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 upper
60’s to lower 70’s in the central lower lake on Wednesday (4/5/2023),
with 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
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 in channels and on flats in the middle
and upper regions of major creeks and were moderately active. Some
males had turned dark and were on wood or vegetation typical of spawning
structure, but no large groups were found today. Crappie have
frequently moved back out of the creeks or became inactive when cold
fronts passed through. 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 still in channels in the
main lake and were inactive, but increasing numbers were moving into
creeks and becoming moderately active, hitting wet flies. 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, Tricia Pearsall had 1 bluegill, 3 crappie, 2
pickerel, and 1 largemouth bass. Jerry Davis had 7 bluegill, 9 crappie,
1 yellow perch, 1 roach minnow, 1 pickerel, and 1 largemouth bass,
primarily on wet flies. Tom Porter had 7 bluegill, 1 shellcracker, 12
crappie, 4 roach minnows, and 2 pickerel, primarily on wet flies.