James/Shenandoah
Mossy Creek Flyfishing describes the action on the rivers as ….WOW!
The Shenandoah and James have been insanely good. How good? Imagine fishing a 2-fly or 2-hook rig and landing two 15″ fish over a dozen times in a single day?
“We had one day with over 12 doubles landed- 2 fish on 1 cast. Anglers have been landing 40-100 fish each and getting strikes and missing fish between landing fish. The fishing just doesn’t get much better,” they said.
The Shenandoah and James Rivers offer opportunities for not only largemouth and smallmouth bass, but a variety including sunfish, redeye, gar, catfish, musky, carp and even walleye. It is not uncommon to land 4 or 5 species of fish with regularity on a float trip.
Valley Spring Creeks
Water levels are dropping back to summer time lows, notes Mossy Creek Flyfishing. The beetle fishing has been excellent and now the fish are keying on big grasshoppers. Fish are still sipping tricos in the mornings and are finding a few leftover hex’s in the evening hours, but their main focus will be on giant hoppers through September. Fishing pressure was heavy over the holiday weekend but expect the weekday traffic to slow down after Labor Day.
Lake Moomaw
Bass action is picking up. Trout action is off. Some catfish are being taken, along with large bluegills. The bluegills are located in 20-30 feet of water.
Lake Anna
Bass are moving to the back of the creeks and coves with deep-water access, and are holding on cover. Topwater baits are working well, early and late in the day. Crappie are schooling around bridge pilings. Stripers are becoming more active around Stubbs Bridge and Jetts Island.
Chickahominy River
Topwaters, spinnerbaits and buzzbaits are catching bass on the Chick. Zoom Flukes are enticing the fish back in the pads on incoming tides. Catfishing remains strong.
Buggs Island
Best largemouth action is in the midlake and downlake areas. Crappie are way deep. Some big cats are prowling at disk.
Smith Mountain
Stripers are taking live shad and bucktails above and below the “S” turns on the Roanoke arm and around the mouth of Gill’s Creek on the Blackwater arm. Good numbers of 14-19 pound stripers are also being caught by jigging Pet Spoons in 50 feet of water off main channel points.
Chickahominy Lake
Fishing with Capt. Conway, Carolyn Conway had 31 bluegill and 4 shellcrackers. Capt. Bill Buck and Tom Porter had 39 bluegill, 1 shellcracker, 2 crappie, 5 yellow perch, 1 channel cat, and 1 bass.
Lake Orange
Darrell Kennedy of Angler’s Landing at Lake Orange notes that the water is cooling down a bit. Bass are schooling around the flats on the upper end of the lake and are hitting soft plastics and crank baits, crappies are still staying deep 15 feet during daytime shallow in low light periods of the day. Catfishing is excellent through out the lake with chicken livers and minnows being the bait of choice. Anglers trolling with live baits have caught walleyes.
The Kids Fishing Day is this Saturday at Lake Orange.
Potomac River
Things are cooling off fast, reports Capt. Steve Chaconas. The water is in the upper 70s.
For early morning income tides, work poppers like Lucky Craft G-Splash on 12 pound test GAMMA Copoly over grass in shady areas and close to docks. Then switch to moving lures like spinnerbaits, Chatterbaits, and Mann’s Baby 1-Minus crankbaits will work over grass remnants.
Deeper cranks like Lucky Craft BDS4 and 1.5 Crankbaits on 12 pound test GAMMA Edge fluorocarbon line can reach grass and snapped free and paused. This works better as the tide falls.
Capt. Steve Chaconas is a guide on the Potomac River. info@nationalbass.com
