Bass Fishing Tournaments on Smith Mountain Lake

In the springtime in Virginia, tournament anglers are hitting the water like any other state. But when thinking about the Top-100 best bass fishing reservoirs in the country, it is hard not to think about Virginia’s very own Smith Mountain Lake. Smith Mountain Lake has been home to numerous top level professional bass fishing tournaments in the past. It also has been home to numerous regional and championship tournaments and is a common location for bass tournaments in the state of Virginia in the spring. Smith Mountain Lake is very well-known around the spawn, and for producing big bags on swimbaits. In this blog, we are going to explore a few options tournament anglers can consider when fishing tournaments on Smith Mountain Lake in the spring.  Make sure to read to the bottom to see How Revital Outdoors Premium CBD Products help anglers fishing Smith Mountain Lake.

Usually when Major League Fishing has a BFL tournament on Smith Mountain Lake in the springtime, the water temperatures are rising, and anglers will notice the yellow pollen on the water’s surface. This is not always the case however, most of the time when tournaments are taking place with the Major League Fishing BFL Shenandoah Division, this is often the first thing anglers notice during practice. This is an awesome time for tournaments anglers to hit Smith Mountain Lake and can produce some very big bags. Anglers that are up shallow chasing the spawning Largemouth and Spotted Bass that live in Smith Mountain Lake will likely have very good days on the water. Anglers can literally fish whatever technique they prefer in the springtime on Smith Mountain Lake. However, for tournament anglers who have never been to Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia, and are looking to fish a springtime tournament there, here is a few tips and starting points. 

The first is sitting down with a good lake map and locating all the predominant shallow water areas leading off the river channel. These are going to be high percentage areas in Smith Mountain Lake holding Largemouth and Spotted Bass getting ready to move up and think about the spawn. They are coming off their wintertime pattern and setting up getting ready to go shallow and “do their thing”. The areas that appear on a map that are coming off the river channel and lead into a very shallow flat back in the creek or coves with main-lake and secondary points are going to be the first areas anglers want to practice in. Covering water and throwing baits that have an increased bite percentage is going to be very key when practicing on Smith Mountain Lake in the springtime. Again, the Largemouth Bass and Spotted Bass are looking to move up and spawn, so it is important for tournament bass anglers to eliminate the water that is not holding fish as quickly as possible. Anglers will often see a lot of fish cruising the banks or even locked up on the bed this time of year on Smith Mountain Lake. Baits that anglers should always be armed with that will get a lot of bites and can produce a lot of quality bites will be a swimbait and a wacky worm.  

To start out with, anglers are going to want to throw a wacky worm or floating worm to pick off the very aggressive fish cruising up shallow, and it is a quick way to get an easy limit during the tournament. A wacky worm or a floating worm is nothing new that tournaments anglers have been fishing on Smith Mountain Lake. Again, this is a high percentage bait and can catch everything from small fish to big fish. There have even been tournaments on Smith Mountain Lake won from anglers throwing a wacky worm. A wacky worm consists of a Senko style bait rigged in the middle of the worm so that it has a dancing action when falling through the water column. Floating worms are a little bit different; this is often rigged as a Texas-Rig and is weedless. The key with a floating worm is a visible presentation. Bass are not necessarily locked in on the falling action of the bait. This is because the fish are relating up so shallow and the natural fall of the bait is already the perfect fall ratio that the bass are keyed in on.  

The next bait is a big swimbait. Anglers fishing Smith Mountain Lake in the springtime will often use soft plastic or soft bodied swimbaits to do their damage when the fish are up shallow cruising and getting ready for the spawn. Swimbait color patterns either shad or bluegill are perfect for throwing on Smith Mountain Lake in the springtime. Because the bass are so aggressive during the spawn, and a swimbait appeals identical to the bait fish that they are relating to, so this can get some very aggressive bites. Swimbaits can also produce a little bit better average size bites as well for anglers fishing tournaments on Smith Mountain Lake. Anglers will often power fish swimbaits when fishing up shallow on Smith Mountain Lake in the springtime. Meaning they will cover a lot of water and keep the bait in the strike zone for as long as possible when fishing in different areas on Smith Mountain Lake that are holding spawning bass or staging fish. Anglers do not need to do anything different with the retrieve. Most anglers will just cast the swimbait out and reel along the surface of the water, the action of the bait is what will trigger the bites from the Largemouth Bass that live in Smith Mountain Lake.  

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