Lake Blue Ridge Fishing Report July 2012

Blue Ridge: Level: 17 feet below full pool. Temp: 83 degrees. Clarity: Clear.

Bass: Good. Eric Welch, of Reel Job Fishing, reports, “We are catching some fish in the mornings on Zara Spooks and Sammys around Point 1. We are also catching fish on drop shots and tubes. The fish are scattered around on main-lake points and around any laydowns or brush. With boat traffic, the fish will start going deeper, so look for fish in the 12- to 28-foot range. You may want to scale down on line to 6- and 8-lb. fluorocarbon. Eric Crowley reports, “The smallies are actively chasing the schools of bait all over the lake. From the dam to Point 6, there are small schools of fish on the surface almost every day. The larger schools seem to be on the main-lake points at dawn. As the sun breaks the horizon, look for the fish to feed heavily for about an hour each day. After this morning topwater bite slows, look for schools of fish or bait on your sonar from 12 to 30 feet down. Live bait is best right now. Herring or threadfin shad from 3 to 6 inches seem to be the target size, so if you’re not using live bait, try to imitate this size bait with your artificials. A Smack Jack jointed swimbait in herring color or flukes in silver or green are working pretty well, too. As the fish move deeper, try a more vertical presentation with a Flitter Bait from Smack Tackle in shad color. Let the bait fall below the fish, and then rip it up. The fish can’t resist this lone baitfish fleeing from the protection of the school. In the evening, watch for the smallmouths to feed on the surface again. There’s lots of bait and fish activity in Star Creek about an hour before dusk. Long casts with a silver fluke on a wide-gap worm hook caught lots of bronzebacks last week in this area.”

White Bass: Eric Crowley reports, “The white bass have started showing up in numbers lately. These fighting mini-linesides are a lot of fun on light tackle. We recommend 6-lb. test and small jerkbaits or small live baits. I usually slow troll spinners, Rapalas or small shad-type lures around points, humps and drop-offs to locate these fish and figure out what they are keying on. Some nice fish up to 3 1/2 pounds have been caught on Blue Ridge in the past couple trips.”