Picture a winter's day at the lake: The serene shores and snow-tipped peak of Smith Mountain set the scene for a cozy afternoon of hot toddies served 'round the blazing fire followed by a favorite DVD or televised football game, the cold seemingly as far away as a summer day.

That's one scenario of off-season recreation at Smith Mountain Lake.

For another, you'll need to get reel. And a rod while you're at it. For some anglers, cold-weather fishing in water where the temperature has dipped into the low 30s is the best fishing.

Frosty fishing fans

"It's a great time to fish," said Capt. Dale Wilson, who's been a fishing guide -- "ever since the lake has been here" -- 40-plus years ago. "For one thing, fish are easier to catch when it's cold. And there aren't as many interruptions like Jet Skis, pleasure boaters and people on docks. It's just a better time to fish."

Fishing guide Capt. Todd Keith of Moneta said his business remains brisk in the winter. And although cold-weather fishing presents a different challenge from fishing in warmer seasons, it can be just as satisfying.

"People think fish shut down for the winter, but the fish don't know it's cold," said Keith.

Fish might not get as hungry when it's cold, but they still have to eat.

In winter, stripers are more active and eat more often than other species, making them easier to catch, said Wilson. Largemouth and smallmouth bass, for example, have slower body metabolism than stripers so they slow down and become lethargic in winter. It will take them longer to digest their food and therefore won't be as eager to take the bait.

Anglers tend to have more luck catching a larger number of fish than one very big fish, Keith said.

"Some days fishing is so good, guys are jigging with two rods and catching on them both. We're going after numbers in the winter."

Wilson said he's caught some big fish in cold weather.

"I've gotten some big stripers; most fish over 30 pounds have been caught from late fall to early spring."

Just as important as the right bait and tackle, is an angler's attitude.

Taking it slow and steady is the key.

"You're not going to catch a fish every time you go," said Wilson. "You've got to have patience."

Where the bass are

In summer, the lake yields a variety of fish, including catfish, large- and smallmouth bass, walleyes and crappie. That's not the case in winter.

Striped bass, the most common catch in the cold, feed all winter and, along with white perch, tend to eat more than other species, making them easier to hook, according to Wilson. In fact, the cold months are when white perch are most active.

"It's a great fish for eating; they taste good. And there's no limit on [the number of catches]."

Perch, he added, follow the feeding patterns of stripers.

"Where you find stripers, you'll find perch."

And where you're most likely to find any fish in winter is deep below the water's surface. In spring and fall, fish are scattered and feed on the lake's banks. Wilson said that when it's cold, the food chain is down, making it harder for fish to find food and forcing them deeper.

They are less affected by actual weather changes such as rain or snow than by barometric pressure. When it falls, larger fish have to go deep to stabilize the air pressure in their air sacs. And when they go deep, they often form massive schools.

Locating deep-lurking fish is easier than it used to be thanks to advances in electronics, said Keith.

"About five years ago, the technology in fish sonars was bumped way up and it opened up a whole new ball game," he said. "The sonars were extremely enhanced, and because of the enormous amount of power, now we can see fish in the trees."

Keith doesn't mean fish flee the cold to take refuge in those big pine trees in your back yard.

Fish tend to hang around trees buried beneath the water's surface. Schools of stripers, for example, prefer the cover of submerged trees in the lake.

"There are forests literally everywhere below the surface," Keith pointed out.

"Before this new technology, fish finders just showed blobs; you'd hope it was a fish you saw and not trees. Now you can see fish and trees separately. You can actually see the fish swimming in trees."

"It's a double-edged sword; we have to look and scout around for them for a long time, but once we find them, we're in the money," he said.

Reeling 'em in

If you're not willing to shell out at least $600 for your own sonar fish locator, Wilson, Keith and veteran angler Angie Behan, past president of the Smith Mountain Striper Club, offered some tips to help increase your odds of catching fish in the colder months.

Sleep a little later. Early morning isn't necessarily the best time to fish; you're likely to have the best luck between late morning and early evening.

Air and water temperature have little affect on fishing, but both Keith and Wilson said it's harder to reel them in when it's windy.

In dead winter, the best fishing is usually in the mid- to lower sections of the lake, according to Wilson.

In fall and spring, anglers tend to use live bait and heavy tackle. That's not the case when it's cold, according to Keith. Light tackle and jigs are more effective then. "In winter, you're doing everything manually. You've got the rod in your hand so you can really feel when you've got something," he said. "Everything depends on you, not your bait." Keith said it's harder to hook a fish in deep water. "It takes a lot of technique," he said. "It's all about how you fight the fish.

Wilson prefers vertical jigging when casting for stripers in winter. He also fishes with flukes on heavy lead heads. "In the coldest part of the water, I jig them off of the bottom or real close to the bottom. "And don't get your lure beneath where the fish are or you won't catch them."

Behan recommended plugging the lake's banks at night when the stripers come up to feed. She prefers a blue and chrome or black and chrome Thunderstick, a red fin or top-water lure. She also likes to use a pearl-colored fluke with a jighead.

It's not just about the fish

The tranquillity on the lake in winter is one of the things that got Behan hooked on winter fishing. There's nothing better than bundling up and loading up the boat with a couple of friends and heading out, said Behan, who prefers her fishing at night.

"The camaraderie and the fellowship on the boat at night -- there's nothing else that compares to that," said Behan.

Even so, fishing in freezing weather is not for the faint of heart.

"You have to bundle up and it can be quite cold out there, but if you love fishing, the weather doesn't really bother you."

Wilson said he's fished in weather so cold the steering wheel on his boat froze. But once you get the boat in the water, it's full speed ahead.

"Once you're out on the lake, there's enough heat so that the boat will work properly. Your line can freeze to the reel, but if you stick it in the water, it will unfreeze," said Wilson, who said he's fished in every kind of condition, including snow. "In winter, the water temperature is almost always warmer than the air."

Then there's SML fishing guide Kathy Franceschini of Moneta. She and her husband and fellow guide Spike Franeschini close up shop and head to Colorado in mid-December. They don't return until spring.

It's not so much that they prefer skiing the snow-covered mountains of the West to fishing the icy waters of Smith Mountain Lake.

"We don't fish the winter," she said. "It's just too cold."