Thursday, May 08, 2008
Outdoors overview
Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor's Outdoors column and notebook appears regularly in The Roanoke Times.
Recent columns
Overview
Fishing has been only fair across the region for many species, a trend that could have its roots in a couple of causes.
For one thing, the cool weather we had early in the week knocked back water temperatures and that probably slowed some things down. Action should pick up as area water temperatures are already on the way back up.
It's also prime spawning season for largemouth bass, with this past Monday's new moon likely triggering a flurry of spawning activity. It's possible to catch spawning bass by sight fishing, but the bass aren't really interested in feeding so overall action tends to slow down while the fish are on beds.
On the coast, Outer Banks surf anglers suffered a blow early this week when, just as big red drum were showing up at Cape Point near Buxton, officials following the recently approved consent decree plan to manage off-road vehicles on Outer Banks beaches had to shut down access to the Point and two other fishing areas at Bodie Island Spit and South Ocracoke. The closures were implemented to protect nesting shorebirds.
Lakes
Catfish action has been good at Smith Mountain Lake, as catches at the Cave Spring Optimist Club's weekend tournament showed. The event produced a number of 20-pound-plus flatheads. Live shad or bluegills are the most popular baits, but bass anglers are picking up cats, too.
The night topwater bite for bass and stripers has slowed in recent days, reports Mike Snead at the Virginia Outdoorsman. Alewives are still coming up on the banks so the action should turn around in time.
Fred Hodges at R&D Sporting Goods in Rocky Mount said crankbaits were producing good stripers at Smith Mountain Lake during Tuesday evening's bass tournament, but bass fishing was generally tough. A couple teams entered good bags.
At Claytor Lake, Mike Burchett of Rockhouse Marina said soft swimbaits are working will on stripers at night on the lake's lower end.
Larry Andrews at the Bait Place said trout fishing has been good at Lake Moomaw, where bass action is also solid. Perch fishing remains slow.
Streams
With river flows back to normal, action has been steady on the area's smallmouth rivers.
Trout action is good on both stocked waters and those with wild fish, where dry flies are working well.
Saltwater
Plugs are producing good catches of sub-legal stripers around the islands of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel and flounder fishing has been fair.
