Walleyes are generally considered a cold water species. Many anglers fish for the toothy predators in January and February. But it seems as though the walleyes in Lake Orange like warm water just fine. Despite a lake temperature in the mid-80’s, Lake Orange anglers are catching lots of walleyes, nice fish up to 7 pounds.
Darryl Kennedy of Angler’s Landing at Lake Orange says the walleyes have been coming from down-lake humps. Live bait has been the best choice. Kennedy also notes that a species called a saugeye has been stocked in the lake. Saugeyes are a walleye/sauger hybrid. They are sterile and will grow faster than native fish, which have to endure the spawning ritual. Expect some decent size saugeyes to start showing up next spring.
Bass fishing has remained steady with many bass schooling and attacking pods of shad. Crappie fishing is also better then usual for summertime. The crappie are staging from 10 to 15 feet over brush and live minnows will entice bites. Catfishing is excellent all across the lake. Nightcrawlers and chicken livers are the baits of choice. Bluegills and shellcrackers have dropped back off the banks, holding at 6 to 10 feet depths.
Lake Orange rents boats and has a nice selection of bait and tackle on hand. Call Darryl Kennedy at 540.623.6085 to reserve a boat or for up to date information.
Lake Anna
Same old, same old at Lake Anna. Twelve to fourteen pounds wins the nighttime bass tournaments, crappie are deeper than a nuclear powered submarine and stripers will bite at dawn and dusk. Boat traffic makes fishing during the day a real challenge, but fishermen take heart, fall is on its way.
Shenandoah River
Ed T out of Front Royal Canoe filed this report on a recent trip from State Park to Karo Landing.
The water level in this part of the South Fork of the Shenandoah is still getting lower. Big surprise, huh. I had to get out and drag over a couple of the worst spots. Grass and algae were a problem as well, which meant I spent a lot of time cleaning off my lures. A bit of a hassle, but you play with what you’re dealt. As I pointed out last week, we have better conditions than usual for this time of year. I used a Rebel Wee-Craw (a natural brown color called “ditch”) the entire day. In the morning, I was also using 4″ Senkos (green pumpkin). I caught most of my smallmouth on the crankbait, but I did get a few nice size bass with the Senko. I was fishing the crankbait around the rock ledges for the most part, while using the Senko in the flat water and deeper areas. Not a real hot bite for the first few hours. About an average morning fishing, a few fish per hour. Size was okay, mostly ten to twelve inch smallmouth, not a lot of dinks. I only caught a few bluegills yesterday, they were just not biting for some reason. The few I caught, on the crankbait, were pretty big. Too bad I only caught a few. The fishing improved after noon. I switched from the Senkos to 5″ Zoom Super Flukes (green pumpkin). I was still tossing the crankbait, switching off with the Flukes. The rocky area in front of the little housing community was very productive. A nice seventeen-inch smallmouth hit the Wee-Craw in a very small, shallow pool between a couple of ledges. Pretty wild stuff – sure surprised the heck out of me. Quite a nice treat, the high point of the day. Afternoon fishing was about average as far as count, maybe four or five fish an hour. Size was pretty good, not many dinks. A fair number of the smallmouth were right around twelve inches. The first few hours of the afternoon, it was about fifty-fifty between the crankbait and the Fluke, but the last hour and a half or so, I was doing better with the Fluke. I managed to get a fifteen-incher with the Zoom bait. Pretty good day overall. Morning was not half bad and the afternoon was very satisfying. I was pleased with the size all day. Got to tell you, I’ve been riding home a very happy boy the last few trips. Everyone I have talked to reported catching some nice size bass in the past few weeks. It’s not uncommon to catch mostly small bass and dinks during the summer season, so it’s nice to see decent sizes this time of year. On a bit of a side note, I can hardly believe how many catfish I saw yesterday. School after school. Some of them are nearly as big as carp. Every so often I think about doing a trip just for catfish. I can only imagine how many I could catch. The last three trips I’ve made on the South Fork has been some darned good fishing. Last week was exceptional. Maybe you should make a trip to the South fork and get your share of the action. Good luck with your fishing.
Mossy Creek Fly Fishing Report
James and Shenandoah Smallmouth
The smallmouth fishing has been incredible over the past few weeks. River traffic during the week has been lighter than we have seen in years. Many days we haven’t even seen a bank fisherman. Fishing has been fairly solid all day long with the best bite coming from around 12 noon until dark. As the water warms up and the insects become active, so do the fish. The best topwater action has been along the darkest shade lines in the heat of the afternoon. We have seen some nice fish cruising, looking for bugs. Cork poppers like boogle bugs in olive, blue, or black have been great. Topwater baitfish patterns fished aggressively around the water willow have been producing. Clawdads in brown, gold, and olive are working very well all day long. CK baitfish in white, olive, and tan are taking fish big and small. Water levels are great on both the James and Shenandoah from recent rains. We should be able to easily float all of our favorite stretches into mid September. Primary flies now include Todd’s Wiggle Minnows, Trow Minnows, Umpqua Diving Frogs, Deer Hair Poppers, CLAWDADS, CK BAITFISH, CLOUSERS, and HALF and HALFs! We still have thousands of bass flies in stock to cover you through the remainder of the season.
The musky fishing is on hold until water temps drop a bit. Current water temps are around 76 during the day, but we will be waiting for them to spike around 72-74 with cooler temps in the mornings to ensure we keep a safe and healthy population for everyone to enjoy.
Mountain Streams
Mossy Creek Fly Shop reports that water levels have been up and down over the past month, but overall, the trout fishing has been solid considering we are in the heat of summer! Keep an eye out for rain in the forecast as the fishing really perks up the day after big localized rains. Ants, beetles, little yellow stoneflies, and small attractor dries should work on long, light leaders. Brookies are eating just about any small nymph right now. Size 16 CK’s, hare’s ear, pheasant tails, prince nymphs, etc. are working well when fished solo or under a larger dry. We will continue to give the brook trout a break until water levels and temps drop a bit.
The stocked trout fishing season is officially over in Virginia until fall. Water levels are dropping and stream temps are warming up on many of our favorite waters but there are still some big fish to be caught. Anglers are sight fishing big fish on Back Creek, The Jackson, Bullpasture, Cowpasture, Spring Run, and on South River.
Spring Creeks
Mossy Creek Fly Shop notes that the terrestrial season is at its peak right now!
There hasn’t been much change on our spring creeks other than the fish are becoming more and more surface-oriented on big bugs. Japanese beetles, crickets, and large grasshoppers are moving the big boys. Small, size 16 nymph droppers are cleaning up on picky fish. The report below hasn’t changed much over the past 2 weeks. We will change up the report once there is a major change and when we start to see the hex showing up in big numbers!
South River upper, Spring Run, Buffalo Creek, Mossy Creek, Beaver Creek, and Smith Creek continue to produce nice fish. Trico hatches are thick most days and the spinner fall is occurring around 7:30-8:30AM. Water flow is good on most creeks right now and consistent rainfall is helping maintain flow through the summer heat. Fishing will continue to be great as long as we have water. This is the time of year to stock up on your beetle patterns. Japanese beetles are coating stream side vegetation and fish are tuning into them. Take your favorite 9′ 4 weight with a soft tip and light tippet and have fun! We are fishing 5-6X tippet on 9-11′ leaders when the water is crystal clear and the fish are spooky. Beetles are great prospecting flies because you can blind fish them by plopping them down with a great deal of noise. The fish recognize the sound of a hard shelled insect hitting the water and usually rush out to eat. Ants, hoppers, crickets, and other attractor flies will work this time of year. Your favorite nymph dropped under your favorite dry fly will allow you to cover fish not willing to rise to the surface. Note: When you fish a dropper fly it can be difficult to get your terrestrial to the opposite bank grass line. Fish will readily take your fly along the grass but may not be willing to swim a foot away from the bank. Dropper flies can get hung in the overhanging grass, so choose your method of presentation for varying areas along the creek.
Potomac River
A Tale of Tides
Adapt to falling tides. Low afternoon tides will position fish on edges. With morning high tides and clouds, topwaters cover water. Cooler 80s this week before getting into the 90s for the weekend.
Walking Lucky Craft Gunfish and covering water early will get bites. Use Gamma Torque braid to haul fish out of thick grass. Heavier Mustad KVD Short shank triple grip trebles hold up. Locate water with a bit of current and color. Very clear water is tougher to fish. Make long casts.
As tides fall and the sun comes up, moving lures like Mann’s Baby 1-Minus, chatter jigs and swim jigs can be worked over grass. At lower part of the tide, pitch Texas rigged Mizmo tubes with 1/4-ounce bullet weights on 16-pound test Gamma Edge fluorocarbon line. Cast wacky rigged stickworms like Mizmo Quiver Stix on the same line. When the bite gets tough, dead stick the stickworms. Use O-rings with a red 2/0 Mustad Octopus hook. Allow baits to sit for 10 seconds and longer. Engage grass, then snap free allowing to fall and sit. Look for areas with scattered or no grass in front of thick edges.
In deeper areas close to grass edges and under docks where there is no grass, try drop shot and shaky head. For drop shot, use 20-pound Torque braid with 12-pound test Edge for leader, 2/0 Mustad Mega Bite hook and 3/16-ounce Water Gremlin BullShot weight. Mizmo makes a great 1/8-ounce Barb Wire shaky head. 4-5 inch green pumpkin Mizmo Doodle worms for both techniques.
Capt. Steve Chaconas is a guide on the Potomac River. info@nationalbass.com
Chickahominy Lake
Capt. Art Conway of Conway’s River Rat Guide Service (804-746-2475) out of Ed Allen’s Boats and Bait reported that the Chickahominy Lake mid-day water temperatures were in the low 80’s in the main lake on Wednesday.
Blue cats and a few bullheads were scattered throughout the lake and were hitting live minnows and cut bait. Moderate numbers of crappie were in loose schools in the main lake on deeper flats and channel edges, usually at depths of 6 to 12 feet. A few crappie were scattered singly or in small schools on shallow to mid-depth cypress knees, wood cover, and shoreline weed beds in the main lake and in mouths of major creeks. Active crappie were hitting live minnows, Wright Bait Co. curlytail jigs, small tubes, Kalin crappie scrubs, and small swim baits. Some small to medium yellow perch were scattered on main lake shoreline flats and were hitting live minnows and small jigs. Some nice bluegills and shellcrackers, along with numerous smaller bluegill, were in loose aggregates along shorelines in the main lake and were hitting live crickets and worms, flies, and small tubes and jigs. Some bass and pickerel were on lily pad flats and along shorelines in lower reaches of major creeks and in shallow bays and some shorelines in the main lake, while other bass and a few pickerel were on channel edges in the main lake. Bass and pickerel were hitting live minnows, spinnerbaits, swim baits, stick worms, and jigs.
Fishing with Capt. Conway, Curt Heimbach had 5 bluegills, 8 crappie, 4 bass, 1 blue cat, and 1 gar. Karen Anderson had 14 bluegills, 1 shellcracker, 2 crappie, and 1 gar. Joel and Josh Silverman had 29 bluegills. Marian and Sam Moody had 8 bluegills, 1 shellcracker, 10 crappies, 1 roach minnow, 1 striped bass, and 1 gar. Tom Porter had 8 bluegills and 9 crappie.