It’s summertime and the living is easy. Fish (catfish) are practically jumping into boats and a top spot has been the Chickahominy River. Mike Johncox of Riverside Camp weighed a couple brutes up to 30 pounds for Chas Hinkle of Chesapeake. Hinkle was dunking live eels. Another Riverside camper, Davis Ransone, also put a 30-pound blue cat in the bottom of his net. Mike says it’s “All you want to catch on pan size catfish from 2 to 5 pounds.”
Bass are also active on the Chick. R.J. Davis used a crankbait and caught a 6.75 largemouth caught in an evening tournament.
And if you want bluegills – they are taking nightcrawlers, shrimp and crickets as fast as you can bait your lines.
Freshwater Overview
Rivers are in good shape, but the water is warming and dropping. The New River is red hot for smallmouth and muskies and the James is beginning to give up nice smallmouth on topwater lures. The Shenandoah is getting difficult to maneuver canoes and drift boats because of extended rocks. Lots of smaller smallmouth are hitting A full day float can yield a 100 fish, but the great majority will be 10-inches or less.
The lakes are all in summer patterns, meaning good topwater bites in the mornings for bass, then go deep as the sun comes out. Crappie are deep and going deeper. The striper bite at Buggs has been good for 10 to 12 pound fish. A variety of tactics are working. A team weighing a 20.52 bag of largemouth won a morning tournament at Anna. The big fish went 6.2.
Trout are taking terrestrials on many spring creeks west of the Blue Ridge. There has been very good action for rainbows and browns below Gathright Dam on the Jackson River.
Lake Orange
Darrell Kennedy of Angler’s Landing (540.672.3997) notes that the water temperature is in the upper 80’s and clear. With the full moon this week, the fishing should be good. The bass are feeding in low light periods with some biggun’s being caught on both topwater and live baits. During the middle of the day soft plastics and live bait work best. The crappie are on brush in 10 to 15-feet and are feeding on small minnows. Some nice walleyes have been caught this week by anglers trolling with live bait. The catfishing is excellent throughout the lake with chicken livers, night crawlers and shrimp.
Rise and Shine
On the Potomac
Capt. Steve Chaconas says if you want to catch a bunch of bass this week, get up and at ‘em.
The best time to fish will be first thing in the morning. Fish will be in the grass and under mats. Presenting baits over and into mats will be key.
Water temp is in the mid to upper 80s and the morning, low tides are perfect for topwaters. With thick grass, try hollow Mann’s Super Frogs on 60-pound test Gamma Torque braid. On the outside edges, Lucky Craft G-Splash poppers on 14-pound test Gamma Copoly will pick off fish in areas without a lot of grass. As the tide comes in, take the frogs to the mats. Look for the thick patches.
Time for punching, too. Using up to 1.5 ounce pegged tungsten weights on 60 pound braid, target the thick mats and shake the weighted bait through it. Compact baits soaked in Jack’s Juice spray attractant on strong Mustad Flipping hooks will haul the big ones out.
In full sun and calm water, check out docks with Texas rigged Mizmo tubes on 3/0 Mustad Mega Bite hooks.
Capt. Steve Chaconas is a guide on the Potomac River. info@nationalbass.com
Fishing with Capt. Art Conway, Carolyn Conway had 22 bluegills, 1 shellcracker and 2 yellow perch. Joe and Kyler Wright had 1 crappie, 1 yellow perch, and 10 bass. Capt. Bill Buck had 22 bluegills, 1 shellcracker, 1 crappie, 1 roach minnow and 3 bass.