Thursday, April 10, 2008
This week's fishing report
Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor's Outdoors column and notebook appears regularly in The Roanoke Times.
Recent columns
Overview
Last weekend's rain made a dent in the area's precipitation shortfall. And even though some waters were temporarily blown out, the high and muddy conditions were just a minor inconvenience that we should be willing to accept for the greater good.
Overall, the rain gave a nice boost to the fishing across the region.
On the region's larger smallmouth-bass rivers, the rain triggered some good action. Guide Tom Maynard of New River Angler said his clients' success picked up nicely after the rain. Over two days, one client had 38 smallmouths and one muskie. While that smallmouth number might not compare to high summertime tallies, the total included a number of fish over 4 pounds.
The extra water was also much-needed in some smaller trout streams that had been languishing at the kind of skinny conditions you'd find in July or August.
Current forecasts are calling for more damp weather this weekend. Don't let it keep you at home. Pack rain gear and get ready for what should be good action on most waters.
Lakes
Crappie action remains steady on most area lakes and ponds, with fish holding on shoreline brush. Many anglers are using minnows, but micro rubber or marabou jigs can work just as well this time of year. Many creeks are stained, in which case dark jigs tend to work better.
Bass fishing continues to be solid, too, as pre-spawn bass stage on points and flats. If we get a nice streak of warm days, look for the a good wave of bass to hit the beds around the April 20 full moon. Flukes produced some solid catches in Sunday's Virginia Bass Fishing Teams tournament at Smith Mountain Lake, while spinnerbaits pulled some quality fish out of the shallows.
Streams
Typical springtime lures such as spinnerbaits, crankbaits, jerkbaits and jigs continue to rack up catches of quality smallmouths on the James and New rivers.
Action has been good on stocked trout waters, although things got slow pretty fast on Heritage Day waters that were hammered over the weekend.
Bob Jenkins noted fair dry-fly action on the Delayed Harvest section of the Roanoke River in Salem in a recent report for the Roanoke chapter of Trout Unlimited.
Saltwater
Poor weather has kept fishing pressure down along the coast in recent days.
Tautog action has been fair on days when boats can get out to structure, while drifters are finding some nice flounder throughout the lower Chesapeake Bay. Some nice bluefish are around nearshore structure.
