SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKE FISHING REPORT
December 2017
DALE WILSON’S
SML GUIDE SERVICE
PHONE NO: 540-297-5650 / 540-874-4950
www.captaindalewilson.com
Picture: Zack Keller from Northern Va. with a nice largemouth bass, caught last month, while fishing with Captain Dale at Smith Mtn. Lake.
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OVERVIEW– The bass fishing has been good the past several weeks! This is a transitional time of the year for fishing! The water temperature is dropping. Fishing overall has been fair to good this past month! Water temperature will be in the upper 40’s to lower 50’s. Best times will be early morning, late afternoon and cloudy days. Night fishing can be fair this month. Fishing for stripers usually picks up later during the month of December.
Largemouth Bass– Fishing for largemouth bass has been very good this month. Best lures will be large plastic worms, shaky heads, medium running crank baits, jigs, spinner baits, spoons and Carolina rigs. Main channel points, brush piles, rocky areas, ledges, stumps and deep docks will be the best areas to try your luck. Best depths will be from the 5 to 30 feet deep. Remember to take care of the bass and release them! Bass fishing should continue to be good with the cooler water temperatures. Most bass will star follow schools of shad as they migrate back into the coves and up stream. Crawfish are a big part of their diet during the winter.
Smallmouth Bass- Fishing will be good. Best areas will be ledges, humps, stumpy areas, and rocky points. Best lures will be tubes, jig & pig, hair jigs, drop shots, blade baits and medium running crank baits. Best areas will be in the mid to the lower sections of the lake. Cloudy days with wind are good times to try your luck! Look for areas with rocks and ledges close to the deep water. Look for isolated rock piles near deep water. Smallmouth bass feed heavily on crawfish this time of the year. They will also suspend around schools of bait in the main lake.
Striped Bass- Fishing will continue to improve this month. Stripers will be caught in the mid to upper sections of the lake and in the large creeks. Best lures will be swim baits, buck tails, spoons, Alabama rigs and Zoom flukes fished on 3/8 to 1/2 oz. lead heads. Best time to fish is cloudy days, early mornings and late afternoons. Night fishing will be fair. The best depths will be from the surface to 45 feet deep. Live bait fished on down lines and planner boards work good this month. This is also a good month to troll as the stripers will be shallower. The stripers will constantly be on the move. Look for large schools of stripers with your electronics. Some schools of stripers will surface this month. Seagulls will start to show up this month. The seagulls will help locate feeding stripers.
Crappie- Fishing for crappie will be good this month. The best depths will be 5 to 20 ft. deep. Crappie will be found around docks, brush piles, and fallen trees. Docks with brush piles are usually good areas to hold crappie. Small live minnows and 1½ to 2 inch tubes or shad shaped plastic lures fished on 1/32 to 1/16 oz. lead heads will work best to catch crappie this month. Best areas are the main creeks and the upper sections of the lake.
TIP OF THE Month- Don’t fish alone during the cold months! Remember to always wear your life jacket!!! Fishing will improve as the water temperatures fall! Schools of shad are migrating up stream and into the creeks. Make sure your running lights are on after dark!!! You can also hear reports about local fishing on the website: THE BASS CAST RADIO SHOW & WSLK 98.3 radio. Remember: TAKE A KID FISHING! SEE YOU ON THE LAKE!!! GOOD FISHING!