Smith Mountain Lake
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Smith Mountain Lake Fishing Reports
Stay up to date with the latest fishing reports from Smith Mountain Lake. Reports are submitted by local anglers, fishing guides, and our team of fishing experts.
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Species
Largemouth BassTechniqueBladed JigsSeasonSpring (Spawn)StructureRip RapMoving baits were key to getting bites in dirty water. No good on a spinnerbait but the ZMan EVO was hooking em good and hard!
- SpeciesLargemouth BassTechniqueTexas Rigs (Worming)SeasonSpring (Spawn)StructureDocks
Found a ton of bed fish around docks. Some were catchable others were super finicky. Caught most of my fish on a texas rigged senko or wacky rig around and under docks. Lots of spawning fish
SpeciesLargemouth BassTechniqueNed RigsSeasonSpring (Spawn)StructureOpen Water/BasinSo we got to the lake around 9:00 .am and we started off with moving baits mainly to cover water and since the past weekend brought a coldfront in and drop the lake temp, so we started in bettys creek area (Water temps were 57 degrees) and didn't get any bites so we took a decent drive down to the lower end of the lake and first stop we scanned around with livescope and did not see anything the water temps down there were 54 and 55 at the highest! So we checked around up shallow and found out that the fish were actually already spawning! So i threw a boat load of baits to them and caught my first fish around a laydown on a dropshot powerbait gilly and two others in open water on a ned rig rage bug! The fish were pretty finicky, this is a great time to fish smith mountain, we saw a few 4-5 pounders cruising. If you go out with the intentions to sight fish make sure you have some good polarized glasses and a few finesse rigs on because a lot of these fish are pressured! Also try to practice catch and release so that we can keep this fishery good! I wish yall the best, please stay safe out there!
- SpeciesLargemouth BassTechniqueWacky RigsSeasonSpring (Spawn)StructureDocks
- Species
Smallmouth BassTechniqueWacky RigsSeasonSpring (Spawn)StructureDocksI headed down to SML to direct the SlayNation College Kayak Series stop number one. I got on the lake from 12pm to 6pm. Finding some largemouth and smallmouth bedding but a lot of cruisers. Caught some on beds with weighted and weightless wacky rig and caught some skipping under docks with the wacky rig
SpeciesLargemouth BassTechniqueHard JerkbaitsSeasonSpring (Pre-Spawn)StructurePointsCaught fishing running jerkbaits on points, also caught some cranking those points. Dock fishing also produced a bit on a Neko rig.
- SpeciesLargemouth BassTechniqueWacky RigsSeasonSpring (Spawn)StructureDocks
I was down here to direct the SlayNation College Kayak series tournament on Saturday but did some fishing myself. Found some smallmouth on beds but were super finicky. Lots of big fish cruising. Caught quite a few largies skipping the wacky rig under the docks
- SpeciesSmallmouth BassTechniqueNed RigsSeasonSpring (Spawn)StructureDocks
I was searching for bed fish along docks and was able to find some smallmouth and largemouth spawning. Using the ned rig I was able to cast it onto the bed and let the hair in the rabid bait do the work! Awesome bed fishing bait
