Water Temperature: 84 degrees                                                          Water Clarity: Good

The overall temperatures this week will continue to be seasonally warm. The high temperature will be in the mid and upper 90’s through the middle of the week and will be in the mid 80’s through the weekend. The low temperature at night will be in the 60’s. The forecast is for us to enjoy sunny and partly cloudy skies most of the week with a chance of thunderstorms on Wednesday and Thursday. The upper lake water has picked up some color as what appears to be an algae bloom is adding a green tint to the water. We will have a little moonlight at night with a first quarter moon this Friday the 8^th. While the water level came up a little over the weekend, it continues to be several feet below full pond.

The bass fishing this past week continued to be mixed, both for those fishing in the day and at night. There are bass being caught on topwater lures early in the morning, late in the evening and at night. Some bass are being found suspended off deep-water points and on deep-water docks, especially ones adjacent to deep water. These deep-water bass are being caught on deep diving crankbaits like the Lucky Craft CB, Norman DD’s, Strike King #4 and #5 in crawfish, shad and a variety of different night colors. These deep diving baits are most effectively fished using a relatively long, limber, sensitive “deep crankbait rod” from 6 ½ to 7 ½ feet long. Deep diving crankbaits pull much harder than do shallow diving crankbaits and a longer rod is generally preferred. Many manufacturers, including G. Loomis, Powell and St. Croix, make crankbait rods designed especially for these lures. Deep water fish are also being caught on Carolina rigs, drop shot outfits and heavy Dave’s jigs using a variety of different plastics. Floating worms like the Roboworm, Deep Creek Floating MT and Giggystik are good choices for dropshot rigs as well as shaky head jigs. At times bass prefer shaky head presentations with worms that do not float and ZOOM’s finesse worm and new shaky worms are good choices in those cases. Bass suspended under deep-water docks are taking the Yamamoto Yamasenko worm in select colors when wacky rigged and presented near pilings, ladders and other vertical structure.

Mark Vest won the Saturday night tournament out of Foxport Marina with a total weight of 15.80 pounds. Mark also brought a beautiful 7.55-pound largemouth to the scales to take big fish honors. Maurice Oakes and his son, Arvie teamed up Saturday night to take second place with a total weight of 14.45 pounds. The Sunday SMLBass tournament was won by the team of John Vest and Benny Robertson with a total weight of 14 pounds 7 ounces. They also had the big fish weighing 5 pounds 3 ounces. Second place went to the team of Cris Logan and Cris Logan, Jr. with a weight of 10 pounds 13 ounces. The team of Brandon and Joshua Pritchett won the fifth and final Conrad Brothers USA Bassin team tournament this past Sunday. The tournaments big fish, weighing 5.17 pounds, was caught by the team of Brent Anderson and Lucas Bauer. The team of James Cassaday and Gary Nichols, Jr. won the 2008 Virginia Division Series championship. The USA Bassin Virginia Regional Tournament will be held on September 9^th at Smith Mountain Lake. For information about local tournaments or to have your tournament results included in future reports, just call Mike at the Virginia Outdoorsman on (540) 721-4867.

Stripers continue to be found in large schools inside and near the mouth of major deep-water creeks. These fish are being caught on live bait (shad and shiners) presented on weighted downlines (1 ½ or 2 ounce egg sinkers), bucktails, flukes on custom jigheads and small spoons. Most of these stripers are being caught in schools at depths of from 25 to 55 feet deep. Anglers trolling Umbrella rigs, deep diving lures and three way rigs are also catching striped bass. In the summer when striped bass are in schools, trolling is a very effective way to fish for striped bass because you can cover a lot more water in search of the schools while trolling than you can when pulling bait. Many striper anglers will troll while searching for schools of stripers. Once the fish are located, some will switch to live bait on downlines in an effort to catch them. Trolling 3 and 4 arm Umbrella rigs with swim shad and curl tailed grub trailers continues to produce good fish. When trolling umbrella rigs make sure you remember to take along a Jerry Hester Umbrella rig retriever. It will pay for itself the first time you use it to retrieve your rig from a submerged tree. This Thursday, August 7^th we will be conducting a workshop on “Catching, Keeping and Fishing with Live Bait”. It will cover everything from how to select, use and care for castnets to the different presentation techniques used at various times of the year. On August 21^st we will be conducting a “How To Rig and Use Trolling Tackle For Stripers” workshop. This workshop will cover everything from leadcore outfits to umbrella rigs. More information about these workshops can be found on or website at  (http://www.virginiaoutdoorsman.com/content/workshop.html) or by calling the shop.

Crappies continue to be caught deep using both live crappie minnows and selected artificial lures. Magic stinkbait is producing good results with channel catfish and flathead catfish continue to be caught on live shiners and shad.

We are getting ready for archery season and have already received our first shipment of Parker crossbows. We match the prices of the large sports retailers on Parker and most other crossbows and provide additional accessories with each purchase. If you have questions about anything in this report or need assistance with any outdoor activity, just stop by the shop and we’ll be happy to assist you.

Good luck and good fishing.