It took a little cold snap and receding water levels – then the Chickahominy River caught fire. Mike Johncox at Riverside Camp in Lanexa says the crappie and the stripers are hungry and are finding their way into fish coolers.
“We broke the ice with both crappie and striped action this past week,” Mike said. “Gary and Shirley Belk caught 50 crappie on Friday and 21 more on Saturday. They also had a pair of stripers and 21 and 23 inches respectively.”
Riverside Camp rents cabins, boats, motors and sells bait and tackle. Sounds like The Chick is the place to be.
Chickahominy Lake
Capt. Art Conway of Conway’s River Rat Guide Service out of Ed Allen’s Boats and Bait reported that Chickahominy Lake mid-day water temperatures were in the high 50’s to low 60’s in the main lake. The lake level was about even with the top of the dam.
Blue cats and a few bullheads were scattered throughout the lake, but were starting to move toward the channels, and were hitting live minnows and cut bait. Moderate numbers of crappie were in loose schools in the main lake on deeper flats and channel edges, usually at depths of 6 to 12 feet, sometimes suspended, and frequently in the neighborhood of wood cover. Active crappie were hitting live minnows, Wright Bait Co. curlytail jigs, small tubes, Kalin crappie scrubs, small swim baits, jigging spoons, and blade baits. Some small to medium yellow perch were scattered on main lake shoreline flats and on flats in creek mouths and were hitting live minnows, small jerk baits, and small jigs. Although most bluegill had moved to mid-depth wood cover or into channel edges, a few nice bluegill and shellcrackers remained scattered along some shorelines, around cypress trees, and on weed flats just out from shorelines in the main lake. Bluegill and shellcrackers were hitting live crickets and worms, small blade baits, tubes and jigs. Some bass and pickerel were on lily pad flats and along shorelines in lower reaches of major creeks and in shallow bays and some shorelines in the main lake, while other bass and a few pickerel were on deeper flats and channel edges in the main lake. Bass and pickerel were hitting live minnows, spinnerbaits, swim baits, stick worms, crank baits, jerk baits, and jigs, with some topwater action early and late on many days.
Fishing with Capt. Conway, Ross Alfonso and Ryan Ladd had 2 bluegills, 22 crappie, 1 white perch, and 1 pickerel. Tom Porter had 7 bluegills, 2 shellcrackers, 15 crappie, and 1 white perch.
Potomac River
Fall Fishing is Around the Corner
Shorter days and colder water is causing grass to disappear, but there’s still a lot and that’s continuing to create difficult conditions.
Water is in the low 60s and slowly dropping. Lots of sun and dry conditions. Overnight lows in the 40s.
With morning low tides, pitch grass edges with Texas rigged soft
plastics like Mizmo tubes and stickworms. Use 12-pound test GAMMA Edge fluorocarbon line. Look for grass patches out from the edge. Lucky Craft 1.5 squarebill crankbaits are going to cover water. Cast along edges of grass and grass points. Use 12-pound test Edge and vary the speed. Snap out of grass and pause. Also try lipless cranks like Lucky Craft LV RTO in shad patterns unless it’s cloudy or the water is stained. Then go to red patterns. Mann’s Baby 1-Minus is also good over grass and around wood cover, try burning this bait when the water is clear. Before the tide rolls in, try buzzbaits on 30-pound test GAMMA Torque braid. Substitute a HardNose Reel N Shad for the skirt.
Spinnerbaits with willow and Colorado blades slow rolled in areas without grass can also be effective. Crawl spinnerbaits along the bottom as slowly as possible! Use 12-pound test Edge and a 7-foot rod to make long casts and to set the hook.
Fishing will be tough in areas with a lot of grass. Cover those spots quickly. Otherwise, choose spots with hard edges or no grass and where grass is in narrow bands near the shoreline.
Capt. Steve Chaconas is a guide on the Potomac River. info@nationalbass.com
Lake Anna Forecast
By Guide Chris Craft
With the lake at full pool and heading into the fall, great catches are expected. The bass should be aggressive and willing to take a variety of baits. The crappie and striper will also begin to feed up for winter.
Bass: Look for fish to be aggressive and chasing pods of baitfish (Threadfin Shad & Blueback Herring) at anytime throughout the day. Top water baits are a very exciting way to catch these feeders, my choices are a Paycheck Baits Repoman, Damiki Rambler, Don Iovino Spash It, Cotton Cordell Broken Back Redfin & Damiki MTB Noisy Buzzbait.
Another great way to catch these fish is with a Damiki Anchovy Shad rigged on a 1/4oz jighead or a Damiki Armor Shad rigged on a Gamakatsu 4/0 EWG Hook. Try a 1/4oz Longbill Scrounger with your favorite soft jerkbait.
Crappie: Currently, there are still good numbers of fish on the uplake bridge pilings. As the water cools into the low 60’s, they will make a move to shallow water and begin to feed heavily. Small minnows on jig heads or slip bobbers work best as long as the fish are deep (8-14 feet). After they move up, 2″ Kalin Curly Tail grubs rigged on a 1/16oz jig head works great.
Stripers: The stripers can be found throughout the entire lake at this time, look for schooling action early and late in the day. The splits region up to Dillards Bridge on the Pamunkey arm and up the Holiday Bridge on the Anna arm holds the most schools of fish.
If they are actively chasing and swirling on baitfish, my favorite way to catch them is with a Broken Back Redfin waked just under the surface. Once the feed is over, look for the schools with your electronics, after you locate them, drop a Toothache Spoon or Damiki Vault to them and hold on. Casting Bass Assassin Sea Shads or Damiki Anchovy Shads rigged on1/4oz jigheads into the schools of breaking fish will usually attract the bite of larger fish.
Towards the end of October and beginning of November, look for fish from Christopher Run all the way to Goldmine Creek on the Anna arm and from Hunters Landing up to Little Florida on the Pamunkey arm, and behind the bridge in Terry’s Run.
Lake Anna Water Temps:
Up Lake- 67-69
Mid Lake- 69-72
Down Lake-70-74
Dike 3- 77
Trout Update
Delayed Harvests Streams
Virginia’s Delayed Harvest Streams have been stocked for the fall season and offer great opportunities for catch and release anglers. Interestingly, there are now more fishermen in Virginia who let trout go than there are those who keep them.
Delayed Harvest regulations require artificial lures or flies only and no bait in possession. All trout must be released from Oct. 1 through June 15. Below are the DH streams.
Accotink Creek in Fairfax County; Back Creek in Bath County: Chestnut Creek in Carroll County; Hardware River in Fluvanna County; Holiday Creek in Buckingham/Appomattox counties; Holmes Run in Fairfax County; Pound River in Wise County; North River in Augusta County; Passage Creek in Warren County; Peak Creek in Pulaski County; Pedlar River in Amherst County; Roanoke River in Roanoke County; South River in Augusta County.