By BRIAN BOOG
Hello everybody, and welcome back to Small Waters. Over the past 30 days, I’ve fished Lake Meade and a few other places including Lake Cohoon (I saw a GIANT buck drinking on the shore with an absolutely massive rack), Chickahominy Lake, Harwood’s Mills and the coveted Busch Gardens Lake (Shout out to Keno.).
In four days of fishing, I caught 20 or so bass hovering in the two-pound class, a 5 ½ pound pickerel and I shook off a giant bowfin. But it seemed like all these lakes were turning over and I experienced tough, tough fishing, but lunch at Lakeside on Chickahominy Lake made everything better.
The week prior to me fishing at Chick Lake, it took 23 pounds to win the Ed Allen’s tourney, and the week I was there it took only eight pounds to win! I had the same type of results at Lake Meade. The grind is real.
Having said that, I’ll feature Lake Meade in Suffolk, owned by the city of Portsmouth. Lake Meade is a 512-acre reservoir used by the city of Portsmouth, parts of Suffolk and Chesapeake for its water supply. The other lakes used for the water supply are Cohoon, Kilby and Speights Run. Meade was impounded in 1960 on the mainstem of the Nansemond River. It’s shaped like a horseshoe, and I found depths up to 25 feet. Gas motors up to 9.9 hp are allowed.
Meade is stocked every year with striped bass (I didn’t have any luck with them.). Meade also has a good population of largemouth bass, crappie, bluegill and trophy redear sunfish.
What’s great about fishing here is that you get to choose between Lake Cohoon and Lake Meade. While they are separated by a dam, it’s one destination with boat ramps. If you visit, I highly recommend you stop at the great tackle shop, Culpepper Boats, Bait & Tackle in Suffolk, and get all the jokes and magic tricks you can handle. It’s a fantastic place, exactly what a tackle shop should be.
These lakes are open from sunrise to sunset. You can pay by the day ($5) or buy a yearly Suffolk pass for $40 that runs from April to April. You can also rent a Jon boat with battery and trolling motor for $35 a day for either lake. They also have a separate kayak launch for both lakes. Culpepper Boats has tons of parking for trucks and trailers.
On to the fishing… I got to the lake early on a Tuesday and I was fourth in line at the gate. I waited my turn and put the ol’ 86 Crawdad in and I headed out, not knowing a thing about Lake Meade. I had brought five or six cranking rods, a jig rod, a Senko, Jackhammer and a glide bait rod. The water was 79 degrees.
I headed out underneath the first bridge and saw the first stump field. It was pretty big. I stayed real close to the left hand side shore line and watched for stumps. I have to be careful fishing out of a plastic boat. I don’t want to go swimming. Along the way, passing the unlimited supply of laydowns, I skipped a jig into many of them but there was nobody home. I made it out safely to the second, even larger stump field and continued my tight to the shore, left hand side approach. It worked. I didn’t hit any stumps. I went underneath the second bridge and that’s when I decided to start fishing. It opened up and I saw some long, tapering points and they usually hold fish.
My plan was to start fishing shallow and work my way out until I found some fish. Just looking for a clue. Anything. Over the course of the next few of hours, I started covering water. I threw square bills, then moved on Rapala DT-6’s, then to DT-10’s and then DT-16’s with not a bite to be had. I did catch a few small fish on a 1/2oz. Bizz baits jig w/ a Crush City Cleanup Craw, flipping buck brush on the shore.
With nothing doing late in the day, I went offshore looking for something. Anything that looked different. Graphing around in 20-25 feet of water, I started seeing these random ditches with fish around them. They were here and there with no real rhyme or reason. Well, I’ll give them a shot. I pulled off of them and started alternating between a Strike King 10XD in Oyster and a Rapala DT20 in Old school. For this day, this was the ticket.
These ditches held the fish. 3-14, 3-4, 2-10 and a few more, smaller guys thrown in. Then I just rotated between the ditches I had found with the same results. I had one bite that just ripped the back split ring and hook clear off the DT20.
When that bite died off, I continued to fish all the way out to the end and all the way back to the ramp with no fish. It ended up being a good day. Finding something that works in the last couple of hours to salvage the day just makes you feel good.
The next few times I went to Meade, it was hit or miss. I tried a bunch of different things, but I’m sure it was operator error. I caught three or four a day on a jig in laydowns with no real size, but I blame my lack of results on the cold front that came through.
The last day I was there, I did catch a “Old Pal” tackle box in 20 feet of water on an umbrella rig. I thought I was hung up, and eventually, with a lot of swearing about losing another umbrella rig, I got it up to the surface. And before you ask, the was nothing in it.
Lake Meade really is beautiful. The choice of two lakes in one spot is cool. The jokes, magic tricks and southern hospitality at the tackle shop is awesome. I can’t wait to go back when the jig bite is on in those 1,000’s of lay downs and bushes that line the shore.
The mid-week days I was there, it was pretty busy – five to 10 boats busy. Meade is big enough that I really didn’t see another boat all day. Meade is also great for kayakers with plenty of coves to duck into and fish.
Give Lake Meade a try, it’s definitely worth the ride. Any suggestions of where I should fish next: email woodsandwatersmagazine@gmail.com.
