Smith Mountain Lake June Fishing Report - fish on beds, fish on points, fish shallow

This June has been an interesting one for me with guiding. The weather this spring was very up and down with a few times of 8-10 degree swings. Our spawn started early then stopped then came back and stopped again. We hit 80 degree water in May and dropped back down to low 70’s in early June. This has the fish kind of all over the lake. The smallmouth seem to be onto their summer time schooling pattern on longer points chasing bait. The largemouth are either in brush, still shallow looking to chase bream around and I have even found a few bass that are still on beds. Stripers are schooling on the lower end and up the rivers pretty well. Bream and loaded in most back pockets on the last few docks spawning and are easy to target and crappies are on the main river channels in brush!

Largemouth fishing is a two fold approach this time of year. I normally like to target shallow fish first thing in the morning that are still doing the shad spawn deal and some bream eaters, but once the sun is high in the sky I am out off shore with a big jig, big worm or bigger swimbait. This is the time of year to be spending sometime behind the driver seat finding those off shore juicy spots. Although the bass are “deep” they are not super deep. I focus on depths from 12-20 feet. Be sure you have some spinning rods ready with a Dropshot with lighter line and a Neko or Shaky head. A topwater hanging off the side of the boat is a must for schooling smallmouth.

The stripers are eating shad that is now schooled up on longer points both down lake and up the rivers. Look for fish blowing up early in the morning and get your boat as close as you can to make a super long cast. A 3.3 or 3.8 swimbait on a Dobyns 1/4 or 3/8 head is the best option to get close and get bites.

Catching bream this time of year is super easy. Grab a thing of nightcrawler from Captains Quarters at the bridge and a bobber set up and hit those spawning areas.

Crappie are biting small jigs and minnows on bobber rigs in any brush you can find in 15-20 feet on the main channel of either the Roanoke or Blackwater rivers.