Smith Mountain Lake

[jshannon]

Heading to Smith Mountain Lake for week of 7/19 taking my boat and gear. How is the fishing in the dead of summer? What pattern should I look for? I would prefer LM and SM plus any panfish for the kids. Any ideas would help.

Thanks,

Jim

[BassCatnVa]

topwater early or late , even nightime. Daytime is tuff due to the traffic but you can still catch some c-rigging points, shakey head on deeper docks and steep bluff walls.

[tritonman]

If you fish during the week, traffic is not that bad. Fish deep water docks. Fish usually hold on the shady side and can be caught on Senkos, drop shots, or shakey heads thrown as close the the pilings as possible or skipped underneath the dock itself. If you can find the depth that they are holding at, you can usually duplicate it on other similar docks. Most fish during the heat of the day will be on the outside corners of the docks suspended.

[Gambler250XB]

If you're looking for the better quality fish, look deep. Brushpiles and long points that dump into the main channel to be specific. Scrape the points with a DD22 and t-rig the biggest worm you can find into the brushpiles. Thats usually a solid plan for July on Smith.

The only other advice I can give you is to fish at night.

[C-riggVA]

I'll be down there this weekend. I'll let you know If I find anything else that may workout for you as well. Looks like they got it pretty much pegged, though.

[jshannon]

thanks for the advice, looking forward to the report from this weekend.

[C-riggVA]

Jim, Fished SML lake this weekend. Pretty much focused on nightime fishing. That lake sure was rough that afternoon when we put in. Caught one before sundown on a shakey head worm, 17 1/2" fish. Northern creek, western Secondary point on a stump about 6 ft of water. Fished eastern secondary points at night. Caught 10 keepers from about 11pm to 2 pm. Biggest fish during that time was 17 3/4 . That spot shut off at 2, we docked the boat and went to sleep. . All of the fish were really fat, had a great night but just couldn't get a good kicker. Kicker was on a buzz bait,,,,,lost him 1/2 way to the boat. Didn't do much the next morning. One dink on a shakey head off of boat dock.


Left lake by 9 am.
Hope this helps out. Sorry I can't get you on anything bigger, I don't get down there very much these days,

OH, nightime.....C-rig and/or Shakey head the channel side of cove (secondary point).. between 10-18 ft of water.

[Gambler250XB]

I just got back from the lake. Went about 3:30pm today. Caught several fish, all were at least 15' deep on jigs and cranks from brushpiles.
The bite really picked up as the sun was dropping and it threw shade across certain points.
After the sun went down, I caught the biggest fish of the trip with a 10" worm on a main lake point. 4-11 on the scale. Lost 2 fish on the deep crank but neither was anything special.

The deep bite is definitely there.

[jshannon]

Thanks guys, sounds like deep structure and points are a good starting point. I fish mostly north so I have to dust off the bigger baits and gear for this trip. Anyone know if the panfish are everywhere?

[Gambler250XB]

Panfish? You talkin' bluegills or crappie? You should be able to see a pile of bluegills around just about any dock. The crappie are probably a little deeper in some brush or on bridge pilings.

[skeeter202]

fish at night on banks with lots of shad activity with carolina rig , needs to have at least 10 ft of water on the drop . we fished saturday night and one of my partners one first and I won second . 5 fish limits 13.4 and 13.1 caught 9 and broke off two . dark worms on rig ................

[Vyper202]

Dang Timmy.... I need to fish with you more!

[skeeter202]

anytime , just let me know ............

[jshannon]

Wanted to thank you all for your recomendations. Tough fishing for a northerner, we caught some size off the deep docks and more action in shaded coves with laydowns. Definately a worm lake, and deep water when the water temp is in the mid 80s. My Dad used live shinners and caught NOTHING! first time I have ever seen that. thanks again for the advice.