South Holston 4/3-4/5

[kb_rn]

My wife and I are coming from central NC for 3 days in early April and she has informed me that I need to fish while she has girl time. I am planning on spending all 3 days on south Holston. I have fished it one time which was 3 years ago in November and it was very tough. I have a couple questions.....is my Non resident Virginia license good for the whole lake? And what exactly does black shale look like? I have read that the smallmouth really get on the “black shale” and I honestly have no clue what that looks like because when I was there all I saw was clay and rock banks. Any other help that anyone has to offer is greatly appreciated. I will just be fun fishing and want to boat as many smallies as possible regardless of size. Thanks guy!

[07SkeeterZX225]

No, you will need to buy a South Holston permit thru VDGIF to fish the whole lake.

Black shale is just that. There’s plenty of it on the lake and it’s a good producer when they go on beds. I’ll see if I can find a pic on my phone and post it

[kb_rn]

No, you will need to buy a South Holston permit thru VDGIF to fish the whole lake.

Black shale is just that. There’s plenty of it on the lake and it’s a good producer when they go on beds. I’ll see if I can find a pic on my phone and post it

thank you sir for the info. I couldn’t remember exactly what license I needed as it was a few years ago. And that would be great.

[fish365]

If you are buying a non resident Tennessee license, the supplemental ( 063 ) is what you purchase with it to fish the Virginia side. That time of year, they should be biting a 4" finesse worm on a shakey head in green pumpkin. You can research this on Youtube. Lots of videos on it.