Fishing report for May 16, 2013

Two big factors will contribute to how this weekend shapes up for fishing.

After a chilly start to the week, temperatures are jumping way up. Most importantly, they're going to stay up. That means water temperatures will rise and fish should become more active.

Water levels are the other key. After being blown out after last week's heavy rains, rivers are falling into great shape. The forecast calls for the possibility of thunderstorms, and there could be some heavy showers associated with those events. However, it will be nothing like what we've been dealing with the past few weeks.

High river flows muddied the upper ends of the region's reservoirs, but the lakes are clearing up nicely. The likelihood of nice weekend weather does mean anglers will be sharing the water with more recreational boaters.

Lakes

John Zienius at Big Z's tackle shop (639-1651) in Radford said sightfishing for bedding bass remains the key tactic at Claytor Lake, where the approach helped the winners of a weekend tournament come to the scales with an awesome 21-pound, five-fish catch.

At Smith Mountain Lake, the alewife spawn remains in full force and anglers working the banks with plugs such as Redfins and ThunderSticks are catching a mix of bass and stripers.

Anglers fishing live bait on the bottom are catching some nice catfish, with shad and sunfish producing some big flathead catfish. Nightcrawlers are working well for channel catfish.

Stripers are massing near the dam and Craddock creek and will attempt their hapless spawn around the May 24 full moon.

At Lake Moomaw, trollers are picking up some nice brown and rainbow trout. Drifting with shiners and alewives is also working.

Streams

The New River is running at a robust but fishable level, one that's ideal for throwing noisy lures such as spinnerbaits and crankbaits.

Those same lures are working well on the James River.

High water on larger streams has helped spread stocked trout around. Anglers who carefully fish the best holding water are finding good numbers of fish in streams that haven't been stocked for weeks.

Saltwater

Blustery conditions have limited fishing pressure along the Virginia and North Carolina coasts the past few days.

Shore fishermen at Rudee Inlet in Virginia Beach are connecting with some nice puppy drum, as well as some good spotted trout.

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