Saturday-Chick Lake-poor choice

I was feeling guilty as I had not taken my Lund out in over a month (been fishing in my jon boat) so I ventured up to Chick Lake for my first time ever in January. While I marked a lot of schools of fish, nearly every time I would drop a marker near them the school would move on. The few times I was able to get into them they were catfish.

http://i445.photobucket.com/albums/q...psdf14be90.gif

http://i445.photobucket.com/albums/q...ps1164e25b.gif

http://i445.photobucket.com/albums/q...ps320ef043.gif

I got 4 catfish, 4 decent sized green carp, and zero crappie. As you can see, water temp was around 38. I saw only one other fisherman on the lake and he told me that he was having the same luck as I was with catfish and bass with no crappie. I guess the weather was too nice for a January day as it was sunny with light winds. Oh well, there's always next Saturday.

Tap once the water temp drops to 40 to 38 degrees or so the crappie in the lake are very hard to catch. I was in the river up near the dam Sat. and kept 12 crappie from 12 to 14.5 inches. The tide and wind do make catching fish more of a challenge in the river. I find that either side of a tide change is the best time to fish. The very best time would be the start of the outgoing tide to the first hour or two after high tide. Up near the dam the tide flow is a lot slower than it would be in Diasconds creek. I have caught good fish when the river was iced up except for the main channel and had seagulls standing on the ice while we caught fish. Of the 12 crappie I caught 2 had worms. The yellow perch will stack up near the dam in the river very soon. The bad part of fishing near the dam would be the Rockahock ramp and camp ground. The ramp fee is 8 bucks and the pier is in rough shape and has no real ladder to climb down into you boat at low tide. There are 4 or 5 boards missing from the pier so be careful. The parking area is up near the entrance to the camp ground so you have to walk a ways to get back to the pier this slows down launching your boat a lot especially when it's busy. The people at Rockahock camp ground don't seem to have boaters very high up on their list of priorities. Other than that the Chick River up near Walkers Dam is a great place to fish when it's cold. I have fished there for 40 years during late fall thru about May.

Tap, I just noticed that you have the same line on the left side of the center line. I've been trying to get rid of that line for 3 weeks now. Humminbird even sent me a different transducer. The new one helped but I still have a faint line on the left side. That was my problem when I pm'ed you a few weeks ago. What are your thoughts on that line. My color is set on amber and shows up more than yours.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Anchor Man

Tap, I just noticed that you have the same line on the left side of the center line. I've been trying to get rid of that line for 3 weeks now. Humminbird even sent me a different transducer. The new one helped but I still have a faint line on the left side. That was my problem when I pm'ed you a few weeks ago. What are your thoughts on that line. My color is set on amber and shows up more than yours.

---

I just looked at a bunch of old side imaging snapshots and the line is there when I take a snap shot from my Lund but not from my jon boat. Same head unit but different transducers. Interesting.

Tap, I had the same luck on the river Saturday afternoon on an incoming tide. Only a couple of small crappie fishing the stump turn at the end of Turner's Neck. Today was another story. After long line trolling on an outgoing tide I got into a bunch of nice fish that really wanted to hit. I had to put the trolling rigs away and go to casting because I couldn't keep up with all the rods. Some of the fish were really nice, one was probably close to 2 lb. The feed didn't last long, maybe 45 minutes. I came in just in time for football.

I have heard that Rockahock is a mess. There are two nice ramps a little further downriver, one at Colonial Harbor, which puts you in right behind Lanexa island. There is good crappie fishing all around there. Also at Riverside Camp, which puts you on the East side of Turner's Neck, a short (maybe 10 minutes) run to the dam. Plenty of crappie around Riverside, also. Either ramp is accessed by taking route 627 off of 60. Look for the giant "Riverside Camp" billboard on the Southbound side of 60 just before Lanexa Plaza. Once you are on 627, make a left as soon as you you cross the railroad tracks to get to Colonial Harbor. To get to Riverside, continue on and take the left fork at Chickahominy Shores and Riverside Camp will be on your left. Mike Johncox at Riverside is happy to negotiate an annual ramp fee with you. Riverside is the most fisherman freindly ramp. He has minnows tackle, and hot coffee. Colonial Harbor caters more to the power boating crowd.

are u set on ZOOM at all on the si image?

I can't believe I went fishing the same day as Tap (albeit a different body of water) and caught more crappie (by accident). Now that is a jaw-dropper! :yikes There must be some hope for us Grasshoppers after all!:biggrin

Anchorman, A line that faint could easily be turbulence or bubble coming off the boat hull. If you line is as light as Taps, there is nothing to worry about. If it was a hard return, the line would be solid and many times there would be more than one as it echos. Trim the motor up and see if the line is there when the hull is not moving. Then kick up the trolling motor and see if it returns. If it does, try a steady sweeping, large diameter turn. Go left then right and see if the line changes with the fluid/air movements coming off those bottom strakes.

hey george is was tuff fishing this weekend.