Smith Mountain Lake February Fishing Report. Up and Down we go!
DON’T FORGET TO CHECK OUT THE BAIT SHOP FOR ALL THE LATE WINTER TACKLE
I RECOMMEND
Well damn I left for most of January and y’all got one of the nastiest cold snaps from the last few years. Water temps dropped to nearly 40 here and I’m hearing reports of ice pretty far down the Roanoke and Blackwater rivers. That can mean only one thing….. Shad stun and Shad kill. Bring on the big bags.
On the flip side what looked like a super nasty cold winter is also being met with a big warming trend. The first 10 days of February are oddly warm and that may shake things up a bit and get fish moving around more and as I publish this before I leave again for Texas you guys are about to get some nasty cold rain and more snow lol. Let’s talk location of fish first…
Ice isn’t a bad thing, in fact I have tons of examples of fishing in MN all the way up to ice with some amazing days fishing the ice edge for super hungry fish. For a second, remove from your head that the water is cold and think more about what’s happening under the water. Shad are 100% stunned and in very large groups together trying to stay warm. Add in the fact that an ice edge is another form of an ambush point and you have the workings of some killer unique situations going on. I’m not saying that it is going to be lights out and huge number days but I am very confident that large fish are around that stuff.
Other typical late winter locations at SML are the bluffs up both the rivers. Fish use these bluff walls to pin bait (shad and crawfish) against the rocks. It’s also an easy place for the fish to get comfortable allowing them to move up and down a steep bank to the most warm water.
Lastly are ditches. These can be a little tougher to understand as SML has what feels like a 1000 different ones to check. Think of a ditch as an old slop in the topography before they filled up the lake. This region has rolling hills so filling up those ditches with water created an almost choke point for the fish to be. There will be two types of ditch fish. Some staying very high in the water (10 feet or less) and the other glued to the bottom, sometimes as deep as 60 feet.
Winter fishing for baits is actually pretty easy. This is the last month before you need to start pulling other baits out to get ready for big pre-spawn fish.
I focus on two things this time of year. Bait size you’re fishing around and depth. Majority of the bass are eating shad right now so let’s focus on that.
A damiki rig, a minnow, a mid stroller it’s all the same imo, but it is the one of the best baits for this time of year. My typical set up is an 3/8oz ball head with a 90 degree tie and some form of a 3” minnow. A thing to keep in mind is also how tough or soft the plastic is you are using. On a colder day I like to had something a little more stiff since the shad will be moving less. Some examples of harder plastic is the Damiki Armor Shad, A Berkley Gulp Jerk Shad or a Lunker City Fin-S Fish. On a warming trend I start with something softer and something that has more tail movement like a Fish Arrow Flash J Split Tail or a Missile Baits Spunk Shad.
A jerkbait is right behind a damiki as one of the best to have on the deck. The shad stun can happen also every night in February so being ready with one is a must. My all purpose jerkbait is a MegaBass Vision 110 +1. It’s hard to beat. However, MegaBass offers a ton of different styles to mimic different bait sizes and colors. I also almost always have on a MegaBass Nanahan +2 for when I am around smaller bait. Colors are pretty easy for me. I love a GP Pro Blue, GP crystal shad and MG Vegatable for smallmouth.
As much as I don’t like typing this and throwing it an A rig is also a must for February. As we get closer to late February we will start seeing fish moving from deeper winter holes to mainlake points and secondaries as they start to think about pre-spawn. The A rig is a great search bait as well as a big fish bait. I prefer fishing with a Hogfarmer 5 wire with blades. I rig mine with MegaBass Hazdong shad’s in 3” for the outsides and with a larger 4.2” in the middle. A good approach to this technique is letting it hit the bottom and ripping it up a few times to get some clearance and slowly reeling it back. The A rig can be thrown at literally anything but does really well against docks.
Stripers are just roaming in massive schools around bait that are around out of the creek openings. A heavy spoon or a heavy jig head with a fluke style bait works great as sometimes these fish are 40-60 feet deep.
Crappie fishing is lighting up as well. Lots of larger docks are holding good numbers as well as some giant single crappie roaming around bait balls. A damiki is also a great way to catch those fish. Try downsizing your minnow bait to something like a 3” gulp minnow or a 6th sense crappie minnow.
Good luck out there this month, be super safe as this is the coldest water temps of the year and be sure to let someone know if you are fishing alone where you are launching from and time you’ll be off the water. Tight lines!