Haven't seen much from any NoVA guys lately, so thought I'd share an outing.

Went out to a certain Loudoun county reservoir yesterday. Water temps were low 50s. Only managed four fish and had a couple of little ones drop off. But, unusually for this place, three of the fish were smallies, with the biggest going 2lbs 12oz, and another at 2lbs 10oz. That's the first time I've caught more than one smallmouth in a day on that water, and certainly the first time I've caught more smallies than largemouth from there.

I was also there two days earlier and had 7 lmb with the biggest 4lbs 6oz, but no sign of a smb. Weird, but I'm not complaining! All but one of my fish this week were caught shallow... really shallow... and on a fast moving bait.

Pics are my biggest smb and lmb from this week.

very nice!

Very nice. Congrats and thanks for sharing.

Very nice, that is a tough place to fish but it looks like you have the pattern figured out.

I caught a smallie 1oz bigger than the one in your picture about 3 years ago from up by the dam, it had a giant tail just like yours.

Very nice job, that place can be really tough.

did i see the number 7 in there? Great numbers for the lake. Anyone that fishes that place knows that is not the number to expect after the spring time. Great job and beautiful smallies.

Thanks guys. It has taken me 5yrs to get to the point where I can go there and (usually) pull in at least a handful of fish. It takes a lot of mental energy though -- I have to constantly keep thinking about what I'm doing, what the pattern of the day seems to be, what cover the fish are associating to, etc.

Dan: Yes, all my smallies on Sat. had a huge tail on them. It's no wonder they fight so hard. I thought I'd hooked up with a huge largemouth until it flew out of the water like a missile!

Shimmy: I managed seven or eight fish on a couple of occasions this summer, but the seven I got on Thursday was one of the most rewarding. I was lucky though -- I hit into a 'pack' of fish that were tight to structure in 2-3ft of water. I got four bass in maybe a dozen casts, all over 2.5lbs, including that 4-pounder in the photo. It took me another 5 hours to get the other three fish that day...

I fished there on Thursday and got a small smallie, 16" ~2lb LMB and an 11" crappie. I went back on Saturday and got nothing.

The biggest bass I've caught there have all been smallies.

The one in my avatar came from there.

Man, those are some nice looking fish. Great job!

I managed to catch this guy out there on Sunday. Nothing compared to yours but it was fun and good to get out on the yak again.