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Fishing Report

LAKE ANNA MAY FISHING REPORT

The lake is full now, water temperatures warmer than normal. Fishing is great!

BASS: Fishing just doesn't get any better than Lake Anna in May. April was great, two of my clients Geo. Hussey and Ron Emery catching citations in successive trips. Bass are post spawn down lake and are either spawning over the rest of the lake or will be within the next 2 weeks. Target shallow coves and especially 30 degree gently sloping banks with sand or gravel bottoms and stumps scattered about. If you find these conditions with a secondary point, even better. Tube baits, Senkos, Carolina Rigged Lizards, and Jerk baits work well here. Baitfish are spawning on windblown rocky and clay banks, find a point with these conditions and throw a #8 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. 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 feet of water. Bass are cruising the shallows now, cover lots of water using Polarized Glasses looking for Stumps, beds and Bass. Later in the mounth the larger fish will fall back to much deeper water to recover from the rigors of the spawn and will gorge themselves on Herring. We catch many of these fish around the splits along the edge of the channel where points and flats are nearby.

STRIPERS: Striper fishing is great now as is evident in our catches of recent weeks [To view our daily catches, visit my journal at www.JimHemby.com ]. Limits are common and with most fish averaging 8 to 10 pounds although on the days the "Cows" feed the averages go way up. One morning in April my clients caught 2 Stripers over 19 pounds. Striper fishing should continue to 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 30 to 50 fish per day. Many patterns exist now and will change as the water temperature increases. Early in the day, late in the evening and in low light conditions work shallow flats, main lake points and shallow humps nearby deep water. After the sun get up high in the sky pull off the shallow flats and move to the deeper flats in 20 to 30 feet of water where baitfish are present. Throw Redfins, Chuggars and Spooks in lowlight conditions and when the fish go deeper work swim baits [ Sea Shads, Sassy Shads and Berkley 5” Power Mullets] with steady retrieves. Without a doubt the best catches will come this month from savvy live bait fisherman. Huge Stripers will blow 10 to 12 inch Gizzard Shad out of the water pulled behind planner boards or on freelines when they are shallow and when the fish move deep we put Blueback Herring in their faces on downlines for multiple hookups. Be versatile in May , start off shallow and if you aren't hooking up with Stripers simply back off to deeper water. With water temperatures being much warmer this year than normal I expect to see the fish school up earlier this year resulting in better downline fishing with increased catches.

CRAPPIE: Most Crappie have spawned by now and have moved back to the 6 to 15 foot depths with nice slabs being caught on deeper docks and the shallower bridge pilings. April produced dozens of Crappie citations and fish will continue to be great in May. Look for rocky drop-offs on or nearby points , brush piles on flats and generally areas where baitfish are plentiful with structure . Another trolling technique that works well now is employing the use of numerous length rods tipped with jigs fishing 10 foot flats catching the roaming schools of Crappie that are not relating to cover, especially on cloudy days.

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

Fishing experiences brought to you by Jim Hemby:

Bobby Barnes (April 2008)

Mohr Group (April 2008)

Bruce Riddle (August 2007)

Jim Burroughs (April 2007)

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