It appears that Spring will come early to the Chickahominy region as the winter that wasn’t appears to have retreated early last month with trees budding in the middle of February.
Bass haven’t really stopped biting all winter here and March has the reputation for a month that produces real giants. Everything is set for a new lake or river record!
This shallow, cypress knee and lilypad-filled lake warms quickly and crappie, pickerel and, big bass teem in its weedy shallows.
Top March patterns will be pitching jig-n-pigs to cypress knees in the lower portion of the lake, twitching jerkbaits over deeper wooden cover and fishing big glide baits around the dam. You definitely want to fish deeper early in the day around wood and then switch to shallower flats. A Texas-rigged lizard is another good lure to fish in the lake this month. A wacky-rigged stickbait can be good, too, if we get a rapid warmup. Late on a warm afternoon you might even get a big bass to blow up a topwater frog.
Chick Lake crappie like the cypress knees around the dam as well as stumps and lily pads in Johnson and Lacy Creeks this month.
Ed Allen’s Boats & Bait is a lower lake marina with ramp, tackle shop, restaurant, fishing pier and boat/motor rentals. Three pontoons are also available for rent. Ed Allen’s bass tournaments are held on many weekends with each month’s events posted in our Calendar of Events.
Eagles Landing is another good access point to the upper end of the lake, offering visiting anglers a fine concrete ramp, tackle shop, live bait, pontoon and jon boat rental and wet slips.
Guide Art Conway has retired and we wanted to congratulate him. He’s not going to stop fishing his favorite lake, though and you’ll probably still see him at Ed Allen’s Boats & Baits.
On the upper Chickahominy River, Riverside Camp & Marina is one place where you’ll want to access the Chick. The Bruce family operates a fine marina, boat ramp, tackle shop and boat rental service. They have several pontoon boats they rent.
Rockahock Campground also offers excellent access to the upper Chickahominy River with a boat ramp just below Walker’s Dam and one above in the lake, plus a resort type campground and rental cottages.
As March progresses there will be a good crappie and bass feed in the vast lily pads fields just below Walker’s Dam around Rockahock.
On the lower end of the river is Tomahund Marine. If you need any kind of marine repair work, marine part, outboard oil or inflatable, Tomahund is the place. If you got out the boat for the first time and it didn’t run, bring it in and they can get you running again. They are also a stocking War Eagle and Beavertail boat and Mercury Marine dealer.
In addition to Chick Lake and River both Diascund Reservoir and Little Creek Reservoir offer excellent crappie fishing, especially for 15-inch plus fish.
Bass fishing headquarters for the region is the Town of Toano. Here you’ll find Fishing Pro Tech – one amazing little tackle shop.
Lin Bell at Fishing ProTech always has the most cutting-eedge baits in his shop and the state’s largest selection of swimbaits and swimbait gear. New bait/gear arrivals include
the new Bass Mafia Daingerous Swim Baitsin both six and seven-inch versions, the new ZOOM Uni-Toad plus plenty of MEGABass Vision baits.
Just up the street from Fishing Pro Tech is Toano General Gun Store. Don knows his stuff and even has Sodan Armaments doing gunsmithing and custom work in the shop.
