Tidewater Region Lakes

[Jim Gronaw]

Does anybody have the skinny on Lakes Prince, Cahoon, Western Branch and Burnt Mill near Suffolk? I fished Prince as a child and we caught big bluegills back in the 60's. I hear that the shellcracker fishing is good and some big crappie in all of them.

Any scoop?

[Daniel Salvitti]

I fish Prince often and have caught some nice gills and shellcracker. Prince and WEstern Branch also have some nice yellow perch in them. THe crappie fishing has been off the last couple of years...

[JWinpisinger]

I have been fishing Cahoon some in the last 2 years. I thought that it was just me or my technique as being the reason that I wasn't catching many Crappie. Blue Gills are quite abundant and willing to bite, even for a novice like me. If you look on the VDGIF website yuo can find directions to get to th fishingstation / boat ramp.

[JWinpisinger]

Has anyone ever used the technique of placing bb's in a bobber when panfishing?
I've heard about from somewhere but haven't tried it yet.

[CLIFFORD WILLIAMS]

yeah i've tried it but the fish will be hard to measure when you set the hook you wont really know until its close and you can see it or from the huge fight

[JWinpisinger]

Update on this idea of placing BBs in the Bobber. It seem s to work extremely well on some days and no effect determinable on other days. I continue to use them. I plan to look at the craft stores to se if I can get some real inexpensive beads to put inside the bobber to get a different pitch.

[CLIFFORD WILLIAMS]

i know about Little Creek reservoir

[Jim Gronaw]

So, what's the scoop on Little Creek? I have heard of big stripers, crappie and bass and panfish as well. Only open to boating part of the season, I think.

Ever fish there?

[JWinpisinger]

Hi Jim,

I know I'm responding late to this post. I have fished the Western Branch, The Northwest River, as well as Lake Cohoon Lake Meade, and Lake Lawson - Lake Smith. I'm not the best to judge by on crappie in any of them. They seem to know when I am on the water and go to school at that time. Lol, I have caught multitudes of Bluegills in all of these waters in the Tidewater area. I am very unhappy to tell you that for the most part they are small in size from what they used to be. Abundant YES! But I've not had too much luck  catching the big uns.

[Jim Gronaw]

Thanks for the info. I have heard, on the other hand that the red ear, or shellcracker fishing, can be very good in some of the tidewater lakes to even this day. The VA fish awards listings shows many "sunfish" of 11 inches or greater listed from Prince, Western Branch and a few others. I am only assuming that these fish are the predominantly larger red ear sunfish that average much larger than the bluegill in many waters, even nationwide. Good Luck in your fishing efforts!