Goose egg report for Lake Anna Va.

[Nitrofreak]

Saturday June 4th

Fished all of Anna river arm, water surface temps were in the mid to upper 70's, clear at the splits and stained in the upper region of the arm, lots and lots of bites from the grass line, all were from guys like this pumpkin seed pan fish like the one pictured below, I did find the bass, however there is a lot of herring and shad present, large schools, large enough to fill your sonar screen, while I tried my best, it just wasn't good enough, I just couldn't get any of them to bite, silver buddies, weightless flukes, both jr's as well as super flukes,  flutter spoons, small crank baits, spinners, pop-r baits, buzz baits, jigs, T-Rigged lizards and worms, Bass 1, me 0.

What can I take from this day?

Well, the best answer I can think of is that most likely I should have packed up and traveled elsewhere where the forage wasn't so heavily concentrated.

Any input would be welcome and thanks for reading my report !!!

[Logan S]

22 minutes ago, Nitrofreak said:

Any input would be welcome...

You can always catch a bass by fishing docks on Anna...Doesn't matter if it's January or June.  Might not be the best or most productive pattern for a given day, but it rarely fails.  This time of year shade is as important as any other cover/structure, not all the fish go deep and/or chase shad .  

[Nitrofreak]

1 hour ago, Logan S said:

You can always catch a bass by fishing docks on Anna...Doesn't matter if it's January or June.  Might not be the best or most productive pattern for a given day, but it rarely fails.  This time of year shade is as important as any other cover/structure, not all the fish go deep and/or chase shad .  

Very true and thanks for the response, I had (skipped under) fished some of the more productive docks in that area as well as the grass, what I am working hard at however is to get away from that pattern and become a more versatile angler, while I know that Anna's bottom content is for the most part barren and some of the good stuff has been silted over, which is probably why skipping docks is the number one pattern on that lake, there is some fantastic structure and key features that I am finding along the way that I hope will be productive as we get closer and closer to that summer pattern, man I just wish I had a lot more time on my schedule to get over there a bit more often.

Thanks Logan, hope to see you over there sometime!!!

 

 

[everythingthatswims]

Don't feel bad, I heard 8lbs took a $2000 check in a recent tournament.

On Anna I almost always stay in the clear water, and usually I'll be throwing something silly on a spinning rod. Drop shot, senko, weightless trick worm, 3.8" keitech, and most recently a ned rig are my go-to baits. When the fish get beat up 24/7/365 you can catch big fish on those baits. They are too afraid to hit most "normal" baits from my experience. My best bag in a tournament on Anna was 15lbs, all caught on a 4" purple smoke drop shot around docks. I caught a 4.3lb on a 3.8 keitech in the hot side, as well as my probably DD fish on a shakey head. Hot side is a completely different ballgame but it gets the same pressure when it's cold out and the big fish get smart.

 

Typically 3 or more spinning rods on deck and a baitcaster or two to make myself feel better even though I probably won't touch them.

[Nitrofreak]

7 hours ago, everythingthatswims said:

Don't feel bad, I heard 8lbs took a $2000 check in a recent tournament.

On Anna I almost always stay in the clear water, and usually I'll be throwing something silly on a spinning rod. Drop shot, senko, weightless trick worm, 3.8" keitech, and most recently a ned rig are my go-to baits. When the fish get beat up 24/7/365 you can catch big fish on those baits. They are too afraid to hit most "normal" baits from my experience. My best bag in a tournament on Anna was 15lbs, all caught on a 4" purple smoke drop shot around docks. I caught a 4.3lb on a 3.8 keitech in the hot side, as well as my probably DD fish on a shakey head. Hot side is a completely different ballgame but it gets the same pressure when it's cold out and the big fish get smart.

 

Typically 3 or more spinning rods on deck and a baitcaster or two to make myself feel better even though I probably won't touch them.

I don't feel bad about the outing my friend and many thanks for the reply, my goal this season is to apply what I have learned over the last couple of years scouting and apply that to the seasons fishing and hopefully learn from each experience this year so that I can apply that at a later date, this year I have been able to locate fish, which is much different than in years past, it's just that in this case there were too many fish perhaps lol !!

This year's seasonal changes are very very different than in recent history at Anna, I think it makes the homework we do much more of an integral part of our success at this lake, especially this season it would seem.

I have seen and read your reports, your doing a great job with your outings ETS, thanks a bunch for the input, I will put it to good use!!!