Thursday, July 24, 2008
Overview
Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor's Outdoors column and notebook appears regularly in The Roanoke Times.
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Overview
So much for the fairly mild weather the region had been experiencing.
The hot weather early this week, with temps in the 90s the past few days, has given us a pretty good taste of what we can expect the rest of the summer.
Even when it's possible to catch fish during the day, it can be downright uncomfortable to be out there in the sun and heat for any length of time. About the only way to make it tolerable is to combine fishing with swimming.
One not-quite-so-brutal option for summertime fishing is to wade in small streams. It always seems to be a bit cooler when you're actually standing in the water, and you can always dunk yourself if you need to.
Most of the time the targets will be smallmouth bass, rock bass and redbreast sunfish. You need carry only an ultralight spinning outfit and a small box with a few tiny crankbaits, some curly-tailed grubs and a few tube lures and you should be able to catch fish.
If a smallmouth stream still isn't cool enough, try wet wading in a trout tailwater like the Jackson River.
Lakes
Not much has changed on the area's big lakes in the past week or so. Most decent bass action is coming early in the morning and in the evenings, with night anglers also getting into some decent action.
Smith Mountain Lake's stripers are still holding deep, where it's taking live bait on downlines or trolled spoons and umbrella rigs to catch fish.
Night fishing for stripers remains pretty fair at Claytor Lake, where catfishing is good.
Larry Andrews said fishing pressure remains light at Lake Moomaw, but said some friends of his have had good bowfishing action for big carp recently.
Streams
Smallmouth bass action has been good on the New River, although low water can make things challenging. Guide Tom Maynard reports that smallmouths are "starting to look up," so it can be a good time to catch some big fish on surface poppers.
Bass action is also steady on the region's other smallmouth streams, with tube lures remaining solid producers.
Trout action has been fair on the Smith River tailwater, reports guide Al Kittredge. Frequent power generation has made fishing on weekday afternoons difficult, however.
Saltwater
Spadefish action remains good in the Chesapeake Bay. Julie Ball of Virginia Beach reported catching a number of good fish off a nearshore wreck, including a 7-pound, 6-ounce fish that could be a new 4-pound line class world record.
