leesville

[dogsbestfriend]

fished leesville today from about 1 pm till dark. bait was easy for a change, only had 5 bites. boated 3. 2 fish about 22 in, and 1 fish about 9 lb. 1 on a down rod at 20 ft. , on a planer at 24 ft. , 1 on a float at 12 ft. it was a nice day to be on the water.

[mississipi]

Good deal! I have been trying but so far no fish at Leesville. Starting to learn a little but don't quite understand the fishing as it relates to the current. Do the fish bite on water being released into the lake or does it matter? In 2 trips to the lake I fished from about 7am to 1pm without much happening. Thanks!

[smlfishing]

How is Leesville compared to SML. I have never been there but might make a fun day trip?

[dogsbestfriend]

a lot of folks say the fishing is best when the water is flowing. i cant really agree with it. its tough fishing at leesville, i guess because of the sudden rise and fall of the water level. i have had many days of marking fish without a bite. also at times the debris is really bad.
i dont think leesville compares to sml , from what i read on the reports. i have only fished sml for stripers a few times , so i am probably not the person to compare the two. if i get a few bites on leesville, i had a good day.

[Eric]

Oct 19, 2015 7:47:21 GMT -5 smlfishing said:

How is Leesville compared to SML. I have never been there but might make a fun day trip?

Leesville can be a very tough nut to crack, because of the fluctuating water levels.  It can rise or fall up to 13 feet on any given day. There is no real timetable for the rising or falling lake level.  It all depends on if APCO is generating power or pumping back water at the SML dam.

I have fished Leesville since 1969, and in all that time, I have very rarely done well when the water is moving up or down.  I personally think the fishing is the worst if the water is on the rise.  If the water is high and stable, the fish can be caught, but it is very tough fishing for the most part.  Another problem with the high water, is the trash in the lake.  You would be surprised at the different trash that's in that lake (large trees, stumps, hot water tanks, 55 gal drums, docks that have broken loose from shore, etc).

I've gotten to the lake many times when the water was high, I would just leave and go to SML.

I have always had my best days and night when the water is down and holding steady.

If you can catch 3-4 Stripers on any given day at Leesville, you have had a pretty good day.

Once you learn the lake, and it's bad habits, the fishing can generally be pretty good, however, it has a very tough and slow learning curve.

[mwardncsu]

How I wish APCO had a published release schedule like the TVA lakes.....

[Eric]

Back in the 70's APCO used to discharge and pump back on a regular enough schedule, so that those that fished the lake alot, could pretty much know what day of the week the water would be high or low. It was still a guessing game, but with "educated guesses", you could often hit the water when it was just right.

There is no guessing anymore. Now days it is a "what you see is what you get" when you arrive at the ramp.

There is a phone number you can call, to get the current lake level. It is 1-540-986-2767 When the call is connected, just follow the prompts until you get the Leesville Lake recording.

The one problem with using this number is this....It doesn't tell you wether the lake level is high or low. You basically have to call the number, get the lake level numbers, get to the lake and see what the level # actually is. Then you have to compare the actual lake level against the phone lake level numbers.

If I remember correctly "605" feet or lower, is the good water level for fishing. I'm pretty sure the lake fluctuates from 600 feet (lowest) to 613 feet (highest).

[mwardncsu]

You can get the realtime (wel, within the last hour) lake levels for SML and Leesville here as well....

www.aep.com/environment/conservation/hydro/

The "actual forebay" is the current level.