Smith Mountain Lake March Fishing Report - Massive heat wave and some water back in the lake. Get the big baits out!

DON’T FORGET TO CHECK OUT THE BAIT SHOP FOR ALL THE EARLY SPRING TACKLE

I RECOMMEND

As I write this monthly report we are looking at a high of only 45 degrees, but by the end of the week will be looking at a run of almost 10 days in the high 70’s and that is like rocket fuel for the bass. A lot is about to change and super quickly so let’s jump right into it.

We could be looking at one of the best 10-15 days of fishing of the entire spring lining up perfectly with the full moon, rising water and some stain. The past few tournaments have shown out some monster bags over 28lbs. There have been 7-9 lber big fish at almost every event and with everything setting up it’s going to be a great next few weeks of catching some of the biggest bass of the year. These fish are hungry, aggressive and ready to eat something half their size.

As many of you know that read this monthly I am a big fan of tossing around the big baits. These will not get you numbers in the boat but SML sets up as one of the best big bait lakes on the east coast and this month is your best chance at catching them on 7”-12” baits. As a reminder and general rule, bass can eat a bait up to 50% of their size so bass that are in that 22”-25” 7-10lb range have no problem eating a bait up to 12” long. Another reason our lake is set up perfect for this is our large population of gizzard shad.

One of if not the best bait to be tossing around this time of year is the Megabass Magdraft. What’s great about this bait is the slow roll that it creates. Yes there are other swimbaits and I toss them as well but for the early fish that come up it is the best bait for the job. As well, they now offer Magdrafts in 5”, 6”, 8” and 10”. I keep the colors super simple Ghost Shad Solid for cloudy days and White Back Shad for sunny days. I toss all the 5” and 6” on a Megabass lavante 7.2’ Pitch Perfect rod and the 8” and 10” on a Megabass Orochi X10 7’10” swimbait rod. The key to this deal is finding the bigger bait. It can take some time, but most of the main creeks hold gizzards as well as some smaller creeks with large flats in the back. Gizzards love docks this time of year so focusing on flats with lots of docks is a great place to start.

Second choice for me would be a jerkbait. As this water heats up into the low to mid 50’s we see another jerkbait bite come roaring out the gate. However, this one is based on speed. During winter a lot of your jerkbait fishing is slow with very long pauses to trick the bass into thinking it’s a stunned shad. During warming trends you want to do the opposite with no pause. This is the key to getting some killer bites. Focus on deeper points that start to flatten, deeper docks with floaters and tossing it off the end of laydowns. I also really only throw higher running jerkbaits like the Megabass 110 silent or Megabass 110 SR. A lot of times these bass are very high in the water trying to get warm and chase the bait high.

There is still a decent minnow bite happening outside of larger spawning pockets off the ends of docks if we do get some chilly nights coming.

Stripers are split right now into some main lake schools of smaller fish and some single giants fish floating in the backs of pockets around bait. A small paddle tail swimbait is about all you need. Similar to the speed of the jerkbait, once a striper sees your bait you almost immediately need to pull it away to create the strike.

Crappie have also started to group together on some key docks and laydowns up the blackwater and Roanoke rivers.

As some of you know as well we are expecting our second kid late this month into April so just putting this out now that I may be a little MIA for next months report. I’ll do my best to get one down before the spawn starts to help you guys stay on the transitioning fish.

Be sure to check out this months sponsor highlight Ronnie Mitchell and Son’s Landscaping. If you’re in the area of SML he is the go to man for anything land or hard scape.