If you’ve ever wanted to explore and fish a river teeming with bass that like to hang out on lily pads, lush submerged grass and around duck blinds or a lake that has the feel of the deep south with stately cypress trees and quiet creeks you’ll want to plan a visit to Chickahominy Lake or River this summer. Here’s what you can expect for a June visit to the beautiful Chickahominy system.
Ed Allen’s Boats & Baits up on Chickahominy Lake reported that the lake level was normal, clear and in the upper 70’s at the Woods & Waters deadline. Sunfish were spawning, while largemouth and crappie were well into summer feeding patterns.
Frog fishing is in full swing on the lake. Casting them around shallow cover early is excellent this month as is casting buzzbaits and spinnerbaits. Later in the day, it’s time to drop soft plastic stickbaits along weed edges.You’ll want to fish Johnson and Lacy Creeks as well as the coves and small creeks within a mile or so of the dam.
Bluegill and shellcracker will be spawning heavily on the new and full moon this month. Crickets and fly rod offers are great fun now on this shallow lake.
Art Conway loves to target the lake’s plentiful bluegill and shellcracker. The lake’s fishing honorary fishing instructor launches from Ed Allen’s Boats & Baits and can often be found in the Lakeview Restaurant enjoying lunch with clients.
Ed Allen’s has 200’ long fishing pier, a fleet of jon boats and motors to rent, three rental pontoons, a small motel and a great tackle shop. They are also a Tohatsu outboard dealer.
Rockahock Campground & Cottages welcomes your visit this season. This riverside resort offers camping options of all kinds, plus yurts and cabins. They also have their own boat ramp on the river and access to one on the lake.
Over at Eagles Landing on the upper end of the lake Jill O’Brien-Jones invites you to visit her this season. The upper end of the lake features plenty of cypress knees and weedy shallows for you to explore this spring in your own boat or one of their rentals. The tackle selection is huge here including Senkos and plenty of topwater frogs.
The Bruce family invites you to visit Riverside Camp & Marina, a few miles below Walker’s Dam. Here you’ll find a quiet riverside campground with cabins and cottages for rent, a rental jon boat and pontoon boats, tackle shop and great access to the Chickahominy River.
June is when the bass feed heavily on the river. Lily pads and cypress trees in the upper river are full of bass, sunfish, yellow perch and more. You’ll want to target river bass around the pads and cypress knees using a Senko or creature bait if you cannot get them to bite a frog, Chatterbait or small crankbait.
The lower end of the river offers plenty of larger creeks like Diascund, Yarmouth, Morris and Gordon’s with their own bass populations. Here you’ll want to be throwing a shakey head worm and a crankbait on wood as the tide turns.
Nearby lakes like Diascund and Little Creek Reservoir offer excellent fishing as well. Diascund has a good population of spotted bass and Little Creek has walleye/saugeye and striper.
Fishing Pro Tech in Toano offers anglers hard-to-obtain, new baits and other “secret” bass gear. Some notable recent arrivals to Lin Bell’s shop include the Megbass Vision 110’s in Northern Secret, new colors for Megabass Magdrafts, the Megabass Big Gabot frog, the Shimano World Rush Flash Boost crankbait, the Megabass Respect Series #51 Red Eye Glass Shrimp color in many baits including the PopMax!
Just up the road from Bell’s shop you’ll find Toano General Gun Store. Don buys, sells and even trades new and used firearms. He has ammo, holsters, spare magazines and an expert gunsmith in the shop nearly every day, too.
