Smith Mountain Lake, 19-20 DEC 2021
Dec 21, 2021 13:21:36 GMT -5
mwardncsu, jb4sml, and 4 more like this
Post by 31Airborne on Dec 21, 2021 13:21:36 GMT -5
Got away for a weekend w/ the boys. Had another great stay at SML SP cabins. This was more about fellowship than fishing. We got plenty of both. Even the fish and weather cooperated.
I missed the spring-like weather on SAT but the lads didn't. They had a banner day w/ stripers, catching many schoolers and roamers on jerkbaits, swimbaits, and cranks. The front that came thru on SAT evening didn't hurt things much on SUN. We did find the green fish, including a couple of quality fish. MON was a numbers day - more bites but the quality wasn't there. Saw plenty of stripers on the sonar screen but couldn't get any of them to bite. Was a treat to have the lake to ourselves. A few fishermen out there, but no other boaters in any of the areas we fished.
Observations: 1) WTs ranged from 51.5 to 55. Even after the cold wx last nite the water at the state park was still above 50 degrees when we launched yesterday morning. WTs were ~uniform from midlake up to vic R46. 2) Water clarity - yep, there was plenty of that. Cleanest I've seen SML. Easily 7-10' of viz midlake, a little cloudier up in the Roanoke River (~5-7'). 3) Most of our fish came off of main lake points. A few came off of ledges (but were still close to points). 4) Structure fish were fairly shallow - 6-8' was the magic range. We were able to call up a few fish w/ jerkbaits. These fish were holding in the channel close to ledges. 5) Many of the fish we caught were still very dark. Was evident these fish had been holding shallow for a while. 6) Secondhand info on stripers (from SAT) - the guys found several large schools of smaller stripers cruising along sharp breaks close to the shoreline. These fish were feeding actively. The doods said they were able to catch 5 or 6 fish before the school moved on or shut down. 7) Wind blowing across structure was better than wind blowing in on it. No wind, no fish.
A great way to kick off the holidays - fishing w/ good friends. Will be back after Christmas for a couple days. Hope to see some of y'all out there.
best,
B
"And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory."
I missed the spring-like weather on SAT but the lads didn't. They had a banner day w/ stripers, catching many schoolers and roamers on jerkbaits, swimbaits, and cranks. The front that came thru on SAT evening didn't hurt things much on SUN. We did find the green fish, including a couple of quality fish. MON was a numbers day - more bites but the quality wasn't there. Saw plenty of stripers on the sonar screen but couldn't get any of them to bite. Was a treat to have the lake to ourselves. A few fishermen out there, but no other boaters in any of the areas we fished.
Observations: 1) WTs ranged from 51.5 to 55. Even after the cold wx last nite the water at the state park was still above 50 degrees when we launched yesterday morning. WTs were ~uniform from midlake up to vic R46. 2) Water clarity - yep, there was plenty of that. Cleanest I've seen SML. Easily 7-10' of viz midlake, a little cloudier up in the Roanoke River (~5-7'). 3) Most of our fish came off of main lake points. A few came off of ledges (but were still close to points). 4) Structure fish were fairly shallow - 6-8' was the magic range. We were able to call up a few fish w/ jerkbaits. These fish were holding in the channel close to ledges. 5) Many of the fish we caught were still very dark. Was evident these fish had been holding shallow for a while. 6) Secondhand info on stripers (from SAT) - the guys found several large schools of smaller stripers cruising along sharp breaks close to the shoreline. These fish were feeding actively. The doods said they were able to catch 5 or 6 fish before the school moved on or shut down. 7) Wind blowing across structure was better than wind blowing in on it. No wind, no fish.
A great way to kick off the holidays - fishing w/ good friends. Will be back after Christmas for a couple days. Hope to see some of y'all out there.
best,
B
"And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory."
