MSU Bass Club finishes 19th on Smith Mountain Lake

[MSUBass12]

Cody Harris and myself (Rob Nowicki) headed down to Huddleston, Virginia this past weekend to fish the FLW College Series on Smith Mountain Lake.  We were looking forward to great weather but unfortunately that was not the case.  Though the water temperature in the areas we fished varied from 47-52 degrees, it was about 38 degrees outside with wind, and a mix of on and off rain, snow, and hail.  We started off the day running to the mouth of one of the creek arms where we thought some fish might be in the shallows and on some docks.  Cody started off the day catching a fish that was just short of 14 inches on a jerkbait.  After little success in our first desired area we headed to a different bay where we hoped to find warmer water.  We finally got onto a wacky rig pattern skipping docks and by 10:30 A.M. Cody had landed our first two keepers in the boat.  We found a few more fish on some docks in different coves but they just weren't big enough.  At the end of the day we decided to make a quick run up river because of the projected warmer/muddier water.  I lost a fish in some heavy laydown and was worried that with little time left the fishing conditions weren't going to get much better.  With about 20 minutes until we needed to head back to the launch I hooked our third keeper off a rocky bank in between a couple of docks.  With only another minute or so before needing to head back in I got a bite that felt like a keeper bite but once I set the hook I nearly pulled the little 11 incher straight out of the water.  Cody and I finished the day in 19th place out of 40 schools with 6 lbs. 2 oz.  All in all, it was a fun weekend and a fantastic learning experience.  It seems a lot of the schools that finished with limits and in the top-5  were fishing rocky banks and points with crankbaits.  It was great finally getting to get back on some soft water though and we are now looking forward to this upcoming MI season!  We would like to thank our boater, Jamey Braugh for taking us out all day and fighting through that nasty weather with us.  We also want to thank our sponsors Scott Taylor from Revolution Baits, Brian McCarter from Nemesis Baits, and the Swierlik family at Auto Catalyst Recycling for making this trip possible.  With all of the baits and traveling expenses provided we couldn't have done it without you guys!

Rob Nowicki
MSU Bass Club
Vice President

[eetz]

Hey, nice job! 

[Ryan]

Nice job, fellas!  Keep up the good work!

[djkimmel]

Always a success when you catch any keepers under conditions like that. Especially when you are coming from the 'land of hardwater' directly and maybe a little rusty. Thanks for the report!

[markgoetsch]

Great job guys, aleast you made it sound like you had fun in the crappy weather.  Reminds me of the Big Ten this past fall.

[MIBasser]

Great job guys!  Go Green!!

[River Rat]

Nice work fellas! I'm proud you guys stuck to it thru crappy conditions to continue to work hard and earn your fish!!!

Scott

[McCarter]

Congrats guys.  Did the Codys Craw come into play at all?

McCarter himself

[MSUBass12]

To be honest Brian I fished it the majority of the first half of the day, but didn't get any bites  We just weren't fishing deep enough unfortunately.