Water Temp: 79 degrees                                                          Water Clarity: Good

The forecast calls for high temperatures of around 90 degrees every day this week. The low temperature will range from around 60 degrees early in the week to the upper 60’s late in the week and over the weekend. Skies will be partly cloudy most days with a chance of isolated thunderstorms, especially in the evening and at night. There will be a third quarter moon this Thursday, so while there will be plenty of moonlight when the moon is overhead the moon will not rise until late in the evening and by Wednesday not be visible until after midnight.

Striper fishing has been very good over the past several weeks, especially for anglers using live bait. Striped bass continue to feed on live bait rigged on freelines, in-line planer boards (Outcast, Water Bugz, Off Shore) and floats or Redi-Rigs. They are also hitting live bait on downlines, but seemed to hit the freelined bait much better than that on downlines. Alewives continue to be the preferred bait, producing better quantities of good fish than either gizzard or threadfin shad. Last week most of my fish came on planer boards although we did jig one nice fish up out of a small school using a large fluke on a custom “Doozie” Gamakatsu shad jighead. Small schools of stripers have been observed breaking during the day and especially in the late afternoons. Stripers are being caught in a number of locations around the lake with the bigger fish reported in the mid and upper sections of the Roanoke and Blackwater Rivers. Striped bass are also being caught by anglers trolling Umbrella rigs near the mouths of most major creeks and along the old riverbed in the main lake channel. 

The night “stick” bite continues as the alewives move up along rip-rap covered banks to spawn. While this bite has slowed and will continue to do so as the spawn concludes over the next several weeks, both stripers and bass are still being caught near the shoreline on medium sized, floating lures. Lures that continue to produce results include the floating jerkbaits (Bomber Long A, Storm Jointed Thunderstick, Cotton Cordell Redfin), chuggers (Jitterbug), wake baits (Excaliber) and prop baits. Most of these lures produce the best when retrieved slowly along the surface producing a slight bow wake, a chugging sound, a rattling sound or a splashing sound on the surface.

Bass are also being caught on the bottom at night using larger, dark colored plastic worms. There are a variety of different night worms to choose from including those made by ZOOM, V&M and Deep Creek Lures. They can be rigged either Texas or Carolina style and are very effective on bass that are suspended near deep-water structure and points at night. Your local tackle shop can help you select the best color, brand and length worm for your conditions.

Bass are also biting well during the day. There continues to be a good topwater (Rico, Pop’R) and spinner bait bite very early in the morning, especially in the creeks and guts along structure. Bass continue to move up on the shoreline to feed on the small bluegills that are trying to hide in the rip-rap and other shoreline structure. Crawfish are also a targeted food for bass suspended under docks along the shoreline. Green, brown and smoke colored tube lures rigged on lightly weighted jigheads are working and are most effective when skipped back under docks and fished back into deeper water. Small floating shaky and giggy worms rigged on shaky head jigs are also producing good results around docks. Bass are also suspending off the front of deep-water docks where Yamasenko worms in selected lengths and colors are working.

This past week there were a number of tournaments held on the lake including a Region 4 BASS event and several local tournaments. The team of James Cassaday and Gary Nichols, Jr. won this weeks Saturday night open event out of Foxport with a total weight of 12.30 pounds. The team of Eddie Purdue and Troy Haines brought in the big fish in that tournament. It weighed 5.25 pounds. On Sunday, the team of Greg Peters and David Martin won the SMLBass event with a total weight of 13 lbs. 3 ounces. Second place went to Johnny Stutts and Trevor Lee with a team weight of 12 lbs. 13 ounces. The big fish Sunday was a 4 lb. 15 ounce bass brought to the scales by the team of Randy and Austin Hicks. All of the bass tournaments held on Smith Mountain Lake are catch and release events and all the fish caught are returned to the lake. Many events are open to all bass anglers, so anyone visiting the lake that wishes to participate is welcome. Details on these events and other local tournaments can be obtained by calling the Virginia Outdoorsman on 540-721-4867.

Catfishing continues to be good, especially along banks after dark as flatheads move up to feed on bluegill and shad. Shad, small panfish and the “jumbo” shiners available in most tackle shops and marinas are the best bait for flathead catfish.  They can either be presented on bottom rigs or under floats. Prepared stinkbaits fished off the bottom continue to work for channel cats. To effectively fish these baits, use a 2-3 foot leader ahead of a swivel and egg sinker and use a spring hook to keep the bait from falling off the hook when casting or retrieving your rig.

Crappies continue to hit live minnows, but they have pulled back into deeper water where they are holding in the tops of submerged trees and brush. Small jigheads with plastic trailers and tubes are also working for crappie, especially around deep-water docks. These lures are most effective when presented way back under docks and allowed to sink deep before being retrieved.

Good luck and tight lines.