Smith Mountain Lake July Fishing Report - Fireworks, Friends and Fishing

The heat of summer is here and the fishing is just as hot at Smith Mountain Lake. We are catching some good numbers of fish that are moving out to deeper water for the next few months and still catching a few big bass up shallow eating bream. Stripers are starting to school up super well and eating a ton. It’s a green time to get the kids our fishing off the docks for bluegills and catfish to introduce them to fishing.

Largemouth and Smallmouth bass are starting to move out of the creak channels and out onto main lake points and deeper docks. The mid section down to the dam is a great place to fish this time of year with the river channel close by. On cloudy and windy days a 2.8, 3.3 and 3.8 Kaitech swimbaits on very sizes of 1/4oz up to 3/8oz Guppy Head and Dobyns Swimbait Heads work well. Throwing them on spinning rods with lighter line with get you more and bigger bites. A Dobyns Champion XP 703SF is a perfect rod for all of those sizes. On sunny post front or sunny afternoons its time to start dragging around jigs and large profile plastics. A Dobyns football head jig in 1/2-3/4oz is perfect to keep bottom contact. Texas rigging a Zoom Ole Monster is key for a big bite or Carolina rigging a creature bait on a 1oz with a leader will get you those post spawn summer time female fish. Check out the Man Bear Pig from Reaction Innovations.

Another technique that is over looked this time of year is the bream eating fish that are up shallow. This will almost exclusively be largemouth and it is not for targeting numbers but rather single giant fish. This requires time on the water to find those honeycomb bream beds in the backs of pockets. Find the bream beds and fish whatever targets are close by like laydowns or docks. This bite seems to be best during the hottest part of the day. Use a prop bait or popper for topwater or a senko or flipping bait like a missile baits D bomb or Spicy Beaver.

Lastly is focusing on the finesse side of deep fishing. A Dropshot is hard to beat this time of year. A 6” roboworm is my go to 90% of the time on a Dropshot and in the summer it really shines. Focus on deep dock post on the main lake on the sunny side. Be careful of the heavy boat traffic. If you use a Gamakatsu re-barb hook you can also target heavy brush piles to big bass.

Stripers are starting to school up together on main lake points, ditches and humps. A spoon is your best friend this time of year to get the school activated. A simple hopkins 3/8 or 1/2 spoon on 15lb line is all you need. Find your schools of fish and rip that bait through them. Once one commits to the bait the rest of the school will follow. It’s also worth having a topwater at the ready when they bust the surface. A fluke can also be good.

If you’re down here with the kids it’s still a fantastic time to go bream fishing. Live bait from the tackle shops and a bobber are you best friend off the docks.

CLICK THIS LINK TO PURCHASE MY JULY SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKE BAITS FROM OMINA TACKLE!