Smith Mountain

[BrianinMD]

Anyone have any thoughts on what is going on at Smith Mountain. Have a club tourney there in two weeks, only been there once before so not sure what to try. We are putting in around the state park, any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Sam]

Brian, SML is a very large body of water so please get a GMCO map and find your blast off site and mark an area about 5 miles up and down the lake to fish.

 

There is an underwater hump by the State Park.  Find it and hit it with a Carolina rig.

 

Fish all coves and creeks in your area; look for tires, stumps and fish the banks and rip rap.

 

Pitch and flip; go with crankbaits, both shallow and deep diving; have spinnerbaits with you along with Chatterbaits; shaky head can work, too, as will Senkos.

 

You don't have to run all over the lake.  There are so many places to fish near or close by the State Park.  And don't forget to go under the bridge and fish those creeks and pockets on your right.

 

Try to find the SML fishing reports on Google.  You can read what is working now and maybe start a conversation with some of the locals.

 

SML is a great fishery but remember, it is B-I-G. 

 

Good luck and let us know how you do in the tournament.

[Sam]

And Brian, contact "Red Earth" on the Forum. He was going to fish a tournament on SML and he may be able to help you.

 

Look for another SML post in this section and take advantage of what is posted.

 

Good luck.

[Hyrule Bass]

actually Sam, i dont tournament fish. but i did go down for a nice vacation and a long weekend of fishing. i got your PM asking how i did but it wouldnt let me reply. i can say this, bass were everywhere cruising around my uncles dock, and i caught 11 of them all weekend. an interesting thing i noted. they were swimming in groups of 3 or by themselves. since i was sight fishing them around the dock, i could see them take the bait. the thing is, the solo gals, they were biting. if they were cruising in a group of 3, they wouldnt touch anything i threw all weekend. them cruisers are tough. kind of interesting only one of my catches came on live bait, normall that many bass around and one of them is going to eat a nightcrawler, but nope, the live bait one came on a live crawdad, and it was awesome watching the bass destroy the crawdad before i set the hook.

 

BrianinMD, i got your PM too, i will just reply here on what i saw, some is in the above paragraph to Sam, like about the cruisers and stuff. I will start by saying, i didnt get to bass fish from the boat as we spent our time out trolling for striper instead. but here is what i learned from the bank/dock. Definitely fish docks and downed trees around the banks. a couple rules of thumb for me at SML, green colored baits work well, white works well. ive caught on other colors there, but those have worked the most for me. as for baits/lures, senkos of course work well there(as most anywhere lol). also i've had success on white pearl zoom super flukes.

 

here is what worked for me labor day weekend, again around docks and downed trees is where i found the bass. all came in like 3-5 feet of water. cruisers in groups, not interested in anything, cruising solo and they mostly ate. for senkos the baby bass color by kinami flash is the only color i got bit on. also picked up a few on a berkley red shad shakey worm. all plastics t-rigged. also got a couple on a red eye shad(chrome/black). so a variety of baits got fish, but i never could find a killer bait. missed a couple on a white and red spinnerbait, a trailer hook may have helped but i dont use them. also i noted the bass really werent out and about shallow early in the morning, they showed up just before noon and hung around most of the day it seemed. no idea why they were in groups of 3 only, saw several different groups of 3 though because they were different sizes. you can probably get a limit just fishing many of the numerous docks there, and then look to upgrade in other places. i was fishing in the craddock creek area of the lake. and when i do get to bass fish from the boat its usually over around and past the dam in a place known as cedar keys and another place known as elmos cove. im not real familiar with fishing the state park area or up the river arms. im usually on the main lake. jigs arent my game, but that one fish i caught on the live crawdad absolutely destroyed it, yet i never tried craw imitating baits for whatever reason. you may want to try a weightless rage craw around the docks, just throw and let it sink real slowly with a couple easy jerks along the way. also, ive had some success drop shotting there around tree stumps. and i hear there are plenty of stumps and tree roots around the state park area. for cranks, my best luck there have been on ones with silver/chrome/white/gray bellys and black backs...

 

also, as Sam stated, the lake is HUGE. Do some map study and try to find areas you would like to target first, as you only have so much time on the water to fish your tournament. you'll never get the whole lake without wasting a bunch of time and gas. over 500 miles of shoreline there...