Smith Lake Quantico MCB

[rondef]

JCrzy4Bass, Chai and I are going to fish Smith Lake on the Quantico MCB on Tuesday.  We will post up a report Tuesday when we get back, hopefully we can get on some nice size LMBs.  Has anyone fished this lake ?  If so did you have any luck?

[JCrzy4Bass]

Dad,

Mostly cloudy, slim chance of showers between 10-12 (only 20-30%) after that none.  Temps are gonna drop to the mid 50's for most of the day with winds a bit above 10mph most of the afternoon.

I'll meet you at the house after my inspection for the car and I'll call Chai after work to see if he's still in and give him directions.  Hopefully we can find some fish tommorrow and put together a pattern under some less than ideal conditions.

So does anyone have any info on this lake down at Quantico?  Is it at all like Lunga or are the lakes fairly different in the way they are managed or setup?  Do they have shad and/or bluegill in these lakes?  Is the water as clear as Lunga?  Though I'm sure all the rain may have muddied things up a bit.

I'll throw up a report late afternoon tommorrow fellas.  Tight lines this week.

[VekolBass]

I fish it regularly. Try a drop shot rig on the shallow flat right by the Beaverdam branch boat ramp. A T-rigged Senko works well in the summer. I've always fished this one from the shore for some reason--so I can't give you any more suggestions as regards locations. You can pretty much see that the lake is full of standing timber, stumps, and laydowns.

[rondef]

Is there a lot of standing timber?  I am guessing it is in the coves not the main lake.

[rondef]

We headed out to Smith Lake only to find out that you can't purchase the permits at that location and that you can only purchase them at Lunga Lake.  With that we headed out to Lunga so JCrzy4Bass and Chai could purchase their permit to fish on the base.  We also decided to fish Lunga rather than waste time heading back down the highway to fish Smith.  We launched and cruised up lake on the right side arm of the lake.  Jay caught a chain pickerel within the first 20 to 30 minutes on a Strike King Red-Eyed Shad and then the rain started to move in and the skys got really dark.  We began making our way back down lake when it started to rain hard and the winds began blowing.  Needless to say we got soaked and we decided to call it a day and make another attempt Saturday weather permitting.

[VekolBass]

Yes, the trees--at least the ones that are visible--are in the backs of the coves. I've only been on the lake in a boat once. It was a few weeks ago, and my TM died on me after about an hour. Also, when the lake was way down this past autumn I had a good chance to check it out as well. Most of the wood is not standing, it was cut down prior to the lake being filled. But there is a lot--a lot--of submerged lay-down wood that you can't see. In some places it is in piles under the surface. Pig heaven, particularly since the lake can get rather clear when it hasn't rained for awhile. My experiece last year is that there is a good population of 1-2lb fish in the lake. Oh, there is something else to keep an eye out for. There is a population of otters in Smith. I've seen them on the Aquia creek branch of the lake.

[Sam]

Great report.

Sorry the weather did not cooperate.

I have never fished Smith Reservior and have always wondered if it was worth the trip.

I would surmise that trolling motors are allowed.

What is the cost for the permit????

[rondef]

It is $10 for a one year fishing permit to all of their lakes and ponds.

[JCrzy4Bass]

*WITH EMPHASIS*  You MUST purchase your pass at Lunga for all of these lakes.  Smith Lake does not have a place to purchase your pass and will make you go back up the highway about 5 miles then down the road to the lake to get your pass.

This sucks if you're pulling a boat and wanna launch by a certain time and one of the guys at the gate tells you yo're gonna need to turn around and go get it... not that I've ever had to deal with that  

Lol.  Anyway so yea, Lunga sells the passes.  

[rondef]

Well I went to Smith Lake today and launched my boat on the right side of Smith Lake Road (they have two ramps). The water is low at the ramp and I was a bit worried that I would not be able to put the boat in the water. I got lucky and did get it in with a little bit of effort. The first thing I will note here is that gas motors can't be used on this lake. With that we proceeded out of the cove where the ramp is and then turned right. We fished that side of the lake up to the end of that arm and then back down to the dam. We also fished every cove on that arm of the lake. The lake temp was 63 when we launched, the coves were about 67 by the time we finished fishing the main lake temp increased to 65. The winds were gusting to about 15mph and the water was extremely clear with a coating of pollen on the top of the water. Between my friend and I we caught 11 LMBs and I am attaching pictures of the three bigest ones (I caught them). My friends LMBs were all approximately 1lb. The one at the dock was caught on a Manns -1 the other two were caught on a Strike King chartruese spinnerbait. It appears that the fish have already spawned, the beds were empty and the fish were cruising the lake. They struck at our baits very aggresively and fought like crazy when reeling them in. It was almost like fighting SMBs. You will notice one bass has a problem with his eye, he took one of the treble hooks in it and I did the best I could to not injure the fish. The fish were only biting in the shady areas and they only wanted spinnerbaits, only one was caught on a different bait.

[rondef]

Here is the second lmb.

[rondef]

Here is the third lmb, the biggest of the day. The color is off a bit in this picture due to the sun.

[VekolBass]

Good report. A lot of smallish aggressive fish, sounds pretty much like last year. Did you see any otters?

[rondef]

No, but I did see some large bass jump down in the stump area mid lake. I could not get them to bite today but I will work on that and hopefully come up with a good size lmb next time I go there.

[LStClair]

Like most of the lakes in this area the bass need to be thinned out. There are so many smaller bass that it kind of chokes out the fishery. It's a nice habitat that could hold some real lunkers if it were managed better.