Fishing Noob Looking For Some Help

Hi to everyone,
As the title suggests, I am a born again fishing virgin. I was an casual fisher as a kid, but hadn't picked up a rod in decades until late last year (September) when my 10 & 12 year old sons asked me to take them.

So we picked up some inexpensive equipment and headed out to Lone Star Lakes in Suffolk as it is only a few miles from our house.

We managed on accident to catch a few fish, but only 1 worth keeping. Since then, we've been skunked pretty much every other time we've gone out.

We've mostly stayed at the Lone Star Lakes because it's so close to home, but I'd really like to go someplace where we can actually catch a few fish that we can keep. My kids are bent on catching and eating something!

Last weekend we went out to Bennett's Creek Park and while we didn't have any luck, one of the guys fishing off the pier end caught a few decent sized catfish. But he was using the same basic setup that we were (weight on the bottom of the line, with 2 hooks above) and we were both using nightcrawlers for bait.

We are fishing from the banks only, we don't have access to a boat.

So basically I'm looking for any help and input that you can/will offer up. Is there a spot that we should check out (that you'd be willing to share the info on) that allows bank/pier fishing that we stand a decent chance of getting a few fish? Should we be working with a different bait/setup? We'd like to stay in the general Suffolk VA area...

Thanks in advance for any advice, we'll certainly appreciate it.

Welcome aboard. I've never been to the Lone Star lakes but I'm sure there are some here that have and hopefully can steer you in the right direction.

Cahoon offers bank fishing as well as boat rentals, Mr Culppepper or Mr swain would be glad to point ya in the right direction. They are on pitch kettle rd.

At lonestar, fish along the steep banks where all the lakes are interconnected. There are little pockets where there is enough room to drop a zoom trick worm down the bank in the brush. 5 ft off of some of those banks is 20 - 30 ft deep. There is a little bridge about half way down southern lakes on the back side as if you were heading back towards the ranger hut. Start off in that area. Its the one past the sign that says lunker landing. You should be able to pull a few decent bass of of plastics. Butler tract has some nice blue catfish in it. Up to about 15 lbs. use chicken livers on the bottom. there is only a small pier though. There are some big crappie in a couple of those lakes as well. ive pulled a few citations. good luck hope this helps