Thursday, July 17, 2008
Fishing Report
Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor's Outdoors column and notebook appears regularly in The Roanoke Times.
Recent columns
Overview
There's no question fishing during summer's dog days tends to be better early in the morning and late in the evening, especially on the region's big lakes.
But that doesn't mean you can't catch fish during the middle of the day, especially if you're willing to forego challenging targets such as bass in favor of more willing participants, such as sunfish or crappies.
It helps when you can pick the right day. If you can get out on the water on a cloudy day, go for it. If it's raining, that's even better. Not only will recreational boat traffic be down, but fish will be more active when the sun isn't blasting. And you'll be more comfortable.
If the sun is out, try to find water that's shaded, either by docks or shoreline trees.
Remember, depth also provides shade and cover. So one way to find summertime sunfish is to anchor in 10 to 15 feet of water and drop worm-baited hooks straight into sunken brush piles. Use minnows for crappies.
Drop the bait to the bottom then slowly reel it up. If you don't hit fish pretty quickly, keep moving until you find a school.
Lakes
Blaine Chitwood at the Virginia Outdoorsman reports that a good number of stripers are holding near the mouth of Bettys and Beckys creeks at Smith Mountain Lake. The fish are deep, and many anglers are targeting them with live alewives on downlines.
Some big flathead catfish are prowling the shallows at night and can be fooled by live bluegills. Smaller bluegills will catch channel cats, too, but cut bait and stinkbaits are also decent options for channel cats.
John Zienius at Big Z's tackle shop in Radford reports that Claytor Lake has produced a surprising number of nice bass for tournament anglers in the past week. Some anglers are having success on big, throbbing spinnerbaits such as the Jolt. Roboworms, including larger sizes than used on most finesse rigs, are also working.
Streams
The weed problem is gradually improving on the New River, where typical summertime offerings such as Senkos and tube lures will produce fair numbers of smaller fish.
Fishing is decent on the James River, although larger fish are fairly rare.
Saltwater
Nice schools of spadefish can be found around their usual summertime hangouts in the Chespeake Bay, including around the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, the Chesapeake Light Tower, various wrecks and Plantation Lighthouse.
North Carolina's offshore fishing remains solid.
