Briery Creek Lake and Sandy River Resevoir

[Possum]

Heya Guys,

I just stumbled across this Forum by accident yesterday and after reading a lot of posts decided to join.  I live about 8 miles from Briery Creek and about 18 miles from Sandy River.  I fish both frequently so I figured I could drop you and update or two on the fishing there.  I am planning on hitting one or both this weekend since it is my birthday and I bought a new trolling motor for my wife to give me since my old one died around the end of last year.  

So far this year on Briery the bass have been hitting large shiners as usual.  For those of you like me that prefer artificial lures and fishing from a boat, there is a good concentration of bass on the Upper end of the lake (away from the Dam) where feeder creeks come into the main body of water and along the edge of weed beds.  They are hitting a large variety of lures including different rigs of worms and soft plastics, Rattler and other cranks, and some topwater.

So far this year on Sandy River. I have yet to venture to Sandy River this year but friends are telling me that a lot of 5 to 8 pounders are being landed around brush and old road beds across the lake.

more info later

[A.Do?]

WHOA! i just looked at that pic in your avatar and was like no way fish like that are in VA but then i went to the dgif site and saw fish just as big in their picture section!  How far is this briery creek lake from DC?

[Possum]

WHOA! i just looked at that pic in your avatar and was like no way fish like that are in VA but then i went to the dgif site and saw fish just as big in their picture section! How far is this briery creek lake from DC?

just map quest your location to Farmville Va, 23901 then go about 6 miles south on RT 15 for the Dam entrance or about 8 miles for the second Boat landing on RT 701

[rondef]

Possum,

Welcome to the forum and thanks for the updates. I fished Briery last year and only came away with one 2.5lb lmb and that was in the spill water pond.  Oh yeah nice hawg in that avatar.

[JCrzy4Bass]

That may be the fattest fish I have ever seen out of a VA lake or reservoir.  Nevermind.. it IS the fattest!

Huge fish man!

Briery was tough to us last year.  The day my friends/family and I picked was post front/windy.  It was a bday surprise and they were taking me down to check the place out since we heard it held huge fish.  I managed one in about 7 hours lol.  My wife caught a bigger one a little over a lb and a half.  We missed some on worms mid day.

Anyway... nice to have you aboard man.  I need to get back down there when the weather cooperates.  What time do you expect them to be on the beds down there bud?  I know it probably differs a bit compared to these more northern va lakes.

[Sam]

Welcome.

It is always nice to have another Virginian on the site.

I like Sandy Creek as it is a nice, compact body of water with a great ramp and it seems never to be busy.

Looking forward to sharing info with you in the future.

[Wayne P.]

Welcome to the site. I've fished both lakes since they were opened for fishing. They are about 75 miles from home. At Briery, I've caught several like you show and many hundreds more smaller. Briery is my favorite lake in Va. I have fished it 7 times this year so far for a total of 207 bass. I fished it last Friday and the water temp ranged from 54 degrees to 60 degrees. I've been catching them at the upper end since Jan. 7th

[osbornj2]

Possum - welcome to the site !  I can see already that you are going to be a great addition to "Team Virginia" !!  

I live in the Roanoke area, but I love to fish Briery too.  I have only fished it 2-3 times, but have had luck every time.  I haven't fished Sandy yet, but I intend to try it this year.

Thanks for posting current trends, and I'll commit to doing the same thing as I fish them.  Take care, and Tight Lines...

Jeff

[osbornj2]

BTW - I almost forgot...Wayne posts current reports to another site.  Wayne, could you please a link to the other site that you use?  Thanks!

[Wayne P.]

Sure, osbornj2

http://www.fishingva.com/

[osbornj2]

Thanks, Wayne!   8-)

See, Possum - this is the kind of guys that you will be associating with here on this site!  Guys that aren't afraid to share new ideas, tips, tricks, reports, etc.  This is what makes this site so great in my opinion...just lots of good quality people willing to help each other out!

[Possum]

awesome guys... well I found a break in the weather long enough to fish for a few hours on Saturday... I launched from the 701 ramp around 1:30 p.m. and fished without a bite until around 4:00pm... my buddy and I through everything we had at them from cranks to jigs to plastic worms to even trying top-water.... all for naught... then I started throwing my Shad colored weightless Fluke and they started nailing it... my buddy put on a pearl white weightless Fluke and got the same results... we pulled in (and missed) a bunch of small Largemouth's before the rain set in for good and we decided to head in... hopefully next time it won't take so long to figure out what they are hitting ;D

on a side note I got my boat "stuck" for the first time ever... ran up on a broken off tree about an inch underwater... neither motor would pull us off of it... I had to use my anchor line like a Lasso to grab a nearby tree and pull us off it... was pretty funny looking to other boaters I am sure

[Wayne P.]

Possum, getting hung up on the stumps is pretty common. I can tell from a long distance if someone is trying to get unhung. I do it on purpose sometimes to hold the boat in position so I cover an area when the wind is blowing or I find a school of bass and don't want to scare them by running the trolling motor. Any Fluke color will work equally well, the slow fall is the attraction factor.

[johnkook73]

Welcome aboard!!

I have fished Briery Creek alot in the past couple of years. That place is awesome!! I hear that Sandy River is the place to go now, based on the Virginia Game Commission website, citation bass have seen a huge increase from 2006.

Here is the link.... http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/fishing/varp/citations.asp?waterbody=sandy+river+reservoir&year=2007

Thanks for the report Possum.

John

[Wayne P.]

The large slot limit implemented the past few years at Sandy River Lake has helped with the number of citation bass.

[rondef]

Wayne,

How about posting some pictures of some of the bass you are catching at Briery.  I would love to see some pictures of the hybrid bass down there.

[Wayne P.]

rondef, I think I have already done so before. Send me an e-mail and I'll forward some to you.

I don't think they are considered hybrids though.

purdum43@aol.com

[Possum]

went out to Briery again over the weekend with my dad... he caught 27 crappy and 8 small LMB... I boated 13 LMB including a 3.7 lbs, a 5.5 lbs, and a 6.9 lbs... overall we had a great day... sorry no pictures cause my camera batteries were dead

[rondef]

Possum,

How big is that hawg in your avatar?

Ron

[Chai]

WELCOME!

[Possum]

Possum,

How big is that hawg in your avatar?

Ron

15.5 lbs

[Possum]

sorry no report for this weekend   I decided to play Golf and work on my "Honey-do" list around the house

[Wayne P.]

I fished Briery Thursday and Friday. I did't catch any of the real big ones. Several double digit bass were on beds, but I couldn't get them to take a lure. Some fishermen did catch a few in the 7-8# range on Friday.

[Possum]

I amy get a chance to go out this weekend... how far up stream were you finding the beds?

[Wayne P.]

I only fished the area where Briery Creek and Little Briery Creek enter the lake.