Lake Anna

[Nitrofreak]

Veterans Day report.

 

I fished Anna on Veterans Day, down lake surface temps near Dukes Creek were still very close to 70*, Mid Lake was at 67, the back of Contrary was starting to stain as the creeks were starting to flow from all the rain and developed a defined line while I was back in that area, I fished along that line as it moved, also with no results.

 

Both areas of the main lake were relatively clear, roughly 3-4’ of visibility.

 

The backs of the creeks were not productive at the time I was there, there was activity but very little with some bait being marked, most of the fish that were marked were in the 30’ range and suspended 3-5’ off the bottom in the creeks, main lake points and pockets were productive with many cookie cutter sized fish in the 2- 2 1/2 range, mid lake between the 208 bridge up to the splits is where I focused most of the day.

 

Jigs, Swimming and casting style skirted jigs were by far their preference in that area.

[Sam]

One Fish Anna strikes again!

[Nitrofreak]

7 hours ago, Sam said:

One Fish Anna strikes again!

Yes, no big ones to show for my efforts, it was still a great day however even with the heavy rains at times.

 

Surface temps will soon dip into those low 60’s, you will see a more productive body of water at that point.

[Nitrofreak]

Visited Anna this past weekend, primarily fished mid lake, I ran across two schools of bass, multiple striper schools and had seen an immense amount of bait between the splits and the power plant, I did not hook up on any of the bass I was targeting but if you want a report, the waters in those areas were heavily stained at the splits and above, a little less stained near the 208 bridge and partly stained near the plant, surface temps were at 43 at the splits, 45 at the 208 bridge and 48 to 49 at the power plant.

 

The bass were on the bottom in 30 to 35 feet near areas that had good transitions, especially near Jetts Island, striper were in the main channels but mid depth in the water column.

 

Considering another trip this weekend to see if I can get a little redemption, y’all be safe !!!

[Jigfishn10]

Better luck next time Nitro.

[Bird]

Back in early 80's, Anna was my favorite body of water in VA to fish. 

 

I still fish it but it's the same ole, same ole , flipping , skipping wacky around the thousands of docks. 

 

Thanks for the report. 

 

 

[Nitrofreak]

On 1/8/2021 at 2:44 PM, Jigfishn10 said:

Better luck next time Nitro.

It’s been quite a while since I have fished this place with any frequency, this year will be different, I have lost touch with this ol girl but the good thing is that with what you learn here on this body of water really helps with other man made lakes here in my state, we will see what the year holds but I’m up for the challenge, thanks buddy !!!

6 hours ago, Bird said:

Back in early 80's, Anna was my favorite body of water in VA to fish. 

 

I still fish it but it's the same ole, same ole , flipping , skipping wacky around the thousands of docks. 

 

Thanks for the report. 

 

 

Back then she still had some relatively clean structure changes and plenty of vegetation that held lots of fish, while today the upper regions seem to have the upper hand, the integration of another species have helped to move the LMB it seems, I working as hard as I can to get back in touch with her since my hiatus, I will keep giving updates every time I am out there as long as it generates interest.

[Jigfishn10]

Well hopefully @Nitrofreak you get a chance to figure that lake out again and hopefully it’s this season! 
Say hello to your family. How’s the grandkiddo’s ? Betchya they’re keeping you busy! ?

[Nitrofreak]

1 hour ago, Jigfishn10 said:

Well hopefully @Nitrofreak you get a chance to figure that lake out again and hopefully it’s this season! 
Say hello to your family. How’s the grandkiddo’s ? Betchya they’re keeping you busy! ?

Work is keeping me busy right now, the babies are doing well, hard headed lil turdz but they will be 5 next month, they are learning like crazy and forever asking me to work on their casting, I am in hopes that this season will be their first real bass fishing outing, I just have to get them to listen a little better for safety reasons.

 

Hope all is well with you and your family.

[Nitrofreak]

Visited Lake Anna on the hot side this Saturday, very rare occasion to fish that side but defiantly enjoyed the opportunity because it has been a very long time since I was last there, we were checking the boat and getting ready for my clubs tournament season to begin next weekend, ended up catching a dozen LMB and two really nice Crappie.

 

I must be getting old because that first trip really made me aware of muscles that did not get a workout over the last few months of inactivity from the boat, man I was sore ??

 

I guess standing on the trolling motor all day in the windy conditions did not help, I certainly could have made a good poster boy for one of those Captain Morgan photos I suppose.

 

All in all it was a great day to knock off the rust and make sure things were in good working order.

 

Who else’s season is or has already started here in Virginia?

[Sam]

Had our first bass club tournament on March 6 on Lake Gaston.

 

Total disaster.

 

Water clarity was "mud" and the fishing was terrible.

 

Hopefully the cold side of Anna will be better on April 10 for our next tournament.

[TOXIC]

Y’all are discussing the lake I used to guide on a lot.  There’s 2 ways to fish Anna.  
 

1. Brushpiles

2. Target the Wolfpack’s that roam.

 

While you will always find them on docks, the bigger fish will always be on offshore brush piles.  I opted for the Wolfpacks because those were where the numbers of fish traveled in schools and that was good for clients.  I considered dock fish part of the Wolfpack crowd.  If I had clients that wanted a trophy or bigger fish or were prefishing for a TX, I would target brush piles.  

[Nitrofreak]

Just had our first club outing yesterday on the hot side, my partner and I finished with 9.14, we caught a bunch but not what we were wanting to catch ??

 

We had near 30 entries give or take a couple, winning bag went just over 12 pounds, 5th place was a 9.40.

 

I believe we finished 6th on the day but I will have to see the final results to know for sure.

 

The day started breezy and cold and then mid day it turned warm and almost dead slick calm, the water temps stayed near the same all day ranging in the upper 50’s, water clarity was roughly about 1.5 feet, we tried fishing a couple of good structural change areas that had cover (brush) associated with it but to no avail, in the morning we attacked the wind blown shore line and picked up our first two, one being a 2.5 and the second a 4.25, then it was like a light switch and we had to make adjustments, we spent some time off shore and some time skipping docks and various lay downs scattered in deeper water areas as well as some shade lines that we could find.

 

All in all we had a great day, we just missed out on a top five and just missed big fish by .02, an awesome start to the 21 season.

 

@TOXIC Neither of us, my partner and I, get to fish the private side of Anna with exception to club outings so it makes it challenging to say the least, it’s good that we get the opportunity to be able to fish over there, hopefully, eventually I will cover enough of that water to be able to find a couple of those spots in which you describe ?

It is defiantly different from the public side.

 

@Sam Gaston is a place I have only seen once, well, maybe twice if you count that our club tournaments are two day events with each day being a separate tournament, I can attest to the mud hole that place can be, especially on the main channels, truly sorry to hear that it was a disaster my friend but as you said, Anna in April can be a rewarding outing, I hope that she renders you a big bag buddy !!!

[TOXIC]

Access to the hotside will spoil you for sure.  A buddy of mine fished your TX, Nick Kight, he runs a center console.  

[TnRiver46]

So, half of a lake is private??? Never heard of such, is there a chain link fence in the water? 

[Logan S]

12 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

So, half of a lake is private??? Never heard of such, is there a chain link fence in the water? 

Sort of, it's really only about a 1/3rd, the 'private' side is the cooling pool for the nuke plant and it's separated from the rest of the lake by dikes, with one small outflow near the dam (boats can't pass through).  There are no public ramps on the hot side, only private ramps.  So you either need to be a homeowner or know one to get access.  It makes it essentially 2 lakes even though technically it's the same lake.  

 

The private side is traditional warm water discharge lake, remaining warm all winter. 

 

The nuke plant is midlake and the intake at midlake and outflow near the dam makes for a very unique lake for the 'public' side...The flow is actually upstream from the dam to the plant midlake and downstream from the rivers to the plant area.  It's a very odd fishery.  

 

That's your Lake Anna 101

[TnRiver46]

3 minutes ago, Logan S said:

Sort of, it's really only about a 1/3rd, the 'private' side is the cooling pool for the nuke plant and it's separated from the rest of the lake by dikes, with one small outflow near the dam (boats can't pass through).  There are no public ramps on the hot side, only private ramps.  So you either need to be a homeowner or know one to get access.  It makes it essentially 2 lakes even though technically it's the same lake.  

 

The private side is traditional warm water discharge lake, remaining warm all winter. 

 

The nuke plant is midlake and the intake at midlake and outflow near the dam makes for a very unique lake for the 'public' side...The flow is actually upstream from the dam to the plant midlake and downstream from the rivers to the plant area.  It's a very odd fishery.  

 

That's your Lake Anna 101

That’s about the craziest thing ever. We don’t have power plant lakes so I’ve never seen anything like that. We did formerly have a couple steam plants with warm water discharges into the river but they are no longer allowed to discharge hot water. They still put out slightly warmer water but are being phased out after a few large fly ash spill  disasters. 

[TOXIC]

22 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

That’s about the craziest thing ever. We don’t have power plant lakes so I’ve never seen anything like that. We did formerly have a couple steam plants with warm water discharges into the river but they are no longer allowed to discharge hot water. They still put out slightly warmer water but are being phased out after a few large fly ash spill  disasters. 

There are regulations as to how warm the water returning to the cold side can be.  Cold side is 13,000 acres and the hot side is 3,000 acres in 3 “pools” of about 1,000 acres each.  The water is pumped out of the nuke plant and cools as it goes from pool 1 to pool 3.  All are connected by large canals.  Both sides have feeder creeks the size of small rivers and the cold side actually has 2 feeder rivers.  Great fishery in the winter but water temps top 100:degrees in the hot summer months.  I have been fishing it for 25 years and guided residents non that side.  I would not take non residents over there but there are some guides who will.  Here is a map of the lake showing the dikes separating the hot and cold side.  Hot side separated by dikes is shown on the bottom left.  
 

 

[TnRiver46]

2 minutes ago, TOXIC said:

There are regulations as to how warm the water returning to the cold side can be.  Cold side is 13,000 acres and the hot side is 3,000 acres in 3 “pools” of about 1,000 acres each.  The water is pumped out of the nuke plant and cools as it goes from pool 1 to pool 3.  All are connected by large canals.  Both sides have feeder creeks the size of small rivers and the cold side actually has 2 feeder rivers.  Great fishery in the winter but water temps top 100:degrees in the hot summer months.  I have been fishing it for 25 years and guided residents non that side.  I would not take non residents over there but there are some guides who will.  Here is a mapmof the bottom 1/3 of the lake showing the dikes separating the hot and cold side.  Hot side separated by dikes is shown on the bottom left.  
 

 

Wow, thanks for all that! Pretty cool 

[Nitrofreak]

One of the interesting aspects of this lakes hydrology on the public side (larger side) is the reverse current that the plant generates between dike 3 and the plant that is located North of the dike, when the pumps are really taking in a lot of water the currents that are created make for some pretty good fishing at times in those surrounding areas.

 

Its just one of those little quirks that make this lake so interesting to fish.

[BigTerp]

Heading to Anna on Wednesday to fish the hot side for 4 days. Any reports to share? I see that one of the reactors has been down since last week for maintenance/refueling. That, plus the cold snap last week, dropped the discharge temp down from 75 to 67/68. Wondering how that and the reduced output from the plant will effect the fishing.

[TOXIC]

2 hours ago, BigTerp said:

Heading to Anna on Wednesday to fish the hot side for 4 days. Any reports to share? I see that one of the reactors has been down since last week for maintenance/refueling. That, plus the cold snap last week, dropped the discharge temp down from 75 to 67/68. Wondering how that and the reduced output from the plant will effect the fishing.

Sorry, I have not been out for the last couple of weeks.  If I were going, I would find some main lake points and work them deep to shallow.  The point with the duck blind in pool 1 usually holds fish.  Be careful, it comes up quick.

[BigTerp]

33 minutes ago, TOXIC said:

Sorry, I have not been out for the last couple of weeks.  If I were going, I would find some main lake points and work them deep to shallow.  The point with the duck blind in pool 1 usually holds fish.  Be careful, it comes up quick.

Thanks!! Working our way deep to shallow was the plan. I'll be sure to check out that particular point in pool 1. We've bumped there a few times in the past for sure!!

[Brad Reams]

heading there this spring, I haven't fished it in 20+ years.

I hope to time it right with the spawn for stripers and largemouth 

[Nitrofreak]

On 4/3/2021 at 1:11 AM, Brad Reams said:

heading there this spring, I haven't fished it in 20+ years.

I hope to time it right with the spawn for stripers and largemouth 

Let me know when your coming, I have 3 tournaments coming up on the public side, I post conditions as well as areas in this thread of all my trips there, April 24th, 25th, May 8th are my tournament dates.