Thursday, May 28, 2009
Fishing report: May 28
Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor's Outdoors column and notebook appears regularly in The Roanoke Times.
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That will make for comfortable fishing conditions, but not necessarily for great fishing. Sometimes bluebird days can be productive, but cloudier days are often better for fishing action.
While lake and ponds are in decent shape -- if a little muddy in their upper ends -- the rain on Tuesday and Wednesday blew out many of the area's streams. Whether or not those rivers will be safely fishable -- or worth fishing -- depends on how much more rain falls over the next couple of days. Forecasters are calling for more thunderstorms.
Lakes
Stripers are concentrated in the lower sections of Smith Mountain Lake, reports Blaine Chitwood at the Virginia Outdoorsman. Live bait on planer boards and on downlines remains a popular tactic, while flukes on jigheads are also taking some fish.
After dark, stripers are still keying on spawning shad along the banks so wakebaits remain effective. Those same types of plugs are taking largemouth and smallmouth bass. Daytime bass anglers are finding success with shaky head plastics and topwaters baits early and late in the day. Catfishing has been fair.
Action at Claytor Lake has been fairly slow, according to Glendon Jones at Rockhouse Marina. Topwater lures are taking some stripers in the lower lake after dark, while live bait is producing some daytime action. Catfishing has been OK in the upper lake.
On smaller lakes, topwater lures are producing decent bass action early and late in the day.
Streams
Spinnerbaits and big jigs will work for smallmouths on waters that drop to fishing levels by the weekend. Be sure to check flow levels online or by calling a local tackle shop before traveling too far to fish a stream.
The trout stocking season ends this week, and Monday brings the shift to regular trout regulations on Delayed Harvest waters.
Saltwater
Action has been good for big red and black drum on the lower Chesapeake Bay.
