Smith Mountain is a striper lake, pure and simple. There are lots of other fish to be caught, but the lake’s main attraction is the striped bass.
Each spring, the stripers in the lake try to spawn, but are unable. The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (VDGIF) helps out with generous stockings each year from their Brookneal Hatchery.
VDGIF says that stripers are distributed throughout the lake during most of the year, but concentrate in the lower part of the lake areas during the summer and early fall months. Coves are typically not very productive for striped bass during the summer, so anglers should concentrate their efforts on the main lake when the water temperatures begin to rise. However, the backs of coves, which contain flowing streams, can be productive during the late fall, winter and early spring months. Look for schools of shad in these areas especially during warming trends when the streams are warmer than the reservoir. Striped bass anglers utilize a variety of fishing methods such as drifting live bait, trolling plugs and bucktail jigs, or casting top water lures. Anglers use live bait throughout the year, trolling is most popular during the warmer months, and casting top water or shallow running plugs is most productive in April – June at night. Most striped bass are caught between the dams and Buoy 64 of the Roanoke Arm and up to Buoy 40 of the Blackwater arm. Although these are the general areas most striped bass are caught, these fish are very mobile and may change locations continuously depending on forage availability, water temperatures, and spawning.
The lake also has a nice population of both largemouth and smallmouth bass and many tournaments are staged throughout the year. The lake is a so-so crappie fishery, though some big crappie are caught. There are lots of catfish and sunfish in the lake as well as some decent size walleye, but one of the most prolific fish and one of the most fun to catch is the lowly carp.
If you’re just a weekend angler and have a pier from which to fish, you can catch some huge carp at Smith Mountain. The secret is to chum with a can of whole kernel canned corn and use a small hook, maybe a 6. Just toss a baited hook near the chum spread and give the big fish some time to smell their way close, but don’t lay your rod down on the pier, even for a second or it’ll be in the lake. These carp can go 20 pounds and more. They are powerful fighters.
Smith Mountain is typically one of Virginia’s clearest lakes, fed by the cold-water arms of the Blackwater and Roanoke rivers, but it sure wasn’t clear last week. It looked like a nice pumpkin puree. Still, the striper guys were up and at ‘em early that morning and caught some nice fish, even in the dirty water. By all means, if you get to SML, take a rod and reel and go fishing, even if it’s just for carp.