American fishing holidays

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American Fishing Holidays

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SPECIES INFORMATION, HABITAT PREFERENCES, SPAWNING DETAILS AND THE BEST BAITS TO USE

Striped Bass

Common Names: Striper, Rockfish.

Best Fishing: Lakes: Smith Mountain, Buggs Island, Anna, Claytor, Gaston, Leesville and Western Branch. Rivers: Staunton/Roanoke and all tidal rivers.

Fishing Techniques: Heavy bait casting, spin casting or spinning outfits with a good backbone and 15 to 25 pound test line. Live bait includes large minnows or gizzard or threadfin shad. Large feathered or plastic jig combinations, spoons, crank baits that imitate shad or other fish and bucktails. Trolling, drift fishing, jump fishing or deep jigging are the usual methods of fishing.

Identification: True bass family. Streamlined, elongate body; coloration shades from dark olive above through silvery sides to a white belly. Horizontal black stripes originate behind the head and extend to the tail. More prominent than on the white bass. Ten to 15 pound fish are common with 30 to 40 pound –plus fish landed each season. State Record: 49 pounds 4 ounces from Smith Mountain Lake.

Feeding Habits: Like other temperate bass, they travel in schools, feeding in open water on smaller schooling fish, such as gizzard shad. They also eat a variety of insects and aquatic organisms.

Habitat: Stripers are an anadromous, open water fish, entering freshwater rivers to spawn. However, this species has adapted well to freshwater, and landlocked stripers have been established in several lakes.

Spawning Habits: Each spring they migrate up tributary rivers of larger reservoirs to spawn, often just below dams or upstream obstructions. When water temperatures are from 55 to 60 degrees F., the females deposit their semi-buoyant eggs in the current. They are fertilized as they are being released, and they stay afloat until the fry hatch out.

Hybrid Stripers

Also called wipers or white rocks. They are striped bass/white bass crosses and share many of the same attributes, except they don’t spawn.

Best Fishing: Lakes: Claytor, Chesdin.

Pike

Common Names: Pike, pickerel, jackfish.

Best Fishing: Lakes: Orange, Occoquan, Motts Run, and Arrowhead (Page)

Fishing Techniques: Still fishing with large minnows or other baitfish, or casting or trolling with large spoons, spinner-bucktails or crankbaits.

Identification: Member of the pike family, Esox. A long, lean body, generally olive or dark green above fading to a light-olive or gray-green to yellowish –green then to white on its belly. Its sides have light yellowish bean-shaped spots the length of its body. Strongly toothed jaws have teeth arranged in rows, plus rows of teeth located on its tongue and palate. They angle inward so its prey cannot get loose. Cheek is fully scaled, gill cover is only half scaled. State Record: 31 pounds, 4 ounces from Motts Run Reservoir.

Feeding Habits: Eats other fish, including minnows of all sizes, suckers, shad, and yellow perch. Will take fish almost its own size on some occasions. Also feeds on frogs, salamanders, worms, insects, mice, muskrats, snakes, ducklings, other birds and any other terrestrial animal that blunders into the water.

Habitat: Non indigenous to Virginia, they are found in shallows in spring and fall, around weed beds. In summer they seek out deeper waters near drop-offs, but seldom below 35 feet. They may move up creek arms or around underground springs where there is cooler, moving water.

Spawning Habits: Spawns early in spring. Females broadcast adhesive eggs, which are fertilized as they drop to the bottom vegetation. Eggs are abandoned and hatch in two to three weeks. Young attach to vegetation by means of a suction cup-like appendage on the top of its snout. Fry are vulnerable to predators.

Chain Pickerel

Common Names: Chain sides, jack pike, pike.

Best Fishing: Rivers: Nottoway, Blackwater, Chickahominy, Dragon Run. Lakes: Chickahominy, Gaston, Western Branch, Diascund, Burnt Mills, Prince, Anna, Cohoon, Little Creek, Moomaw, Douthat and many other rivers, ponds and lakes.

Fishing Techniques: Best time is from October through March. Most active when water temperatures are 55 to 70 degrees F. Spinners, spoons, bucktails, jigs, pork rind baits and a variety of crankbaits will take pickerel. Minnows are the best live bait. Fish the edges of weed beds, lily pad beds, sunken brush or tree stumps.

identification: A member of the pike family, it is named for its chain-like markings on its sides. Also has a black vertical mark under its eye. Normally its fin are unmarked. Averages 1-1/2 to 3 pounds and tends to be a little stockier than its cousin the northern pike. Fully scaled on both cheek and gill cover. State Record: 7 pounds, 10 ounces from private Lake Shawnee.

Feeding Habits: Feeds on small fish, insects, worms, snakes, salamanders, frogs, tadpoles and small mammals. Pickerel tend to be solitary fish, lurking hidden in the aquatic vegetation, waiting for prey to swim or drift by. They feed day or night, year round, but mostly in early mornings and evenings. While they are mostly territorial and stick to a relatively small area, they are more active and may roam and search for food during the cooler months.

Habitat: Common in rivers and streams, they are also found in reservoirs and impoundments on the rivers they inhabited. Even in the smallest of creeks you may find pickerel. Prefers shallow, weedy waters.

Spawning Habits: They spawn in early spring, broadcasting their eggs over vegetation in water a foot or two deep. Young attach to vegetation until they use up their egg sack.

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