Smith Mountain Lake, VA Fishing Report

Bass: Fishing continues to be good. Several anglers recently reported success using both spinnerbaits, small swimbaits and Alabama rigs off the sides and ends of deep water docks and along secondary points early in the morning. This time of year the heavier shad imitating Alabama rigs and spinnerbaits (¾ ounce) are good choices as they allow you to keep the lure deeper and vary the retrieve speed. Currently there are a lot of smaller baitfish in the food chain, so using spinnerbaits with smaller blades and smaller plastic lures on the Alabama rig not only imitates the available forage, but also reduces the resistance and lift of the lure when retrieved. The spinnerbait skirt color and color of the lures on the A-rig should represent the shad in the forage base, so pearl, chartreuse shad or white with light blue flecks are all good colors and with clear water small silver or silver holographic blades are a good choice. Small shad colored crankbaits and traditional crawfish imitating crankbaits are also working around docks, rock ledges and submerged structure. Other good lures when fishing deepwater docks include the shakey head jig, Texas rigged plastic worm with a relatively light sinker and the wacky rigged Yamasenko worm. When fishing the wacky rigged Senko worm good colors include green pumpkin with black or purple flake and watermelon with black or red flake. When fishing Senko's wacky style I suggest you keep the lure in the shaded side of deep water dock pilings or other vertical structure and let the worm fall naturally, without any tension on the line or other resistance and watch your line for any unusual movement. A number of bass have moved into deeper, cooler water where they can be found.

Stripers: Fishing was also good over the past several weeks, especially once the schooled fish were located. Anglers using live bait on downlines and shot lines reported the most success as they found schools of striped bass in numerous locations in the middle sections of the lake. Schooled stripers were often found from 20 to 60 feet below the surface. Small shad are starting to produce good numbers of stripers when they are found deep, in or near submerged timber. Sometimes, in the summer, the very small shad will produce stripers when a larger, beautiful alewife or "money maker" gizzard will not. When fishing with the smaller shad this time of year I suggest downsizing both hooks and leaders. Anglers who locate schools of stripers using electronics also report success vertical jigging for them with small jigging spoons and flukes rigged on quality custom jigheads. Attaching a small quality swivel to the jighead with a split ring will help eliminate line twist when vertical jigging with flukes. When schools of stripers are marked using electronics they can also be caught by casting out, counting down and retrieving these lures as well as the conventional bucktail. Trolling is another effective technique this time of year as it allows the angler to cover significant amounts of water. Stripers are being caught by anglers trolling a variety of different lures including Sutton spoons, plastic swim shad, sassy shad, crankbaits, diving jerkbaits and Umbrella rigs. Some anglers also report success trolling with the popular Alabama rig. Many anglers will troll while using their electronics to search for schooled stripers and then once located will switch and put out live bait on downiness or jig with spoons and flukes on jigheads.

Catfish: The catfish bite continues to be strong. Flatheads are hitting live shad and panfish under floats at night. Flathead and channel cats are both being caught by anglers using night crawlers, shad, cut bait and a variety of different stink baits on the bottom during the day.

If you have photographs or information you wish shared with others who read the Smith Mountain Eagle, please feel free to join the many anglers who support this report by emailing the information to me at virginiaoutdoorsman@gmail.com.

Tight lines and stay safe on the water.

Bass and Striped Bass: The alewive spawning activities are slowly coming to an end, but they continue to move up near the shoreline after dark to spawn. Bass as well as stripers and an occasional flathead catfish continue to move to the bank to feed on them at night. When these bait fish are near the shoreline at night there are a number of different lures including floating jerkbaits, chuggers, wakebaits and floating prop baits that can be used to catch both bass and stripers. While some striper anglers use the same floating jerkbaits used for bass, most prefer lures slightly larger with more substantial hooks. The F-18 size Original Rapala floating jerkbait in the Vampire, Bleeding Chartreuse Shad, Clown and Hot Steel colors is one of the most popular and effective lures for this technique. The alewives spawn does not seem to be as intense as in years past and it is often well after 11:00 pm before they move up next to the shoreline in significant numbers. Some evenings and in some sections of the lake it has been well after midnight before they made an appearance. When fishing for bass and stripers that are feeding on alewives at night, boat position is critical. It is important to get the boat as close to the shoreline as possible. This allows you to cast and retrieve your lure parallel to the shoreline when the fish are there, so you can retrieve it very, very, slowly right next to the bank and keep it in the strike zone as long as possible.

A plastic worm can also be a good choice at night for bass. The night worm bite is improving and should get better, especially if the fish move into or near submerged structure like brush piles. Ribbon tail plastic worms in dark night colors like black, redbug, black with blue flake and green pumpkin with blue or red flakes are all good choices in open bottoms and those with natural rock and stumps. Larger, ribbon tail plastics move more water and are easier for the bass to find than smaller worms. I should mention that many anglers' specifically targeting brush and submerged timber prefer straight tail worms to those with ribbon tails because they don't wrap around the limbs or hang up as frequently.

At first light, bass and stripers can often be found inside and toward the back of selected creeks anywhere schools of baitfish are located. Once the sun moves overhead, many of these fish move down in the water column into deeper water. The stripers often head out toward the mouth of the creek or they find a deep pocket or cove. Bass move into places where they can ambush prey including the shade found under deep water docks, deeper water off primary and secondary points or deep water where they can be found suspended.

Those fish found around docks will almost always be found in the shade and they can be caught on shakey head jigs, whacky rigged, sinking Yamasenko worms and drop shot rigs. Bass holding around docks can also be caught on Texas rigged worms and medium diving crankbaits. Those bass found suspended in deep water can be caught on drop shot rigs and small, jigging spoons. The traditional Carolina rigged plastic worm and creature bait continues to work, but a number of tournament anglers report that this bite has not been particularly strong this year.

There continue to be an incredible number of fishing tournaments held at the lake each week. A tournament that is open to any wishing to participate is being held by the Smith Mountain Lake Bassmaster Club at the SML State Park this Saturday, June 30th. The tournament will start at 7 p.m. and will conclude with a weigh-in the following morning at 4 a.m. This tournament features a $1000 guaranteed payout (with a minimum of 17 boats), 80% payout and an entry fee of $100. For additional information about this tournament you can contact member Tom Seaman on (540) 297-3584. If you are interested in this or any of the other fishing tournaments held each week, you can also contact one of the local tackle shops and they will be happy to provide you with details. There is one local tournament angler I wish to highlight in this report. Those of you who visited the Virginia Outdoorsman will remember meeting and being helped by Blaine Chitwood, our fishing manager. Blaine worked in the Virginia Outdoorsman for most of the time we owned the store, starting with a work permit when he was in high school and continuing as he progressed through several years of college. Blaine is currently attending Radford University and, as might be expected, he is fishing on the Radford University bass fishing team. Blaine and his Radford University partner Brett Meyn, recently won the Northern Conference Championship of the FLW College Fishing Tour, beating out the second place Ohio State team by one ounce. Blaine and Brett were one of forty competing teams from colleges that included Virginia Tech, Penn State, West Virginia, Central Michigan and Kent State. We join Blaine's wonderful family and many friends in congratulating him on this success and wishing him the very best of luck as he continues to compete in the college fishing series.

Catfish: The catfish have really turned on over the past several weeks. Both flatheads and channel cats are being caught on a variety of different baits presented on the bottom. Shad, stinkbaits and nightcrawlers have been good baits for channel cats. The flathead catfish have been hitting live shad, small panfish and even nightcrawlers.

Panfish: Bluegill and other panfish continue to feed aggressively on small hair jigs and plastics rigged on lightweight jigheads, tipped with pieces of a worm, imitation maggot or wax worm. Night crawler and red wiggler worms are also working well when presented on a standard split shot rig. Warmouth can be found hiding in the rip-rap along virtually any shoreline and bluegill can be caught in the shade under most any walkway or dock overhang.

Water temperatures are 70 to 79 degrees with the water fair to clear. Tight lines and have a safe and enjoyable July 4th.

While the alewives have started to move toward the shoreline at night as they begin their annual spawning ritual, if the cold weather in the forecast for this week arrives it might delay or seriously dampen that annual event. As the weather warms and the days become longer, small groups of alewives will be seen and heard flipping along the shoreline at night in most sections of the lake. This attracts bass, flatheads and stripers which are looking for an easy meal and brings out the anglers who enjoy fishing at night this time of year.

There are alewives in many open water locations around the lake right now with heavy concentrations in the major creek areas. Gizzard shad, which prefer warmer water than do the alewives are also fairly abundant but are being found closer to the surface. Alewives can be located in schools using electronics in the day and can often be found at night near dock and security lights. Gizzard shad can be found flipping near the surface or in the shallow water near the backs of the major creeks.

When both bass and stripers are keying on shad, artificial lures that represent and mimic local baitfish are solid choices both in the day and at night. Casting and retrieving flukes, swimbaits, spinnerbaits, poppers, crankbaits, jerkbaits and wakebaits will produce when bass or stripers are feeding on shad in the day. Early and late, flukes, top-water poppers, jerkbaits, spinner baits and swimbaits can all be productive. Weather, water conditions and target fish behavior will dictate which lures to use and how best to present them. Often it is wise to try different retrieval techniques and let the fish tell you what they want. At night, when bass or stripers are heard or seen feeding on the alewives near the shoreline, the most popular lures include floating jerkbaits and wakebaits. The key at night is to find the targeted fish up on an "active bank" and then present the lure very, very slowly, so it puts out a slight wake as it moves through the water. Overall, bass fishing has been pretty good. Largemouth and smallmouth bass are still being found in relatively shallow water where they are either spawning or actively guarding their young. While the wind and murky water have reduced visibility and hampered sight fishing efforts, when conditions are right this is still a productive technique right now. Sight fishing with light colored, highly visible jigs and plastics is still working for bedding bass. There are a number of different lures being used to catch bass near beds. Plastic creature baits and craws rigged on jigheads, Texas rigs and drop shot rigs are all working. Bass are also being caught off points, around submerged natural rock shelves and under deep water docks on pig & jigs, shakey head jigs, crankbaits, flukes, swimbaits and Alabama rigs.

Striped bass fishing has also been pretty good. Stripers are currently being found in many locations around the lake and there appear to be better concentrations in the middle and lower sections. There were reports of surface breaks in the open water of the lower lake.

There is at least one tournament on the lake every weekend and for those who want to participate in local events, there is a Tuesday evening and Saturday night open bass tournament held each week. Two weeks ago, the college Bassmaster series held their Eastern Super Regional event here, attracting teams of anglers from colleges all over the eastern part of the country. Radford University's Justin Witten and Travis Cox dominated this event when they brought a two day total weight of 34 lbs. 5 oz. to the scale, beating the nearest competitors by over 7 lbs. This team said that while they caught most of their bass off of beds, their largest fish each day was caught by casting and retrieving a large swimbait off of rocky points and shoreline. That same weekend, the Smith Mountain Striper Club held a member guest tournament. First place honors in that event went to Wade Grindstaff, second place to Pauline Nuckels and third place went to Marty Anderson.

This past weekend the Oakley Big Bass Tour was in town to host their 2012 Blue Ridge Big Bass Classic on Saturday and Sunday. This series features a unique format that recognizes the largest bass brought to the scales each hour of the event. This allows each angler the opportunity to win multiple prizes because they can catch and weigh-in different fish they catch throughout the two day event. The largest bass caught and weighed in at this weekend's event was a monster largemouth weighing 7.18 lbs. caught by Phillip Cox. The second largest bass was caught by Kyle Whisnant and weighed 6.31 lbs. The third heaviest bass of the weekend, weighing 6.02 lbs. was brought to the scales by Cory White.

Once we get through this little blast of winter weather, things should warm back up and the fishing should really be great. If you plan to be out for a walk near fields or the woods, don't forget that spring turkey hunting season extends through the middle of May. Wearing a bright orange cap or vest to insure you are easily seen is always a good idea in areas where there might be hunters.