Smith Mountain Lake November Fishing Report - Things are starting to happen

November is already half over and the weather just decided to change. We have had yet another fall of warm temperatures well into the mid days of November. This has caused a big delay in the water temps dropping and it seems to be holding the fish off from moving into the backs of the pockets to feed up. A few times throughout the day you can find that pocket full of bait and full of fish, but it seems to be every 4-6 pockets not every 1-3 like a true mid fall pattern. However, this week is calling for very low overnight temps and good wind to shake things up. I’m hopeful the fish will really start to stack up mid to late this week.

On another note - we just had our 3rd major flood event at the lake this year, this one being the highest and longest lasting. I know lake homeowners get frustrated by the management from AEP and of course there is always a better way to handle things after the fact, but a lot goes into how the lake level is managed. On the fishing side i’m A-ok with some rising water, color stain and the post flood water pull that will happen. The fish will be super active this week while AEP pulls water through the dam. Keep an eye on the leaves to see if they are pulling current or run down to the dam to check with you own eyes.

If I was coming to the lake for a day trip I would approach the lake as a late summer early fall pattern, The majority of the fish are still on main lake points, and secondaries. It’s hard to find large numbers of fish in the way backs of the pockets. Largemouth and smallmouth are eating a lot of shad and crawdads so a Dobyns 3/8oz swimbait head matched with a shad swimbait 3.3” - 4.5” are a great choice for covering water. If you’re a jig fishermen hitting the rocks with a Missile Headbanger jig in green pumpkin orange it’s a great choice. The topwater bite doesn’t seem to be great just yet but this week could change things.

The stripers are still stacked up the river and the guides and fun fishermen seem to be catching! If you’re a bass guy and wanting to give it a try its hard to beat reeling in a fluke or throwing a topwater up the river for some fun.

Crappies are stacked in brush 10-20 ft on the river sides and up both ends. Bobbers and minnows are always a go to.

Please be safe if you head out this week since there will still be logs and junk floating down from the floods.