F
ishing conditions will change when the water
temperature reaches 54 degrees, which should
happen around March 15th. The alewives
normally start their spawning at that time. You will see them
along the shore line and on the points in shallow water. This
is a good time to try bait fishing with planer boards pulled
along the shore; it works well for stripers. If you prefer
artificial baits this is also a good time to cast to the shore
with buck-tails, sassy-shad, or fluke jigs. For those who like
casting plugs or minnow-type shallow running lures, this is
also the right time… be sure to retrieve them slowly.
About April 21st the alewives will be spawning a lot at
night, and this makes for some great striper fishing! During
a dark (moonless) night, try using top water slow retrieve
minnow lures on the points. On a moon lit night cast deep
running minnow lures from the point to the deep water.
These same techniques work for bass and walleye, too,
especially at night.
Here’s a great spring bass fishing story: One year, in mid
April, a gentleman had hired me to guide him and his friend
on a trip for bass. He was a good bass fisherman (we’ll call
him Richard) and his friend had not done much fishing of
any type (we’ll call him Mike). It was a “dark” night (the
period from 7 days prior to a new moon to 7 days after a
new moon) prior to our fishing date...so we wanted to start
at daybreak.
Since it was April, and the bass and the baitfish would
be seeking warmer water, I wanted to fish on a “north”
shore (we are in the Southern Hemisphere, which means
that from our perspective, the sun would be shinning on the
“north” shore all day, making this the area of the warmest
water. Smith Mountain Lake runs nearly West to East, thus
you have a long “north” shore. This creates the problem of
figuring out where the fish may be concentrated.
The answer is to make the area smaller. To do that, we
go into a creek running north and south. Here there is “no”
north shore here until you come to a cove running off this
creek. On each cove, there is a point on either side, and a
north shore. If there are “lay downs” on the point, all the
better... the bass will be looking for this kind of area to
spawn, later this month. A point with lay-downs is where
the bass will most likely feed, and the back of the cove is
where they will most likely spawn (if the back of the cove is
sandy that is ideal).
We pulled into the creek and approached the pending
fishing spot. I stopped the boat, put the electric trolling
motor in the water, and eased up to the area we wanted to
fish. We did this so as not to cause a lot of water to splash
the shore and “spook” the fish. We started fishing plastic
worms (I like to use firecracker, rainbow, or red shad). As
we fished, I suggested they fish “slowly”: to slowly “crawl”
the bait along the bottom, and even to stop it and “shake”
the rod tip: They got some “strikes”, but no “hook-ups”. I
suggested that they allow the fish to “run” with the bait for
a bit, and then set the hook. That’s when we started catching
instead of just fishing. As we approached the point, which
had lay-downs), the number of strikes increased.
Around the point on the cove side, we saw baitfish
coming out of the water as the bass were chasing them. We had
a blue “Rattlin’ Rouge” tied on a rod, so upon seeing the bait
jumping, Richard cast right into the bait. He allowed the lure to
sit there a second and with the rod raised, he quickly whipped
the rod in a downward motion, pulling the lure quickly thru the
water for a short time. He then cranked up the slack line and
did it again. This time a bass “nailed it”, the fight was on, and
he landed a nice bass. He released the fish, and we eased into
the cove.
In the meantime, Mike was not having much luck with the
larger fish. Richard was on the front of the boat, and mike was
in the middle fishing off the side. .We were nearly in the back
of the cove, and Mike cast near a small pine lay-down in the
water, and he retrieved the lure too quickly. Because he was too
fast, he did not draw a strike, but became so excited with what
he saw that he hit Richard on the shoulder.
“Did you see that fish?? He was a giant!”
Richard had not seen it. I think he thought that Mike was
exaggerating about the size of the fish. He turned, laughing, and
said,” Well! Catch it!!”
Mike cast to the same spot again. This time he retrieved his
lure more slowly. The fish took the “firecracker” lure. Mike set
the hook and the fish came out of the water. When this happened
I think we were all momentarily stunned. This was truly a very
large small mouth bass. When I saw this fish, I couldn’t believe
it! He appeared to measure nearly the same in length as he did
from top to bottom, so much so that the first thing that occurred
to me was that it must have been a flounder. I had never seen
such a small mouth bass! It was a “record” for sure! The fish
Almanac
Spring Bass Fishing
by Bob King
540 719-7600
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