Hellbenderman

Had a good day at BH with Brian yesterday. Caught a bunch, most still shallow on the lumber.

If you really want to be sure, tag your fish. Somewhere on this site you can buy tags. In the old days we used to use a hole punch and put a hole through the soft tissue of a dorsal or other fin. It leaves a scar or sometimes a little hole, but never seemed to bother the fish. I have caught the same fish on the same bed four years running. We called it bass farming...hahaha. I haven't done it for a while, but thought I might get some tags and do it again just to keep track of some big bass in my local lake.

Welcome to anyone I haven't said welcome to...hehehe. Well, about Smith Mountain Lake...I was weighed, I was measured, and I was found wanting...sheeesh. Got to SML on Saturday and met up with a fishing buddy of 35 years. He brought his two college age sons and we acted as guides for them on Saturday and did no fishing ourselves. The kids did fine including a 2.5 smallie, his first. The kids were leaving Sunday morning and while it was fun to see them catch some nice ones, we were ready to get into them ourselves. The kids left Sunday about 11 and we went out and got a couple two pounders, and a 3lb smallie. By 1:00 some clouds rolled in and it started to drizzle. We said, OK, cloud cover should help and we can fish in the drizzle. We did not catch another fish Sunday afternoon...or Monday...or Tuesday...or Wednesday morning. It rained steadily the entire time, but the real problem was the temperature drop which went from 85 to 55 in one day, with mid 40s at night. It got so cold on Monday our hands were numb and we had to go warm up. The surface temp dropped from 75 to 65 in one day or so. We fished hard, and tried everything we could think of, and fished from 1 to 60 feet...nada. We were gabberflasted. I have never seen a place go so cold so fast. I mean even in bad conditions you should be able to pick up one....sheeeesh! I almost packed up and left Wed. morning, but they were calling for clearing skies that afternoon...so, I stayed. Went out Wed morning and...nada. Gave up on the bass and went striper trolling and caught 3 in an hour, two threes and a fiver. Finally about 2:00 the sun broke through and I got 6 bass by 8:00 including a decent 3.5...sheeeeesh. I have been fishing a long time and I have never seen a place shut down like that. It has taken me days to get past the depression and shaken confidence...rofl...hahahaha. On a side note, blew out a trailer tire at 75 mph on the way home Thursday...cute. I had to spend the rest of the day in Hagerstown. I am still a huge fan of SML. This is the first time we have been clobbered by the lake in about ten trips, so I can't be too complainish. Last years highlights were a 6 and 4 lgm and a 4 smallie plus many others, and I will be back in the fall. Think I might have to head out to BH this week to heal my wounds.

Brian, did you see the post about the guy in Georgia who has caught more than a thousand 10lb. + bass? I think you'll find it interesting and reinforce what I told about "growing " your own ten pounder! Sean...what's up. Going to Smith Mountain for a few days to wear myself out. See you when I get back. Has BH reached ice out yet?

I have been going down to Smith Mountain Lake for a few years now, and I can't say enough good things about the place. Even though we are targeting large mouth, we always catch a couple big smallies 4-6 pounders. We catch them on senkos and cranks off rock piles and such late in the day usually. Not being a big smallie fisherman, I'm not sure how to approach these smallies in other than an incidental fashion. How would some of you smallie guys specifically target these fish in a big lake like SML?

Projected casting distance this weekend in Maryland: With the Wind: 400 Yds +; Against the Wind: On Your Face, Level 5. Shhhheeeeeeesh.

OK. Let's say you like minnow baits like Rapala Minnows, Lucky Craft Pointers, etc. Before you tie on your lure, slide on a bobber stop about three feet and tighten it down good and then put on a small glass bead, followed by a clevis and #00 or 1 spinner blade of you choice of color.Follow that with another bead and then another bobber stop. You now have a little spinner blade on your line. Tie on you lure. The bobber stops allow you to adjust the spinner blade distance in front of the lure. Now, there a lot of ways to do this, putting a spinner out in front. This is just one. On a steady retrieve it is very nice and twitched, it's a killer. Two points...your lure looks as if it is in pursuit of food, just like a real little fishy, and not just swimming around aimlessly in a non-fishy manner, and it is something different the bass haven't seen. Just try it sometime. Just throw it out there and try to make it look like your lure is going after that little spinner. Do it this spring. I dare you.

My brothers, ten and eleven years older than me, first took me fishing, but they were terrible fishermen. So, rather than an education, they gave me an introduction, and I have been truly addicted ever since, and while there have been people from whom I have learned a great deal, my favorite teacher is time on the water...time on the water...time on the water.

Went out to BH last Thursday. Just fished the area around the boat ramp for a couple hours. Reminded why this is NOT my favorite time of the year. The water temp was 63-64, the same temp it was three weeks ago! Just dinks up close. Fished some deep stumps and got a couple nice ones to follow a crank bait up from the depths, but no takers. And now, what with all this fine fine weather, things are bound to...remain the same....until Friday when it will hit 80....at last. When was the last time we had snow in May?

Sean is the man! I was getting worried it was going to be a total dink day! Saw a lot of fish in the coves on the way to pick up Sean at the bridge. All the coves were hoppin. Gave me great expectations. I was thinking we would catch several decent fish. We went to the western rock pile, and, unfortunately, that area is not quite as far along as the coves. There was really nothing much going on shallow, not much activity, no little blue gills, etc. It's in "any day now" mode, and a degree or two cooler than the coves, and Sean's fish came out an eight foot hole, back there, not two feet. That said, I figured it was still good structure and eventually something decent would show up if we were just patient. If Sean didn't catch a decent fish today, I would have felt bad, because I really feel the lake has risen to the point that there is a reasonable chance of catching a fish over three pounds every time you go out. The original forecast for today was partly cloudy and 5-7 mph wind from the west, sounded great. What we got was not a cloud in the sky, and from hardly a whiff to dead calm. I find these blue bird, windless days to be the kiss of death at BH, so this is a real testament to Sean's fishing skills, and who ever was spreading that rumor that he has really big feet, well, they looked just like regular feet to me, so stop it.

Went back to Black Hills today. Retraced my steps from last time and returned to the left side creek. Got there about 3. The main lake temp was way up to 67. That's ten degrees since last Thursday. That didn't take long. So I tried a few places along the way but got nada. As soon as I turned that first right hand corner in the creek I picked up two in the next hundred yards...dinks...one more on the opposite side and one more at the big tree after the standing trees...dinks. This took from 3-6. Between 6 and 7:30 I fished the rock pile and beyond. Got nothing beyond, but took eight off the rock pile. They come in late in the day. Most of these were dinks. Three fish out of eight may have weighed 2 lbs. Kept waiting for some bigger ones to move on to the rocks, but it never happened. So, numbers were great, but size was lacking. The rest of the lake should be ready to explode. Lost several senkos to muskies on the rocks. That sucked. Kinda surprised me to find them that far back. So, for awhile I will start using a very fine mire leader. Never seened to hurt in the past, but I haven't really had a problem with muskies the past few years. I did try out a new lure, and was favorably impressed, as it took two off the rocks...a Sebile Magic Swimmer...the hard bait in the 5" size. The first fish wasn't much larger than the lure. What are they thinking? It has a nice snake like wiggle. A bit pricey, but I can see why people like them and it will get some more use. Did not see anything on bed. I got out and walked along the shore a ways, and didn't see any beds yet.

ooops...temp up creek was 63-65

Nothing was on bed yet. Little males were quite aggressive and glued to dense cover. So, they may go on bed soon but just up in this creek. This is a food game, as well as a mating game. It has to be warm enough for plankton to grow before the little minnows come in to feed on it, and then the predators just follow the food. All that food is being concentrated in the warm areas along the shore. It's like an all you can eat buffet. That area is as much as nine degrees warmer than the rest of the lake and the food factory has started. There were minnows all over the place. The food factory has not started in the rest of the lake yet. There is no food close to shore in most of the lake, so there are no fish. I think the temp out in the middle may be around 55-56 by the end of the day, even the lake just outside the creek was 56. Up the creek...63-69. I caught some smaller ones at first and wondered if this was going to be a five dink day, but as time went by, larger ones moved in. I think some cloud cover that moved in helped, and the sun getting low. They want to come to shore and they are aggressive. I used one lure the entire time, but only because it caught the first one, and then it caught another one and then...why switch. It was a weightless senko, but I was dying to try a spinner bait or a fluke. I'd go later than earlier. Have fun.

What I caught today could be caught from shore. There were people shore fishing all around me, but it was just kids for blue gills, or people fishing poorly...hahaha. No kidding, up the creek there are plenty of places for shore access, but you have to drive around the lake and get there through the apartments, there are walkways. Do it.

Oh, yeah. Let's just keep this between ourselves....hahahaha...rofl.

There is no easy way to say this, but between four and seven this afternoon at BH I caught 16 bass, including a 5.5, a 4.5, a couple 3s , a couple 2s and so forth. All were caught in a 1/4 mile stretch. I have the pictures, which I am going to send to Sean because I haven't the slightest idea how to put them up and he probably does. If you don't want to put them up, Sean, that's ok, too. Just nice to be verified. All you need to know, I told you yesterday. All were caught in under 4 feet of water. The time is now!

yep!

That may have sounded confusing, as I 'm beat and fumble brained. The temp is 64 up the left side creek. Hope that makes sense. That's where the fish were caught.

I have good news and bad news. Let's do the bad news first. Got to BH about noon. Several boats were leaving. They had all been there since 6 am, and four boats had caught nothing. All had gone back under the bridge, but none had gone all the way back to the rocks. I was surprised when I put in at the ramp and the water temp was 54. Not far from the ramp the temp was 53....hmmmm. I ran up that big cove on the right across from the park docks....temp 54, made a bunch of casts especially on the stump field in the back right of the left fork, with as close to that Bubble Gum spinner bait as I could muster, Sean. Nada. I then went pretty much straight back to the rock pile under the bridge. Stopped for a few casts on the right side on the way. Nada. Water temp the entire arm was 53-54...about 1:30. Stopped and heavily fished the lumber just before the rock pile on the right as you head up, with a six inch Taquila Shad Culprit Lizard. Nada. Spinner bait and senko on the rock pile. Nada. Jig and Craw in the stumps and lumber. Nada. Crossed the rocks...fluked it...nada. Grew frustrated and jammed boat against the right bank where I could cast to innumerable targets and just threw everything I had at them and...Nada. I sat there for an hour or so and while I sat there, I could watch the temp change. I left there about 4:00 and the temp had gotten up to 57...whoopie!....sheeeesh. When I headed back, shortly after crossing over the rocks, the temp dropped back to 54-55. All those coves, temp 53-54, 55 in very back. Nada on the fish. By this time I had also noticed that there wasn't anything going on back there at all. There were no little minnows about, no craw fish, no little blue gills. The only fish I saw on the graph were clustered around the trees. It was a desert. I fished shallow all the way back to the dock in all the same places you would and I knew it was useless, but I was hoping that fat one would move in at dusk, but, nada. There were five or six boats ahead of me at the ramp. All told the same sad tale. There were two boats behind me and when they came out I asked them how they did. This is the good news. The one man had his two young sons with him and said they caught 15! I said 15? And he said, "yeah 15. Got them on minnows and bobbers." Crappie. That's great. He went up the other side and went back up the creek where he said the water temp was 63. Then the last boat came out they caught five...bass. They had been up to the rock pile where the temp was 64. They caught them shallow with slow moving rubber stuff. Makes a lot of sense. It is very protected back there and a long way from the main lake. They were the only ones back there. I'm sorry I changed my mind and went under the bridge...curses! However, if you were planning to go to BH tomorrow or soon, don't waste your time going under the bridge. Go up the other side and catch some fish. I'm probably going to hit tomorrow as the wife wants me to take her out to see the ducks....hehehe. The other side is still be a week or two behind, I think.

Hey Andy. Sounds like we should be asking you. I have never fished up your way, but have always heard great things about the upper bay and the mouth of the Susq. Do ever fish the Baltimore Reservoirs, Liberty, Pretty Boy, Loch Raven, etc.? I'm sure you will get plenty of advice. This is a nice thread. Watch. So, I'm going to Black Hills tomorrow. Friday might be better, but there will be only a few boats out tomorrow. There will be a gentle wind and I'm hoping to bump into a couple spots where the temp has hit 60. I'm looking through my tackle and there are about 20 things in there I could be using that I have caught fish on this time of year, and it is hard to choose. I will have several rods and something different on each one. At this point, I am selecting a Revolution Jig with a Yum Crawbug on board because I caught a really nice one last year, Mar 31 under the exact same conditions. The other three rods, I will fish your suggestions. You tell me what you want me to try, and be specific, and I'll give some of your suggestions a serious try for 15 minutes or so, and report back as to the size and number of the fish I caught using your method. I'll be your avatar...hahahaha...in 3-D! Be specific, as in go into this kind of water, say, 5 feet with trees down and slow roll a yellow spinner bait over the timber making sure you bump into a lot of the logs, etc. So, if you're thinking of heading to BH this weekend, let me pre-fish for you. It is so hard to resist going back under the bridge, so that is where I will probably go. So, let me know what you want me to try!

BH was at 56 last weekend.

Was over at the Monocacy today and it is about four feet up at 355 bridge. I am going to Black Hills on Thursday, April Fools Day...hahahaha. I think next week it takes off if we don't get another cold front!

....a nine pounder on a fly rod...4 lb. tippet on a Dan Bailey Mossback Water Spider, fishing for blue gills....

Unless interrupted by an untimely death, growing old is normal. Everything is ok. I am 63 and it is easy to fall into the "oh, isn't nature wonderful" trap, but be advised I have discovered this is just a clever trick being played on us by younger fishermen who don't want our considerable knowledge on the water...something they put in your Metamucil, I think.

The water at Black Hills was clear in the main lake and only slightly stained, surprisingly, up the arm. I had no trouble seeing the rock barrier back there, but the water was high, up a foot or so. The temp on the main lake was 52 and up to 56 up the arm. There were a bunch of people leaving when I put in at 4:00 who looked like they knew what they were doing, and only one guy had caught one fish. There were a lot of boats out, and kayakers, ugh, pond joggers. People in those things don't have a clue. My first decent day last year was March 31, several 2 - 3s. On April 8, I caught the first large fish, a 5.5 in that creek cut that comes out from the left of the big point by the bridge. As you face into that cove, there is a creek channel running up against the left bank. It's a great spot, but I only fish in there this time of year as it will soon be over run with those pesky bank fishermen. The point is that channel is about ten feet deep there and I think the larger fish are holding out a little deeper early in the spring. So while there may be some males to catch up close early on in the spring, don't overlook the larger females who may be holding off shore a little ways getting fat on the bluegills heading in to bed. I don't think they come in dead close until it is time to do the deed, and in mean time, raise hell in the zone just off shore. So, the males I caught were all about a 14 inches, 1.5 or so. and they were on lumber in 8 feet. So, I'm thinking in general, that the males are staging in 8-12 before they go to shore and the females are still a little deeper, but they will be along shortly! There was also hooded and common merganzers, rudy ducks, buffle heads, canvas backs and a bald eagle.That's my story and I'm stickin to it.