Yet again, I was back fishing on Smith Mountain Lake this past weekend on the hunt for Striper Bass. Local fishermen and friends from around the area had told us that the bass were all around areas near our spot on the lake. On the first day we used dollar bill sized shad as live bait some friends had left over from the day before, and began to troll within a mile radius around our dock. Within what felt like the first 10 min of getting the lines in the water, one of our strongest rods was bending and jolting like crazy, we already got a hit. After a seemingly quick fight, the fish was in the boat, sizing around 27 to 29 inches long. Not the largest we have caught but definitely one of the quickest time wise.

Surprisingly after that catch happening so early on in our evening trip out, that was the only one reeled in the rest of our time on the water. Though there were more bites, they managed to shake off while reeling it in.
The next day was entirely more successful. That morning, three fish were caught early on before I even got on the boat. Surprisingly these had mainly been caught using umbrella rigs, an artificial form of bait that consist of three to four fake shad and shiny spinners to attract the bass as if it were a small school swimming along. This had worked before, though I only had the best success using live shad prior to this.

Shortly after getting in the boat, I had the chance to reel in a good sized fish on an umbrella rig for the first time. This one measured around 30 or so inches, and put up a good fight for being a little further out behind the boat. Yet again in the same area within not even a mile from our dock. For once we barely had to travel around the lake at all to find them

The last fish caught was just a young, fairly small striper. This one could be compared to half the size of the largest catches that we have had on the boat before. Though a catch is a catch, and that put our total count at five fish for the day.

This was our personal best of six caught in a weekend, which I’m looking to beat that record around Thanksgiving this coming week. With hopes of them staying in our area, this could easily be done if we get a head start early in the morning, and call it quits when the sun goes down. Overall a very successful weekend, and excited for more to come.