5/5 Lake Brittle, VA Report

[fish-aholic]

Well, worked until 8am this morning and rounded the morning off with a trip to a local Lake. Got on the water around 9:15 and fished until about 12:30. I started off working the shoreline with a spinner bait, no luck. Talked with a guy fishing night crawlers who said he'd only managed a few Sunfish and a couple nice catfish. I was looking for more fun that sitting with a bait under a bobber this morning. I continued working the shoreline with my spinner. I moved over to the Fish structure in the middle of the lake. I was marking plenty of fish at 3-9'. This lake is loaded with crappie so I broke out an ultralite, tied on a crappie jig and tried my luck. I managed a few bumps, but nothing took the bait. after working the brush pile with different styles at different depths and no luck, I tied off a Mepps Small Mepps Algia and headed back over towards the shoreline. First cast the ultralite bent over. I pulled out a 13" largemouth. Second cast, out came a nice fat bluegill. A few more bumps but no more fish. I worked my way back into a cove and realized there was nothing to be had back there. I worked my way back out to where I caught the first two fish and caught 2 Yellow perch back to back. a few more bumps and I worked my way back out of the cove, around the point and further down the lake. Nothing else happened to speak of, did see several large schools of shad swimming over near the fishing pier.

[Sam]

Great report, thanks! Do you usually find yellow perch mixed in with the largemouth?

[fish-aholic]

Well yellow perch is a funny story. You see, they are there 100% by accident. Lake brittle is stocked with Walleye (not that I've ever managed to pull one out of there) and a few years ago the hatchery accidentally dropped a load of yellow perch fry in this lake thinking they were Walleye fry. Can you say oops???? Now we have a new fish running around. They seem to be doing pretty good. Last time I caught one was when I took my daughter out there a little over a year ago and they were small. No more than about 6" The ones I caught yesterday were healthy, pushing 10-12" So who knows what this new fish will do in this lake. And largemouth??? The lake is only 77 Acres, so fish really don't have much choice but to be close to each other, if not mixed in together. http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/fishing...play.asp?id=22 The lake also has a serious issue with the thermocline as you can read in this article of Virginia Game and fish. http://www.dgif.state.va.us/fishing/...ms/walleye.pdf