Thursday, May 22, 2008
Fishing report
Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor's Outdoors column and notebook appears regularly in The Roanoke Times.
Recent columns
Overview
With gorgeous weather and likely decent fishing action in the forecast heading into the long holiday weekend, plenty of anglers will head out on the water over the next few days.
And while gas prices might keep folks a little closer to home than normal, that isn't necessarily a bad thing.
If you live in Western Virginia, you live within a relatively short drive of a decent place to fish, be it a municipal water supply reservoir, a stocked trout stream, a big smallmouth bass river, a friend's farm pond, or one of the region's large public lakes.
Sure, traveling to unknown and distant waters is fun and exciting, but it can be just as satisfying to find a honey hole close to home.
Memorial Day weekend is typically a busy one for pleasure boaters on larger lakes, and that can deter anglers. Just how much, if any, gas prices reduce recreational boating activity remains to be seen.
Don't bet on a big reduction, though. So if you plan to fish at a big boating lake, your best bet to avoid crowds is to fish early in the morning and in the evening.
Lakes
Bass action has been fair at Claytor Lake, where catfishing is really picking up, reports Wyatt Blevins at Rockhouse Marina. One angler brought in a 42-inch-long flathead catfish that bottomed out the shop's 30-pound scale. Night fishing for stripers is good for anglers who can locate the gizzard shad the stripers are keying on.
Catfishing is also solid at Smith Mountain Lake, where bass fishing has been fair.
High winds have kept fishing pressure low at Lake Moomaw, but one angler brought in a 5.35-pound brown trout that hit a minnow on Friday, reports Larry Andrews at the Bait Place.
Streams
The New River's smallmouths have gone on a tear, reports John Zienius at Big Z's in Radford. Small spinners will produce fast action on smaller fish, Zienius said. Larger baits have produced a few lunkers in recent days, including a couple of bass topping 5 pounds.
Smallmouth action has been a little slow on the James River. A DGIF electroshock sampling Tuesday turned up a fair number of sick fish, but the problems seem to be less severe than at this time last year. Biologist Scott Smith cautioned that water temperatures are cooler than normal and that could be delaying a peak in problems.
Saltwater
Julie Ball reports good catches of big red and black drum in the lower Chesapeake Bay.
Ron Deal of Little Jeannie Sportfishing in Manteo reports great tilefish and grouper action off the Outer Banks.
