On Sunday Aug. 10th 2014, we fished Powells Creek which is just South of Leesylvania State Park in VA.
There is a kayak launch here so be sure to use it rather than the much larger marina ramp. There’s little parking though once you unload your kayak. After you launch, turn right to go up into the creek.
Outside the bridge there is some good grass in the Summer months. We spooked several large fish in that grass on the way into the creek. This is a shallow creek that is extremely subject to tidal fluctuations. Most of the creek is only a foot or two deep even at high tide and the bottom is heavily covered in vegetation. The bottom is almost entirely silt and soft clay. There is a well defined channel, sometimes two coming out of the back of the creek. You can see this if you use the satellite image on the map above. I’ve fished here twice and was amazed at how much the channel and the vegetation can change even in just a few weeks. At low tide, what was once a wide looking bay, ended up looking like a soccer field from all of the grass poking up above the surface. That combination of features makes it a good place to spot snakehead in the shallows and back in the runs through the spatter dock. But, you’ll have to pretty much commit to nothing, but top water fishing or very weedless baits.
My plan was to fish back in the creek at high tide and come out more into the bay area at low tide. I met Andy Ibarra out there and he planned to do the opposite. I think he ended up with a few nice bass on the day. We ended up with a handful of bass, several catfish, and one snakehead.
The snakehead we found way back in a run into the spatter dock. My Dad hooked into one that came off in that same area and saw another there. The bass were a bit trickier. I saw many bass from babies to larger ones. I saw about 8 bass along the weedline in the channel at low tide. Every time I threw them a bait, they ran from it. They really didn’t seem to want anything. That was until my Dad pulled out a Keitech Salty Core Stick in Electric Shad color. As soon as he did that, he caught one, I caught 3 in a row, he caught another, and I caught one a few minutes later. They were all over that thing when they wouldn’t bite other similar worms. A strange combination, but it was just what they liked that day. No huge bass, but a quick flurry of activity. I decided to round out the day with a few catfish. There is no shortage of bait for cats floating around there. I usually scoop up a few of the floating dead large freshwater mussels and snails. They are stinky and stick on a hook well. If you throw that into the channel back up in the creek, a cat will be on it in a matter of seconds. I caught three nice ones doing that. One is in the video. That one took me on quite a ride before I got him in the boat.
On top water, I chose a Stanley Bull Ribbit Frog in Watermelon. This is what the snakehead bit.
When you go to fish Powells Creek, look at the map for the kayak launch. Go back into the creek beyond the bridge. Pay attention to the tides. Don’t be afraid to paddle way back and INTO the spatterdock weeds. There are many fish in there. Even if it looks too thick to cast into, try it anyway. Just be sure to have fairly heavy gear to be able to horse them out of there if you catch them. And be flexible. Listen to what the fish are telling you and be willing to change tactics or even change target species. If you do all of that, you’ll still have a great day out there kayak fishing. If no fish are biting, it’s always worth checking out the wildlife in that area. I had a couple of small passengers on my kayak with me that are included in this video.
