Smith Mountain Lake Fishing Report October 2014 By Captain Dale Wilson

SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKE FISHING REPORTOctober 2014DALE WILSON’SSML GUIDE SERVICEPHONE NO: 540-297-5650 / 540-874-4950www.captaindalewilson.com

Picture: Charles Burks with 2 nice stripers caught while fishing with Captain Dale Wilson this past Month. 

OVERVIEW: Fall is usually one of my favorite seasons to catch fish. Water temperature will be in the 60’s. Most species of fish will feed aggressively in preparation for the winter. Fishing for stripers and bass should be good this month. Stripers will start to surface around the full moon.

Largemouth Bass-Fishing will be good. Best lures will be Carolina rigs, crank baits, Texas rigged plastic worms, football head jigs, drop shot rigs, spinner baits and shaky heads. Most largemouth bass will be caught on ledges, rocky points, humps, brush piles and deep docks. Top water fishing will improve this month. Best depths will be from the surface to 18 feet deep. Schools of shad will start to move towards the back of the creeks.

Smallmouth Bass- Fishing should be fair. Best areas will be humps, ledges and main points. Best lures will be jig & pig, top water lures, hair jigs and crank baits. Best areas will be in the mid to the lower sections of the lake. Most smallmouth bass will start to feed in open water around schools of shad this month. Cloudy days are good times to try your luck! Light line and smaller lures will increase your chances to catch smallmouth bass.

Striped Bass- Fishing will be good. Stripers will be caught in the mid to upper sections of the lake and in the larger creeks. Best lures will be top water poppers, Alabama rigs, swim baits, buck tails, and Zoom flukes fished on 3/8 to 1/2 oz. lead heads. The best depths will be from the surface to 40 feet deep. Try to find areas with the largest concentrations of baitfish. Casting to schooling stripers will be a good method to catch stripers this month. Live bait and trolling is also a good method this month. Some stripers will feed at night.

Crappie-Fishing for crappie will be good this month. They will be found 10 to 15 feet deep this month. Best areas will be in the main creeks around docks, fallen trees, and brush piles in the mid to upper parts of the lake. Small live minnows and 1 ½ to 2 inch tubes or shad shaped plastic lures fished on 1/32 to 1/16 oz. lead heads will work best to catch crappie this month. Fishing around lights at night should be productive.

TIP OF THE Month: Make sure you wear your life jacket. You can never be too careful when boating. Remember to be courteous and obey all the boating laws. Please practice catch and release. Take a kid fishing! When trying to locate fish this month you will first need to find areas with the most bait fish.

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