Hello everybody and welcome back to this month’s Small Waters. I hope you’re all getting out on your favorite pond, lake, river or reservoir and catching a few. It’s a great time to be on the water. A little bit further on down the line, I’ll be talking about this month’s Small Waters, Briery Creek Lake in Farmville, but first, I want to give you a rundown of all the other Small Waters that I’ve fished this past month. All of these places are so worth your time.
I had an epic day at Harwood’s Mill’s in York County. The fish were on beds and I caught a 22-pound bag anchored by two just under six all on a drop shot.
Next I went to Beaverdam in Gloucester. While I was waiting for the gate to be unlocked, 15 or so boats started lining up behind me. I told myself “This must be a tournament. Who has tournaments on a Wednesday?” Sure enough, after talking to Bill Johnson, one of the anglers in the line, it was indeed a small club tournament. Bill asked me if I wanted in, and I said of course. Having no cash on me, I had to riffle through my center console in the truck to see what I could find.
Along with a peanut butter Cliff Bar, a flashlight, two pocket knives, extra batteries for my scale and a bunch of other random junk, I found exactly the right amount of money needed to enter the tournament. (If you’ve ever wondered what happens to your money that falls out of your pockets while on a roller coaster, it gets found and pays to enter a fishing tournament.)
The club is called “Old Fellas,” for age 50 and above, fishes all of the lakes and reservoirs I’ve written about here in Small Waters and so far, it’s a bunch of good guys. They have a tournament every other Wednesday, April through November. It works perfect for me.
Let’s get talking about Briery Creek. BCL is a 845-acre lake that is located within the Briery Creek wildlife management area in FarmVille, Prince Edward County. It has a 9.9HP outboard limit, two boat ramps and plenty of parking for all the folks coming to catch a trophy bass.
The addresses for the boat ramps are as follows: the 790 ramp which is by the dam is located at 609 Briery Lake Road in Farmville and the 701 ramp is located at 1203 Landing Rd. in Farmville.
The lake opened in 1989 and was stocked with Florida and northern strain largemouth bass, bluegill, redear, crappie and channel cats. The biologists wanted a trophy lake and the data says that they’re right on the money. It’s one of the state’s best trophy lakes. The biologists take great pride in electroshocking the lake every year and gathering more information from anglers at the ramps. This place has some giant pigs in it.
BCL is open one hour before sunrise to one hour after sunset. There’s a small fishing pier at both ramps.
Let’s talk about my recent visit. I woke up in the middle of the night and made the two-and-a-half hour trek to the lake that always seems to be in the top two or three of best bass lakes in Virginia. When I arrived at the boat ramp in the dark, there were already 10 to 15 boats waiting to put in. By the time I launched, the sun was starting to rise. I saw all the trees. Holy smokes there’s a lot of them.
I’ve complained in past columns about different lakes having tons of wood in the water. Which normally isn’t a bad thing if you can maneuver around them. Just last month, I said that Lake Prince has a crazy amount of wood in the water. And it does. BUT nothing compares to BCL! When a fellow angler at the ramp with 30 years fishing at BCL asks “Is this your first time fishing here? If you like your outboard you might not want to use it.” I took his advice and never turned it on.
You couldn’t go more than a few feet without hitting a tree or getting stuck on one. Insane. The lake has a few coves to go in. Nothing too crazy. It also has a few points to fish. You mainly try to fish the shoreline. I’d really love to be on someone’s boat that’s really good with FFS.
I slowly made my way across the lake from the boat ramp and was planning to go down the huge creek channel on the right, but everyone else seemed to have the same idea, so I called an audible, went right and attempted to fish close to the shoreline of a nearby point hitting trees with my trolling motor as I went. It was both funny and frustrating. How can there be so many trees?!
I alternated between a Neko rig and a Jackhammer and caught quite a few small fish. Nothing to write home about. The depths of the lake are impressive. Twenty to 30 feet are the norm. I tried to throw a big swimbait, but couldn’t seem to get it between the trees without getting hung up. I fished for most of the day and in the end had a bunch of small fish.
On my next couple of trips I launched from the boat ramp by the dam, which also has plenty of parking and slightly more open water. You can fish all around the boat ramp area and the whole dam without hitting a tree. I couldn’t seem to get anything going until I got to a small set of lily pads.
I flipped a 3/8-oz. Bizz Baits jig with a Crush City Cleanup craw into the outside of the pads and got immediately blasted by a three pounder. I alternated between a jig and a spinnerbait and caught a decent limit. This area was the only area that seemed to be holding fish. Weird. I made my way all around the dam and halfway down the lake throwing a squarebill, spinnerbait and a jig and a bunch of other things but none of them did a thing.
Sometimes, that’s how it goes. I called it a day. I loaded up the boat and made my way back to Williamsburg. I can see the allure of BCL. Big bass heaven. I know that it’s a place where you have to fish all the time to get used to it and learn the ins and outs of the lake.
I listened to all the dock talk from the old timers at the boat ramp about all the eights, nines and 10s that have been caught over the years. I love hearing all the stories. With the two different boat ramps, you can decide what adventure you want to take that day. I would love to spend more time at BCL and figure out the place. Listening to all the stories about the giant bass, I’ll be back. I have no choice!
If you have any suggestions of where I should fish next email me at woodsandwatersmagazine@gmail.com.
