Hello everyone.  This weekend I was planning on fishing the Chickahominy with a friend.  It was recommended to me that we rent a little boat from Ed Allen's.  I've called several times this week but no one ever answers.  I was wondering if anyone knew the cost to rent their boats and what hours they are available to rent.

Thanks.

depends on what you want to rent... business hours are not in stone but somebody is there by 7:00 AM and will let you fish until sunset

last time i was there a jon boat with a trolling motor, battery, oars, PFDs, etc. ran $30 for the day

Last time I was there it was $35 for jon boat and motor; trolling motor was additional $15. They usually work out a deal with you if the volume if not heavy. May see you out there, trying my luck there this Saturday. Good luck!

Thanks Ben and Kaotic.

Definately going Saturday, going to try and be there when they open.  Hopefully I see ya there.

Any advice?  I've never been there before.  I'm down for catching anything that swims, but I really really want to get a bowfin because I never have caught one before and I hear that water is good for them.

the whole river is pretty good for bowfin... we usually will catch a small perch or bream and then hook him up to let us find the bowfin. 

i might actually have my new (to me) stratos out there.  not sure where were gonna go yet... either there or somewhere on the james

If you want a bowfin, I suggest you motor out of Ed's and head to the dam. When you are looking at the dam, head towards the right end of the dam (the side opposite Rock A Hock). There is a small island of vegetation that as washed up and settled on top of the dam. I saw numerous big bowfin surfacing there a week ago. Drop-shot a live minnow down below that vegetation and let it sit. You will almost assuredly get a bowfin. Fishing live minnows a foot or two off the bottom all along the dam will produce bowfin. Bowfin can be found throughout the lake. But the above technique is your best shot at getting a decent sized fish or several fishes.

When you call Ed's, you may or may not get an answer.  The men that run it are outside of the bait shop, or in the Lakeside Restaurant a lot.  The main guy that runs it is Ed's nephew.  He just got married there 2 weeks ago may be making himself scarce for awhile.

Had a fun time on the lake yesterday. Got to Ed Allen's about 6:30 am. Had no idea the Lakeside restaurant would be open so early for what looked like great breakfast, my stomach felt very cheated by the McDonalds that it was filled with instead. Caught a bass on the little dock waiting for our boat to be readied and proceeded to drop my rod in the water like a newbie with a restaurant full of locals watching me.

We fished sunrise to sunset. Ended up with probably twenty fish, mostly small/medium bass and crappie, no bowfin though. One guy there said he caught about 40 fish that day and no bowin, he said usually he can't go 3 or 4 fish without one being a bowfin, so he was happy about the absence, I guess they took the day off from getting caught. The john boat was fun, first time I think I've been on a boat since I was a kid, and the price seemed very fair to me, but I think next time I will try hitting it with my kayak.

Thanks for the info and tips everyone that replied.

nice, i hit the james at osbourne and got 100% skunked... knew we shoulda gone to chick!

if you like chickahominy you oughta try out little creek.  not too far down the road and it runs $20 to rent a boat, motor, and 2 batteries for the whole day.  we had a real big time last time we went, and no big gas boats allowed!

Glad you had fun.  Chickahominy is a great lake.  I've gotten to know it very well.  It's a lake made for jon boats and kayaks.  I might not be able to go as fast as the guys with $40,000 bass boats, but I sure can squeeze into places they don't even try to go. 

When you decide to go back to the lake with your kayak, a great place to put out is the campground ramp at Ed Allens.  It's right on Johnson Creek, one of the best areas on the lake and the place I consistently get big bass. 

Ben, where is little creek located?  I tried to google it but I guess that name is too common to know if I'm looking at the one your suggesting.

Micro, I will try that put-in for my kayak thanks.

its called little creek reservoir, in the williamsburg-james city county park system.  its in toano which is maybe another 15 mins down 60 from ed allens

id post a link but im not allowed until i have 10 posts

just google "little creek reservoir" and you should see it ;D

http://www.jccegov.com/recreation/parks/little-creek-reservoir.html

This forum continues to be of great help when looking for new places to fish.

Bret1320 - what baits were of the most success at the lake?

Anyone on here tell which location has the better bass fishing this time year, Diascund Reservoir or Little Creek? I want to try a new location this Saturday, and I'm undecided on which location to head out to. Both locations appear to be promising. Secondly, what would you recommend using?

Slow30th - I'd say 15 of the fish caught were on live minnows.  The rest were a mix of all kinds of different artificial lures we were trying, but none of them were clearly better than the other.

Anyone on here tell which location has the better bass fishing this time year, Diascund Reservoir or Little Creek? I want to try a new location this Saturday, and I'm undecided on which location to head out to. Both locations appear to be promising. Secondly, what would you recommend using?

*I* like little creek... the water levels are back up too so the fishing isnt quite as hard as it was this summer

i did awesome with a texas rigged junebug curltail.  i got good sized perch, largemouth, and even pickerel just casting up to the shore and bumping it back down through the grass into the boat. 

Little Creek versus Diascund for best bass fishing...   Either is good.  But the lakes are different. 

Little Creek is a very clear, deep lake.  Little Creek near the dam is 60 feet.  The banks drop away very steeply.  Little Creek has very little bottom structure.  Except during the spawn, I like fishing Little Creek with crank baits. 

Diascond is shallower with more structure.  I fish that the same way I fish Chickahominy or Lee Hall.  I crank a lot less and use a lot more soft plastics. 

Thanks for the info, Little creek looks like the choice for this weekend, however Diascund presents a lot more of a challenge.