I'm heading south to the chick for a week of bass fishing. I wanted to check and see how the fishing is this year, last year seemed a little off. Maybe even some tips. Thanks

Check the tides. You want a falling tide.

Fish the creeks. Front, middle and back.

Hit all wood you see in the creeks.

Fish any single trees on the main river.

Hit the docks and piers along the river and creeks.

Fish the pads across from Rock-A-Hock in the AM with frogs or rats or late PM with frogs and rats.

Will be extremely hot and bass will go deep so use electronics and find the dropoffs or where the river meets the bank.

People run to the dam to fish but it is not that great. In fact, I have caught only one dink at the dam and I know of no one else who has caught any nice bass along the dam. But you can try that area, too.

Watch going into creeks. Use your GMCO map and follow the deep water.

As for baits, plastics, spinnerbaits and crankbaits with buzzbaits in the AM and PM. Junebug if water is dirty; green pumpkin if clear or stained.  Sexy Shad or your favorite color for crankbaits and white and white/chart for spinnerbaits.

But you will have to experiment as the bass will let you know what they want.

Wear PFD and watch the weather. Chick River can turn dangerous with white caps in a heartbeat.

Watch for snakes, too. They won't bother you, but be careful.

Have fun. 

Thanks a lot Sam. This helps a great deal. What about above the dam, is it any good in the lake or would I be better off to stay below in the river? camping at Big Mike's.

  thanks

Stay in the river.

The lake is choked with grass and you can hit a lot more places on the river.

Look at your GMCO map for the creeks and fish them. You may get some shade in Shipyard Creek during the day.

Where are you putting in? 

Big Mike's,  riverside camp

I have no idea where that is.

Can you be more specific?

Do you have the GMCO map of the Chick River?

If so, PM me and I can guide you from there. 

Like Sam said, the lake is very grassy this time of year. But it is still very fishable.

If you decide to fish the lake, Johnson Creek is producing a lot of fish. And they have been bigger than the fish I have been catching in the other parts of the lake.

You'll have to adapt to the conditions. The water lilies have pretty much dried up and there are vast expanses of grass mats. The center of the creek is very navigable. If you get much out of the center, you will be dealing with fouled props. Not a big deal if you don't mind pulling the stuff off every once in a while. Wacky and texposed rigged senkos and trick worms, frogs and toads, Rail Tail Anacondas and Space Monkeys, jigs and tubes have produced very well for me.

The main body has been somewhat productive around the submerged barges out from Johnson and Lacey Creeks, but you have to be careful there since the water is down about 12 inches. Someone recently tore a good sized hole in their pontoon-boat pontoon on one of them. Jigs have prodiced for me there.

The south shore of the lake - around Cypress Banks, the private boat lifts, the blowdowns and all the little coves - are producing lots of small bass. The floating islands of vegetation are keeping the south shore in a constant state of change.

The dam is producing some small bass, but the bowfin are present and they were tearing up baits. Last weekend I caught 6 bowfin for 1 bass at the dam. I think I've caught 12-15 bowfin in the last few weeks at the dam. They are good fun, though.

At the south end of the dam (across from Rock a hock) there are a few floating island up against the dam and that are holding some fish. There was one floating island at the north end of the dam (near rock a hock) and I got bass there on texposed rigged senkos, but they didn't have much size to them.

I took the attached photo on July 1. I'm catching a lot of fish in the creek about this size.   Some bigger, some smaller, but this seems to be about average for me in the creek.  I'm spending most of my time in the creek.

I fished the lake 2 weeks ago (not as recent of a report but may help). Our most productive areas were the big patches of cypress trees (near the creek mouths), the oddly large or combined trees with some shade cover are the ones that seem to hold the fish. Wacky rigged senkos, finesse worms and trick worms in darker colors (green pumpkin and pumpkinseed were producing well for us that day) seemed to be the most productive with some action on white chatterbaits being bounced off submerged wood. Some of our fish were caught by buzzing soft plastic toads across the top of the grass mats. Were catching fish in mostly the 2-3lb range, but in the creek, like Micro said, we lost a 5+ pounder. Ill be out there this week also. Let me know how you do, Good luck!

I will be there the week of July 26, staying at the Riverside2 camp on the Chickahominy Shores. No i don't have GMCO map. I'm familiar with the area. I've been fishing the river for the past 6 years, just for a week though. Last year is the first year we fished the lake. The lake is much different fishing than the river. I wasn't too successful in the lake, (too new to me), but the river, I love it! Great fishing!  Thanks for all the help. I'll let you know how we do.

If you get the GMCO map you may see new places to fish. 

   I made it back from a week fishing the Chick. Overall, was not very good. There were weeds floating everywhere and the top-water bite was dead. Full moon week also. We caught fish every time we went out, just not many. The cypress trees were the most reliable for catching bass. I did have one big one snap my line, and caught one around 4lbs. We will probably try it next year again.      Thanks again for all the help.

Did you fish the lake or river? 

We fished the river. The one day we were going to the lake it rained.