Art Conway (804-514-1486) out of Ed Allen’s Boats and Bait reported that
on Wednesday April 15 Chickahominy Lake mid-day surface water
temperatures in the lower lake were in the lower to middle 70’s. The
lake level was about an inch below the top of the dam. The water was
medium brown, clear from surface to about 2 feet, but much more murky
for several feet below 3 feet, apparently due to an algal layer.

A few blue cats, channel cats, and bullheads were scattered in deeper
regions of channels in the main lake, but some were also in some creeks
and on flats. Crappies have been moving into spawning areas in creeks
during warmer weather, then leaving when cold fronts hit. Today, we
found moderate numbers of crappie spawning around cypress trees in some
creek mouths and in the main lake, although the sizes were generally
smaller than during the last few weeks. Moderate numbers of crappie
were on channel-edge wood cover, especially near creek mouths. We are
starting to see some white perch roaming in loose schools among the
deeper cypress groves near creek mouths. Moderate numbers of bluegills
and shellcrackers are in some creeks. A few scattered pickerel and bass
have been in creek channels and channel edge flats.

Tom Porter, Sandra Rothrock, and I caught 20 crappies ranging from 7 to
13 inches, 4 white perch, 1 yellow perch, and 1 blue cat today by
fishing small minnows under bobbers around cypress trees and in several
other locations. All of the trees with fish were in 3 to 5 feet of
water. There seemed to be smaller crappies in most cypress locations
than we found last Wednesday. We also found small crappies on wood
cover on channel edges near creek mouths. We also caught 11 bluegills
and 3 shellcrackers by fishing red wigglers under bobbers in 1 to 3 feet
of water in creeks, especially under bankside trees.