Fishing Report

BASS:

The Bass are in post-spawn now and have retreated to deeper water mid and down lake to replenish their energy and to feed up for the summer months. The Bass will still feed in low light conditions shallow on points, humps and flats hitting chuggar and popping baits with vengeance. Work your baits in clear water with slow, rhythmic chuggs giving the bass time to locate and blow up on the bait. The Bass will come up out of 20 feet of water to take advantage of your offering.  Drop Shotting over rocky flats about 20 foot deep and using Shakey Heads around bridge pilings will also produce this summer.  Now is a great time to work the old Carolina Rig with Lizards or your favorite rubber bait, you can cover a lot of water with it and it works well through any cover.  Some savvy Bass anglers are catching very nice Bass using swim baits, (Renosky makes a hard swim bait with 3 joints for under $10.)  Work offshore humps and ledges getting into schools of larger fish. This is a difficult method of fishing to perfect but it is a great way to catch not only numerous but Large Bass also.   Eric Hovey and Jeff Jones of King George had  5 fish stringer weighing 14.4 lbs.  Big fish of 6.25 lbs.

STRIPERS:

 Striper fishing is HOT and will be for the next 2 months.  The Stripers are migrating into the mid lake regions and feeding on points and humps in low light conditions and when the sun is bright they are roaming 30 to 50 foot flats. When the Stripers are in schools they are constantly moving, some days by the time you set up on them they have already moved. Some good techniques to catch Stripers now are as follows: In the low light times of the day top water baits will entice some explosive strikes. You may see Stripers working a school of bait or simply work your bait over main lake points. Good top water baits to try are Pencil Poppers, Redfins and Spooks. When the Stripers back off to the deeper flats Sea Shads, sassy shads and Berkley Hollow Body swim baits counted down to the depth you see the fish and retrieved through the schools will work well. If the fish congregate nearby the bottom, use jigging Spoons and Zoom Super Flukes will catch plenty of fish. Trolling is a good option this time of year, the main consideration is to put your baits in the part of the water column where the Stripers are. If the Stripers are 30 foot or less it is hard to beat a deep diving Redfin or DD-22 with a 3 foot leader tied to the middle o ring and a bucktail or swim bait tied to the leader, trolled about 2 ½ mph about 80 yards behind the boat. When the fish go deeper you may have to use lead core line or down riggers to get your baits in the fishes face, umbrella rigs and drop rigs work best in these conditions. 
  Live baits is a great way to catch fish too.  Run planner boards in low light conditions and convert to downlines when the sun is bright.  Even when you encounter breaking fish downlines usually will produce nicer Stripers, the smaller fish working the top part of the water column and the larger fish underneath them.  Guides Jim Hemby and John Chadduck are catching limits daily.  Fish up to 14 lbs.

   CATFISH: These fish are extremely plentiful and are feeding everywhere. The larger Cats are just under or behind the schools of Stripers . Anglers are catching fish using Powerbait Catfish Bait on fish finder rigs and the Cats sure are hitting live bait very well. The Catfish show up on your depth finder as arches on or very near the bottom.

  CRAPPIE: The slabs have pulled out and are being caught on deeper points with brushpiles and on the deeper bridge pilings in the 10 to 20 foot ranges. They continue to hit small minnows and jigs . The fish are also stacking up on ledges in the rivers in the 8 to 15 foot depths. Crappie rigs [two hook rigs] tipped with minnows are deadly this month. Simply lower your offerings to the depth of the fish and once you start catching doubles mark your line at that depth and fill your cooler up.

This Report is furnished by Jim Hemby's LAKE ANNA STRIPER GUIDE SERVICE
JimHemby@hotmail.com    540-967-3313    www.JimHemby.com

Bass- The Big Mouths will be eagerly taking top water baits early in the am. Fish main lake points with bait fish present. Good choices are Zara Spooks, Buzz Baits, Pop R's and Strike King Wake Shads. After the sun comes up and the shade is gone it is then time to go deep. Brush piles, rock piles, deep docks, bridge pilings and off shore humps will all produce. This is the time of year when the fish can be very predictable. Deep Crankbaits like the BPS LEC15 & Norman DD22 are great baits to throw. Chart/Blue as well as natural shad colors will work. Texas and Carolina rigged plastics and Shakey Heads will produce numbers of Bass this month. Try the Damiki Swing 6.5 and the Air Pocket. (available at High Point Marina) Yamamoto Grubs, Zoom Finesse worms and all of the old favorites will work. As the end of June approaches, throw BIG Texas Rigged worms is 20-30 feet of water.

Striper- The Linesides have made their move back down lake and can be found from Dike 3 all the way to the splits. Large schools of fish are around the 208 area right now. As the shad and herring fry start to hatch, look for small balls of them on the surface with stripers feeding heavily on them. Good choices of artificial lures to use are......Zara Spooks, Broken Back Red Fins, Pop R's and soft jerkbaits. After they sun comes out you can still catch them, you just have to look for them. When you locate them on your graph, drop Tooth Ache Spoons to them. Live Bait will always produce fish. Look for them on flats in 15-30 feet of water. Towards the end of the month, Trolling will start to become a major player. DD22's, LEC 15's and Deep Red Fins with a buck tail trailer will work great.

Crappie- This is the time of year when Speck fishing gets tough. They have moved back out to deeper and cooler water for the summer. They can be caught on bridge pilings and brush piles. Small minnows will be your best bait. Try fishing in 15 -25 feet of water.

Lake Level- Full Pool
Water Temps
Dike 3- Mid 80's
Mid Lake- Low to Mid 80's
Uplake- Mid 80's

McCotter's Lake Anna Guide Service Fishing Report - JUNE

Lake Anna, Va. - As we head into late spring water temperatures have
risen to 75 degrees on Lake Anna and we are experiencing a gradual
changeover into more consistent, summer time patterns. While a small
percentage of largemouth bass spawned on the late May full moon, most
are completely done and feeding heavily at times around the shad and
herring spawns. Striper fishing is excellent for schooled fish in deep
water. Crappie are now schooled offshore and on bridges. Here's what
you can expect in the coming days.

Largemouth bass - A number of patterns are in play now. The best is to
target schooled fish that harass herring or shad. You'll find spots
like these, often by accident when baitfish follow up your lure or you
happen to find fish chasing bait. A soft plastic jerkbait is great as
is a topwater bait you can "walk". Fishing the edge of the willow
grass in the North Anna is also good now. Topwater poppers, buzzbaits
and wacky worms are effective early and late. Try a worm or jig when
the sun is high. The offshore structure pattern will develop in early
June. Drop shotting and shaky worms are best when fishing deep. This
pattern works best in 15-20' of water in the mid and down lake regions.

Striped bass - When you find the fish you can catch limits very easily
now. Daily movements and fishing pressure dictate where the fish will
be. The 208 region on up to The Splits has been reliable for those
using live bait and trolling deep diving plugs and bucktail combos.
The vertical jigging with Toothache spoons has also begun. For many
this type of fishing remains a mystery, but if you take the time to
invest in a good depth finder, look for fish and put the spoon or bait
in front of them, they are feeding and bite readily. Target deep flats
in the 35-42' range. Tapping the bottom with the spoon and then
lifting it up and letting it fall on a tight line will incite violent
strikes. The hologram scale Toothache is the top choice. On some days
the fish will chase bait on the surface. Having a soft plastic
jerkbait at the ready is always a good idea.

Crappie - Fish up to 15" can be had on offshore structure like rocks,
brush and Fish Structures. One-inch jigs on 6-lb. test line with a
1/16-oz. jighead are great if you like light line fishing. Minnows on
slip bobbers are also effective now. Deep is relative depending on
what region of the lake you are fishing. We recommend you fish the up
lake region in 6-12' for the next two weeks and then go deeper as the
water approaches 80 degrees.

Panfish - Another strong bluegill and shellcracker spawn began May 24
on the full moon. Use surface poppers for the 'gills and a subsurface
offering like a Wooly Worm for the 'crackers. Crickets and red
wigglers are good, too.

Report generated by the guides of McCotter's Lake Anna Guide Service
540.894.9144 www.mccotterslakeanna.com

Jim Hemby
Lake Anna Striper Guide Service                 MAY
www.JimHemby.com  540 967 3313

 LAKE ANNA

   STRIPERS:  Striper fishing continues to be excellent. Limits are common with most fish averaging 3 to 10 lbs.   Fishing will get even better as the fish are still spawning and after they finish later in the month they will move to deeper water where daily catches for my clients should average 20 to 40 fish per day.
   Some good areas to start looking for Stripers are:
Down Lake…Stripers are spawning in and around the current, anglers have been catching easy limits off the dike and on the nearby flats out of boats.
Sturgeon and across to the power plant…Schools of stripers working this area can be found on a good Depth Finder.
Mid Lake the mouths of the creeks and the 20 foot flats around the splits are holding Stripers.
Up Lake Stripers are  literally everywhere. Hard to go wrong here.
   May is a conversion month with many patterns existing now which will change as the water temperatures increase. Early in the day, late in the evenings and in low light conditions work shallow flats , main lake points and shallow humps nearby deep water.  After the sun gets up high in the sky pull off the shallow flats and move to the deeper flats in the 20 to 30 foot range where baitfish are present. For anglers casting artificial baits, wake Redfins, pop Chuggars and walk Spooks over the shallow points and flats in lowlight conditions and when the fish move deeper work swimbaits [Sea Shads, Berkley Hollow-Body's, Berkley 5” Jerk Shad] counting your bait down to the depth the fish are holding at and using a steady retrieve. Later in the month when the fish move deep trollers will start to catch fish using deep diving Redfins, Norman DD-22, or XPS LEC-15's with a Bucktail tied on a 3' leader, drop rigs and umbrella rigs.
   You can also try Jumbo minnows if you cannot catch your own bait. Stripers will be moving from the backs of the creeks and up lake shallow areas to the mouths of the creeks and deeper main lake waters this month. The fish will school up over 25 to 30 foot flats and can be located on good depth finders where downlines can be deployed to entice numerous hook-ups at the same time.  With more and more anglers fishing for Stripers avoid areas where the fish are constantly harassed by fisherman, find less pressured schools, be versatile, and enjoy the rewards of finding and catching this wonderful fighting and tasting fish.

   BASS: Fishing is great now as tournament fishing pressure has subsided, the weather and water temperatures are more stable, most Bass have spawned and are hungry. Bass are cruising the shallows now, cover lots of water using Polarized Glasses looking for stumps, beds and Bass. Tube baits, Senkos, Carolina rigged Lizards and jerk baits work well in these areas. Baitfish are spawning on windblown rocky and clay banks, find a point with these conditions and throw a willowleaf spinnerbait in White or Pearl up on the banks and try to get your bait back to the boat. You can catch some hogs here especially if these points are nearby spawning areas. Twitching stick baits [Rapalas] and soft plastics jerk baits in clear water will certainly get a rise from a Largemouth if worked nearby structure [boulders, stumps, etc.] Up lake in the North Anna they will hit spinnerbaits near the willow grass beds and mid lake Bass will blow up on poppers and chuggars as well as buzz baits in 4 to 15 foot of water. Later in the month the larger fish will fall back to much deeper water to recover from the rigors of the spawn and will gorge themselves on Herring.


   CRAPPIE: The Crappie have finished spawning and have moved back to the 6 to 15 foot depth ranges with nice slabs being caught on deeper docks and shallower bridge pilings. Look for rocky drop-offs on or near points, brush piles on flats and generally areas where baitfish are plentiful with structure. On cloudy days the Crappie will roam the flats looking for fish fry, a good way to catch these fish is to use a trolling technique of employing numerous length rods [6 to 12 feet long] tipped with jigs. Using numerous rod holders with different length rods allows an angler to cover a lot of water at different depths to locate and catch fish.

This report furnished by Jim Hemby of LAKE ANNA STRIPER GUIDE SERVICE
www.JimHemby.com   540-967-3313   JimHemby@hotmail.com

McCotter's Lake Anna Guide Service - Late April
Fishing Report

Lake Anna, Va. - What a difference a week of warm weather makes here
on Lake Anna. The bass, striper and crappie began to spawn in large
numbers last week and will continue to do so through the beginning of
May. With a full moon coming April 28, the water temperatures in the
low 70s, it's time to fish shallow.

Bass - Strong spawning activity in the down lake, mid lake and lower
up lake region going on currently. Due to high water many of the fish
are spawning shallower than in year's past. Look for beds on dock
pilings, rocks, in willow grass and on stumps in 1-6' of water. Fish
wacky worms and stick baits between beds. When you find a bed,
consider sight fishing tactics like small tubes, jigs and lizards and
immediate release after the catch. Once fish begin guarding fry, you
can try floating minnows, wacky worms and drop shotting around docks.

Striper - Excellent fishing in the upper regions of the North Anna,
Pamunkey Branch and Terry's Run. The striper are schooled at the
mouths of tributaries and biting well first thing in the morning and
late in the evening. Sometimes they will bite outside this hot zone.
Live herring on freelines and sideplaners are the most effective
tactic right now. Casting lures is not as effective, but some fish
will take a soft plastic jerkbait or swimbait at peak periods. Fish
above the bridges in 2-12' of water.

Crappie - The week of April 5-11 was the top week so far for freckles
here on Lake Anna. While citation fish over two pounds have been
scant, the numbers per day are amazing. Grass lines in the North Anna,
docks in the Pamunkey and beaver huts mid lake are the top three
patterns. Use jigs and small minnows. 
Good luck and see you on the water.