Nitrofreak

That would be cool , but honestly , how much would you really learn other than what they do at that one particular body of water , they are pros for a reason , most of what you can do is build confidence in yourself , which I feel strongly that you can and will do , just take your time and try to understand as much as you possibly can , take it easy , build confidence in a few baits at a time , understand what works in what conditions and where and you will grow into a great angler !! Good luck and be safe !!!

Hope you get much more input , but I am still looking for a map myself , if it's not available on line , county records should show the area before it was flooded , the DNR can help you with what bait fish or any other stocking info you are looking for . Good luck and be safe !!!

Good info right there , there is a lot of cover in the lake close to the dam , lots and lots of lay downs , good rip rap at the dam , one point in particular about the middle of the lake , I have not topo'd the lake yet , this is an interesting quest !!Since the water is stained , baits that make noise or vibration baits , Jigs , black and blue with rattle tabs , I personally like dark baits for dark waters ,1/2 oz to start , medium size trailers on the jig , a little bulk to help with the sight of the bait , spinners with Colorado blades will give good vibes for them to target , willow leaf will give off flash but not a lot of vibes , if all you have is silver willow leaf blades , run them as close to the surface as possible to reflect as much sunlight as possible , especially on windy days with the spinner baits , crank baits really need to make contact with the cover or structure your fishing , use cranks with rattles , you can fish the lay downs with square bill cranks , a little slow mind you since the water is deeply stained , you want the fish to have time to find the bait but not enough time to decide if the bait is real or not , a little time to experiment with speed , make sure your patience is in check , the rip rap along the dam would be excellent to bump a jig around or a crank bait or a spinner bait , make sure you and your boat are Parallel to the bank , it's important to look for the breaks along the rip rap , as in look for the changes where the rocks end under the water and you have a few scattered boulders or rock piles , fish these areas methodically , take your time , again , since the water is stained , the fish need a little time to find and hone in on it's target . Hope this helps !! Good luck and be safe !!!

How do you approach this body of water if I may ask ? What baits do you use ? Colors etc.. and what are the conditions you use them in ? How pressured is this body of water , lots of anglers daily ? Maybe we can be of more assistance , just how stained is stained ? Dark brown water , muddy water ? It helps to know as much as possible when we have to envision what others see clearly .

Sound advice right there man ! Excellent post quan !!As far as what baits , myself I am quite partial to the Strike King ( KVD ) cranks , right now I would be throwing the sexy shad 1.5 , 2.5 in the shallower areas , also 5 , 6 , 10 XD for those deeper breaks , if the water is stained in the areas you are fishing then I would go with the chart sexy shad , whatever you do , make it make contact with the cover or structure that is available , pause it for a second and start cranking again ! Good luck and be safe !!!

It's good that you understand structure , drop offs etcetera ... On bright sunny days , this means high pressure , in other words , you really need to be finesse in your approach and slow way down with slower baits , being pin point accurate in your casts with very little noise , subtle and in very very tight to where they are , even multiple casts to the same area may be needed , overcast conditions you can speed up your approach , fish generally tend to loosen up from their cover and are usually more willing to chase baits , so faster moving baits will work a little better , fish the breaks , this could even be in the form of shadows cast upon the water , look for humps that are long and flat near the surface if you have any , with grass if at all possible , those will be the most productive during the morning and evening hours , the drop offs should be a guide as to where they go during the suns brightest part of the day , look for the darkest spots available , docks maybe , deep water if that's all that's available , maybe thick matted grass , but the darkest cover is where they will be during the brightest part of the days and will be very difficult conditions if your moving too fast . Good luck and be safe !!!

I had 50 foot of line out , that's all I had , you thinking 75 -100 ? I dropped in 28 feet and I may have had another 6 foot of rope left before I would have been at the end of my rope . I use an anchor , not accustomed to not using it but it would be fair to say that I have never used it under such conditions as Sunday was , thought about an even bigger anchor after that trip but more rope may just be the ticket !!

I had 2 anchors with me , a spade and a dish type , the spade would not hold , when the boat would bounce it would move , there were some serious wakes out there that afternoon , 30 mph sustained and gusts higher than that according to a report from the marina , my wife and youngest daughter were with me as well , they were getting wet and fussy too LOL !! I think I just need a bigger boat with a bigger TM to make them more comfortable

Water was still cold enough , fish were tight lipped and not in the mood to chance anything , they were about 12 to 15 feet , I fished a secondary point that had a shelf of grass , threw it and bumped the break at the top , that's where the last two came from , there were more there but I just couldn't handle the boat any longer , after loosing the bait to that wind knot on the next cast and having simply given up , my batteries were exhausted from the TM being on 5 to try and hold position , so were my legs LOL !! I am always and forever open minded and thinking outside the box , you really should consider these baits in the dead of summer too !! Not kidding either !! Shimmy , thank you , you and a lot of others here have been a blessing !!

Not sure of the size of your motorhome , but the lakes here in Va have some really nice state parks attached to our fisheries , not much in the way of powered slips but the boat ramps are plenty big enough to accommodate using a motorhome to launch with , Claytor Lake , Smith Mountain Lake , Kerr Lake ( Buggs Island ) , Lake Anna .Some do offer services and or options to launch and store your boat during your stay . What a great plan , I wish you well in your travels !!

You should see some of the bags that come off of the Quan by these guys , it pays to pay attention to these anglers !! Thanks it's much appreciated !!

Just goes to show how well respected you are , the gift speaks volumes of what we have already come to know and love about you here within this little community of ours !! Congrats and enjoy !!!

Been 25 years since my last smoke , quit the day I found out my wife was prego , one habit I am glad to have lost and you will be two I can make you that promise , now I just need to be like WW2 and kick this other habit !! Thoughts and prayers brother !!!

I'll second that !!! someday I will hit the res again , see if I can retain a lil sump'n sump'n , got a seahorse ( johnson ) 6 for my port-a-jon , maybe have a beer with ya afterwards too !!

I wish I could pass that bait thing on you john , truth is , I left mine at home that day , what you brought to light was what Catt had been preaching all these years and I just could not pinpoint , there were clues in your descriptions of when to fish here or there on the res , the fishing we did do , told me a lot of the kind of structure we were fishing , I found a lot of comparison to areas of Anna and backed it up a few times , since then I have put several trips together , not with bags like this but with much success , although this bag is not my record , it certainly was for such a short amount of time . See , I don't miss too much !!

Lake Anna , Mid Lake , just up from the power plant .

That does not happen very often , just so happens there were a lot that I missed out on as well , some nicer than what I have , but still pretty happy with the bag that I had , I learned a lot from you the day we had on the res , some of this credit belongs to you that I applied to Anna !!

Beautiful !!! They certainly do grow up way too fast , I love spending time on the water with my girls and it gets to the point that they get busy with other things and other friends , your time is even shorter at that point , cherish all you can big guy !! Glad you found it and thanks for sharing it with us !!

Well , only got 3 1/2 hrs in today , sustained winds above 30 mph , I dunno what the gusts were but they were pretty wicked . Water was 60 at the surface , stained to partly stained , fish were all mixed up , some suspended , some on the flats , suspended , some coming in for the spawn , some on the bottom but very tight lipped , started out with jigs for the ones one the bottom , got 3 that way , 4.1 , 4.8 , 5.4 , tried going after the suspended ones but to no avail , just could not hold the position , secondary points were my focus , seems most all the activity was on these points that had hard bottom areas , no discernible breaks that I could see , I changed up when I could not find what they wanted , they certainly were not in the mood to chase , I caught the next two on a LC pointer suspending JB , first one went 5.7 , last one of the day , 6.6 , brutal day to be out , lost one reel to my inability to control my balance and stepped on the darn thing , lost my LC pointer on the very next cast because of a wind knot , it was just too much after that , boat control was insane !!

Sounds to me like your in between a rock and a soft spot !! that might be what we refer to as a "Tweener"

Spiderwire #30 test , it's never let me down , knots are easy to tie and knot strength has been flawless .

Fishing , the ultimate contact sport !! WWOOOHHHOOO !!!

By the way , Really nice ride there Rock !!!

Is it just me or does it look like both ya'll are a little on the lazy side LOL !!!

d**n !! You are a redneck !! LOL !!! Let's go fishin then !!