Snowden's Tournament Journal - Smith Mountain Lake

Brian Snowden’s Tournament Journal 2007

www.missouriangling.com

Event: Bassmaster Elite

When: June 4-10

Where: Smith Mountain Lake, VA

Finish: 65th

Winnings: $0.00



This was a very picturesque lake with a lot of beautiful homes, all of which had boat docks. It reminded me a great deal of Lake of the Ozarks, so I tried to gear my practice toward what I would do at Lake of the Ozarks. I started out working main lake points, humps, and shoals with a Carolina rig using a Zoom baby brushhog in green pumpkin. This produced a few nice keeper smallmouth and a couple of keeper largemouth, but it was a very inconsistent pattern. So I spent the rest of the afternoon working a 5/16 and 7/16 oz. jig around boat docks. The next two days of practice I tried to branch out, and I caught several fish using a watermelon candy finesse worm on an 1/8 oz. shaky head around rocky points and docks. I also caught a few fish on a fluke worked around laydowns and stumps.



For the first day of the tournament I decided to concentrate the first hour of the morning on fishing a topwater on rocky, main lake points. As the sun got higher I switched to the Carolina rig, which produced three nice keeper smallmouth. I then proceeded to the docks, but I was unable to catch another keeper. I finished the day with three fish weighing 8.9 pounds. The next day of the event I started out with a topwater hoping for a quality bite. With no success I switched to the Carolina rig, which produced one keeper. I then tried fishing an 1/8 oz. shaky head worm around boat docks, and this produced four more keepers. I finished the day with a small limit weighing 9 pounds. I finished in 65th place for the event.

 

By Brian Snowden