the cove that you want to fish. When
arriving at the mouth of the cove, shut
down the engine, turn off your lights,
and ease into the cove, using your
electric trolling motor. Keep an eye
on your fish-finder graph until you
began to see a large number of spots
on the graph. Ease on into position
in the middle of the cove, which
should coincide with the middle of
the spots. The spots that you will see
are bait fish. Stop the boat, and watch
the water and the sky. Once your eyes
adjust to the darkness, you will be
surprised at how well you will be able
to see without lights.
When a slight bit of light appears
in the sky (it will seem almost pink
in color or tint), start watching the
water for bubbles. When you sight
the bubbles, cast a “top water” lure (
6” or 7” Redfin, Thunderstick, Long
“A”, etc.) to that spot, holding the
rod tip down to get better lure action,
and retrieve slowly so that it makes a
“V” as it comes across the surface.
The strike will be light, but don’t
be fooled, this could be a giant.
When you get the fish to the boat,
use a landing net and put the fish in
the boat. To avoid getting hooked
yourself, refrain from trying to land
it by hand. Use a hook remover or
pliers to remove the hooks from the
fish.
When day breaks, most of the fish
will move to the main channel toward
the deep water. By this time, you will
most likely have your limit. But if
you want to continue fishing, or if
you don’t want to get out that early
in the morning, you have 2 choices:
troll or jig. If you want to “jig”, use
your graph to find a point or hump
in the water about 30 or 35 feet down
and then use your fish finder to locate
your quarry. Use your electric trolling
motor to maintain your position over
the fish, while jigging a “bucktail” jig
or a lead head jig with a “Sassy Shad”
or other soft plastic bait.
You may only see one fish on the
graph, but you may catch a number
of fish here.
Fishing this way works both in
the coves and in the channels. If the
wind is blowing, the coves may be
a better choice, since you are more
likely to find shelter from the wind.
If you decide to troll, you can do
it with “out-riggers”, “down-riggers”,
or straight off the back of the boat.
Trolling with “mono” line requires
a “deep running” lure: Deep Diving
Red Fin, Spoonbill Rebel, etc. To
go deeper, a “Water-Dog” or “Hell-
Bender” works well.
The longer the line, the deeper
it will run… up to a point. The best
you can do with mono line is to guess
at the depth... To be more accurate,
you’ll need a larger conventional reel
and “Lead-Line”... this line is color
coded according to length, which
allows you achieve consistency in
reaching the depth you want. Watch
the graph and troll just above the
fish. Lead line and down riggers allow
you to get to a desired depth while
using plugs, jigs and/or spoons… or
a combination of those. Watch for
trees on the graph so that you may
raise your lines when approaching
them so as not to get “hung”. Keeping
a “Plug Knocker” in your tackle box
comes in handy for when you need to
get a lure loose from a hang.
When fishing day-light hours,
use the moon phases to determine the
best fishing times:
MOON PHASES
12/17/13 - FULL COLD MOON
at 4:29 AM
1/16/14 - FULL WOLF MOON at
11:53 PM
2/14/14 - FULL SNOW MOON at
6:54 PM
3/16/14 - FULL WORM MOON
at 12:10 PM
4/13/14 - FULL PINK MOON at
2:45 AM
5/14/14 - FULL FLOWER MOON
at 2:16 PM
6/12/14 - FULL STAWBERRY
MOON at 11:13 PM
7/12/14 - FULL THUNDER
MOON at 6:26 AM
8/10/14 - FULL STURGEON
MOON at 1:10 PM
9/8/14 - FULL HARVEST MOON
at 8:38 PM
10/8/14 - FULL HUNTERS
MOON at 5:50 AM
11/6/14 - FULL BEAVER MOON
at 5:22 PM
12/6/14 - FULL COLD MOON at
7:27 AM
Good luck and take
a kid fishing!
~Bob King
Fishing Continued...
Discover Smith Mountain Lake
Winter 2014
11
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