What's Going On With Briary Creek These Days?

[Shane J]

I am fishing Briary Creek for my third annual trip down to Va. I was wondering how you guys that fish it are doing, and what the bass are up to. Anybody been there recently? I will be there May 7th, so any info is appreciated. Thanks!

[Aluma-Bass]

Wayne P. goes there pretty frequent...I haven't been this year but i would say should be some bedding fish still. Also check out Sandy River Res. while your down...not far from Briery and good size bass to be had!

[Shane J]

Yeah, Aluma-Bass, that was the other option. We might do Sandy instead of Briary, still not sure. Which do you like more?

[Aluma-Bass]

I like them both pretty much the same....on days i dont feel like dodging and hitting stumps/timber and having to look where im going i go to sandy. You can still get your briery fix at sandy with some standing timber on either end of the lake along with those small cypress? trees. Briery is awesome too though its a tough pick! Could split the day up...fish either place in the morning, then swap lakes about lunch time bc they are fairly close enough to do that. Either way you should have a blast! Make sure your legal all the way around as the law hits those lakes pretty hard!

[Shane J]

Absolutely, man. I've been approached two out of two times fishing on Briary. Thanks for the input. Right now, the other guys going seem to be leaning toward Sandy, so we'll see.

[Aluma-Bass]

Im going to sandy this weekend..ill let you know how i do!

[Wayne P.]

I fished Briery today. It was tough for me---only caught 29 bass and no big ones. The water temp ranged from 60 to 64 degrees. Yesterday's rain has made the upper end a little more dingy than it was Friday. The cold nights aren't doing the ones wanting to spawn any good. If the weather doesn't get too crazy, the biggest wave of spawners should be happening when you are there.

[dustin11]

I haven"t fished either one lately but have heard of real big ones in briary and have seen 10 lb. bass come from sandy at a tournament weighin there. multiple 5 lb.+ bass came from sandy that day. I dont what the were using but i wish i did. So both have big bass in them. Good luck! Hope to see some pics of some 10lbers.

[Aluma-Bass]

call the Worsham's store there close to briery they usually have a list of citations posted up on the board from the start of the year, with many double digit bass! They may be able to tell you what people have been reporting...

[Shane J]

Right on. Good stuff. Thanks for the help, guys.

[Wayne P.]

I was sent this picture of a bass caught at Briery yesterday. It had parts of two Senkos and a swimbait in its gullet that were not the presentation used to catch it that time.

[lefty]

wow. can a fish actually process plastic lures through its digestive system? or will it eventually regurgetate it? will it harm the fish?

[Bigbarge50]

What a shame..... hopefully the fish was ok after removal. Wish we could smack people in the head for tossing plastics in the water. Glad to hear fishing is going well for the Virginians down south. Am trying to make a trip down to Briery in late May-early June. Tight lines fellas.

[Wayne P.]

What a shame..... hopefully the fish was ok after removal. Wish we could smack people in the head for tossing plastics in the water. Glad to hear fishing is going well for the Virginians down south. Am trying to make a trip down to Briery in late May-early June. Tight lines fellas.

You are assuming that those baits were discarded instead of just pulled off the hook by the fish. I have lots of plastic worms taken off the hook by the fish. Yes the baits were removed and the fish was released. The person that caught the fish showed me the baits and told me about it , then sent me the picture the next day.

[Bigbarge50]

Good point Wayne, guess I shouldn't assume. Went with the easy idea. Just drives me nuts when fellow fishermen discard plastics. The non fishing people typically cause enough problems, we do not need to add to it.

Glad to hear about the fish, hopefully it is currently filling it's belly on its way to being another Briery citation.

[KLUGMO]

Dont know if you know it or not but Briery was shocked by authorities and it was said that the next VA.

lg. mouth was in that lake. So if you want to catch the next record, there you go.

[Wayne P.]

I fished there yesterday and today. The water is too dingy to see any beds, but I did see some on beds with my elecronics. Caught a bunch of them too.

One bass I caught yesterday was a spawned out female 22" in length and only weighted 5# 1 oz.

[Aluma-Bass]

tough day on sandy this weekend...biggest was 3.5lbs. Seen some smaller bedding fish but could not get to bite. Lake was pretty packed! Water temp 72-74, lil on the dingy side on the upper end.

[Shane J]

You're right, Aluma, it was muddy up there, especially in the stump field. We ended up with 10 or so for the day, plus a couple cats and pickerel, but the biggest was only about 4lbs. Love that place, though! We saw two fish cruising over 10lbs, one probably closer to 12. The water was about 75 degrees. Baits that caught 'em, were a swim jig/Baby Craw, and a keel-weighted Craw, pitched close to wood, and up shallow, where a significant drop was close by. Next time I go there, trophy for sure. Definitely in my top 3 favorite bass lakes list.

[Tallent25]

klugmo I talked to the biologist doing. the electroshocks two weeks ago he told me they only had time to do one sampling this year do to the head biologist mother passing away he did say however that the biggest bass shocked was a 6 pounds and that it seemed that they had gotten rid of the large mouth bass disease viruse good news but I actually asked him if he thought the state record was in briery he said there might not be one in va right now but if it is his personal opinion was it was going to come out of sandy river or briery creek

[shimmy]

i know of one about 15 pounds being caught already this year. The big ones are still there it seems, just don't know how much it has been effected since i don't fish it.