on behind the scenes, but we do want to thank our staff, guide crew, family, friends, and our industry partners for bringing this together. Stop by and check out the new digs at 480 East Market Street.
Here are a few things to keep an eye out for as we move forward:
– Who is ready for a fly fishing garage sale? There are a lot of items – fishing signs, banners, stickers, product, gear, etc. that will NOT be moving into our new location. We will be setting up our largest clearance sale seen in 14 years of business very soon.
– Expanded inventory – Rods, reels, packs, bags, luggage, accessories, apparel, waders, boots, fly tying, and fly categories are all taking on a major change as our dedicated retail footprint is about to more than double!
– A Grand Reopening Party will be announced in a few weeks after adjusting to our new environment.
– Fly Tying Classes are going to be scheduled year round and will be better than ever.
– Fly Fishing Schools and Classes will be overhauled with a more robust curriculum and with specialized topics.
– A new website and e-commerce platform is in the works! A new headquarters requires us to update all aspects of the business.
– Fishing reports and communications will begin flowing at a constant pace again as our schedules normalize.
Potomac River
Topwater opportunities are better earlier in the week with lower water. Rising tides make the bite harder later in the morning. Start with subtle poppers like Lucky Craft G-Splash 65 on 12-pound test Gamma Copoly. As tides rise, more disturbance and size is needed to pull fish up. As cloud cover or low light continues, using a bigger G-Splash 80 or a loud walking Gunfish will work. The Lucky Craft version of the classic Jitterbug, the Keroll, is big and creates a disturbance.
As the topwater bite ceases, try going a bit deeper with a Mann’s Baby1-Minus with 12-pound test Edge fluorocarbon line. Contacting grass is key. No grass, no bass. Go deeper with chatterbaits and swim jigs. Craw patterns work well with matching soft plastic craw trailers like Mann’s HardNose Mullets. Use a Sharpie to blacken the blades on chatterbaits. Also crank Lucky Craft BDS 4 crankbaits in shad patterns. Engage grass, pause, and snap upward and pause. Use 14-pound test Edge or higher.
Hollow frogs can be used through the day in 60-pound braid. Faster at lower tides, slower when water is higher. White on sunny days, black when it’s cloudy.
Later in the day with higher water, use Texas rigged soft plastics on 14-16 pound test Gamma Edge. Black stickworms, with ¼ ounce bullet weights, soaked in garlic Jack’s Juice Bait Spray on 3/0 Mustad Mega Bite hooks can be cast to deeper grass areas in the heat of the day.
Capt. Steve Chaconas, National Bass, nationalbass@aol.com