Lake Anna,
This place fishes like no other I have ever visited, Lake Anna IMO is a finesse fisherman's paradise, while there are times when a crank bait, spinner bait, blades and others work well, the most commonly consistent bait is nothing more than a good old fashion worm and or creature bait, 3" or 12" nothing beats a worm and I will tell you why I believe this to be true.
When you think cranking Lake Anna, think about what you normally don't see others doing, sure the rip-rap produces numbers, it normally does but, how many do you see working something like a 10XD? or a big ol' swim bait? not many, it's a lot of work and a lot of anglers just simply don't take the time to understand the in's and out's of cranking, I am in no way saying that I am an expert at it, lord have mercy no, I am getting better at it though, I owe that to what I am learning here on this site and a lot of time on Anna, while the numbers are not where I would like for them to be, certainly the quality has picked up, cranking Anna is a slow go most of the time and certainly not one of the more productive techniques at least for me right now, unless you get on a good school of active fish here or hit a spot at just the right time it's a pretty difficult technique to catch fish on, this place see's a lot of angling pressure, especially around her banks, if cranking is your strong suit think a little deeper around areas like her rip-rap or around her stump fields when you consider cranking this lake and your day will be much more productive.
Spinners, are really good around the grass and lily pad fields as well as the occasional brush pile and beaver huts scattered around this lake, I like to throw these when the water is a little cloudy, I really like those with big blades that make lots of vibration and run them just under the surface, this year, with all of the rains have made the perfect spinner bait season, the waters up north in the upper reaches of the old river arms have produced really well in areas just like this, top water baits like buzz baits are right up there too and who doesn't like some top water action.
Lake Anna as far as her structure goes is for the most part pretty much barren on the bottom, they really scraped her clean before they flooded the place in 1972, a few scattered brush piles here and there placed in several locations all over the lake, you can find an occasional tree or an old fence line, there are some places where an old road bed or train tracks used to be, most of these have silted over and can be tough to locate, they are for the most part in the deeper waters of Anna, several underwater bridges still dot her bottom, some of the better structural foundations of old buildings and bridges are easily found in the Pumunkey branch however in much shallower water.
The number one pattern there is skipping docks, there are so many docks, always a reliable means of producing some memorable catches, remember that this lake is pressured, at times you can see one boat right after another skipping the same row of docks, you may have to "slow your roll" so to speak in order to get bit, look for the differences that will make one or more stand out , a dock that has rod holders may be a good give away, one or several that offer some cover between two docks in the form of vegetation,( those are always the best fun ), deep fronts usually equate to a good structural change, however you decide to break down this lake I would like to offer this for all who are only there for a day or those who fish from a yak or other limited means of transportation, the lake on her bottom is over a mile wide in places, given the amount of current and temps of the water returning to the power plant, the lower lake stratification can be as deep as 30 feet or may not actually stratify at all until winter, given the avg. depth is approx. 30 feet down there and over a mile wide, it can be pretty difficult locating fish with so much room to roam especially when your limited, the quality of fish is a trade-off, even though there are memory makers scattered throughout this body of water, your chances of catching a few good lunker fish are pretty good mid to lower lake, I always suggest fishing her upper regions for anglers such as yourself, it is not near as wide, near as deep, the fish can be much easier to locate as far as numbers are concerned but every once in a while up there your going to get one or more of those spectacular catches.
The 2 baits I always tie on are jig and pig combo's as well as a T-Rigged worm or creature bait, mostly it's a worm, the T-Rigged bait will take on many different looks in the course of a day there depending on how fast you want your presentation getting to the bottom and or not at all, how big you want your presentation to be and or how subtle, the bite on Anna is for the most part a very subtle one, a lot of times ( more so than not ) they will pick it up and not move an inch, other times they are pretty aggressive, the good news is that when you do get an aggressive strike it usually equates to competition in the area, be sure to saturate the entire area when that happens, I hope your good at line watching or your going to miss a lot of fish LOL !!
Good luck, be safe and God bless !!!
