Art Conway (804-514-1486) out of Ed Allen’s Boats and Bait reported that
Chickahominy Lake mid-day surface water temperatures were in the middle
to upper 60’s in the central lower lake on Wednesday (4/12/2023), with
slightly higher temperatures in some creeks. The temperature at noon
today below 10 feet was in the lower 60’s, so the lake was heating from
the surface down and was not fully mixing. The lake level was about
even with the top of the dam. The water was light brown and clear to
very slightly cloudy at the surface in the central lower lake, but had a
moderately cloudy layer below 3 feet in many areas of the lake.

A few small blue cats, channel cats, and bullheads were scattered on
flats, along drop-offs, and in channels in the main lake and in some
creeks, and when active were hitting live minnows and cut bait. A
mixture of sizes of crappie were on wood cover, especially cypress
trees, near the mouths of major creeks and were moderately active. Many
males had turned dark as is typical of spawning. No crappie were found
in creek channels today. Active crappie today were hitting live minnows
moderately well, but were also hitting tubes, curly tail grubs, small
swim baits, small Gulp minnows, and wet flies. White perch were
scattered or in loose aggregates on deep flats, channel edges, and in
channels in the main lake and in a few creeks, and when active were
hitting small baits including live minnows, Gulp minnows, and swim
baits. Some bluegill and shellcracker were moving into creeks and
becoming moderately active, hitting wet flies and live worms. Some
pickerel and largemouth bass were around cypress trees, on deeper flats
and on channel edges in the main lake. Other bass and pickerel were in
channels or on flats in major creeks. When active, bass and pickerel
were hitting live minnows, spinnerbaits, swim baits, stick worms, crank
baits, and jerk baits.

Fishing with Art Conway, Mickey Cleveland had 4 bluegill, 2 shellcracker
(one a length citation), 2 crappie, 1 pickerel, and 1 largemouth bass.
Scott Jackson and Matt Umlauf had 1 flier, 19 crappie, 1 yellow perch, 1
bowfin, 3 pickerel, and 6 largemouth bass. Joe Stevens Jr. and Bobby
Harper had 5 crappie, 1 white perch, 1 yellow perch, 1 bowfin, 1
pickerel, and 1 largemouth bass. Tom Porter had 9 bluegill, 1
shellcracker, 7 crappie, 2 white perch, and 1 largemouth bass.