Virginia Fishing Reports
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    • Virginia Bass Fishing
    • 2017 Annual Virginia Rivers and Smallmouth Bass Fishing Outlook
    • Fishing The Shenandoah River
    • Fly Fishing for Smallmouth Bass in September and October on the Shenandoah River
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    • Striper Mafia Tournament Series Returns
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    • Striped Bass Age - Length - Weight Chart
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    • Big stripers reach 20-year high at Smith Mountain Lake
    • Lake Gaston Striped Bass Fishing
    • Hit Lake Gaston for Winter Stripers
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    • Lake Anna Gains a New Species
    • Striped Bass Fishing Looking Up at Kerr
    • Buggs Island Lake: Top Area Striper Water
    • Stripers Life Begins in Small Hatchery
  • Virgiinia Catfishing Library
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    • Fishing for Catfish With Stephen Miklandric
    • Virginia's giant catfish are spreading
    • Monster blue catfish finding mixed reception
    • How did a Virginia lake produce a 143-pound catfish?
    • 2017/18 Tidal Blue Catfish Outlook
    • Real cool cats - How to catch Kerr Lake's catfish
  • Virginia Crappie Fishing Library
    • Virginia’s Best Crappie Fishing
    • Buggs Island has deep, slab crappie
    • Virginia’s best Crappie fishing waters
    • Get to Buggs Island Lake for great crappie fishing
    • Save the Crappies!
    • Kerr is king of Virginia's crappie fishing -- but it's no pushover
    • Kerr Lake Crappie Showing in Large Numbers
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    • Best Bets for Saltwater Fishing In Virginia
    • Spadefish Virginia’s version of an Angel Fish
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    • Mahi-Mahi Fishing Off Virginia Beach
    • Chesapeake Bay Spot Fishing
    • Atlantic Swordfish Fishing Off Virginia Beach
    • Fishing Piers in Newport News, Virginia
    • Where Have All the Big Fish Gone?
    • Coastal striped bass a no-show, but that could be changing
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Picture

Get to Buggs Island Lake for great Crappie fishing
by Jim Brewer at the Daily Press | Mar 1, 2012

Drop whatever you’re doing. Get a half dozen poles, a bait bucket and your tackle box. The crappie are biting at Buggs Island Lake.

Normally, crappie don’t get me all stirred up and excited, but these aren’t ordinary crappie. These are Buggs Island crappie — a species often used by Virginia biologists to stock new lakes and impoundments. Buggs Island crappie can reach and exceed four pounds apiece. Now that gets me excited.

Buggs Island Lake is Virginia’s largest, at 48,900 acres. Also called Kerr Reservoir, Buggs straddles the Virginia/North Carolina line, though most of the lake is in Virginia waters.

It’s been a while, but I once had the privilege of fishing with the Crappie master himself, Bobbie Whitlow: affectionately called “Bobcat”. Whitlow owns and operates Bobcat’s Bait & Tackle on Hwy. 15 below Clarksville. Bobcat has forgotten more about crappie fishing than most anglers will ever come to know.

I had met Bobbie at The Bassarama in Richmond and he invited me down when the fish started to hit at Buggs, around the first of March.

We fished back up in Grassy Creek in a special 16-foot flat bottom boat. Bobbie fanned about 10 long poles in every direction and we prowled the creeks until we found fish. That’s when the fun started. We filled a cooler with beautiful “slabs”. Slabs, by the way, are what you call the big boys — crappie in the two-pound category.

The fishing, according to Bobcat’s, has been excellent, especially in light of the beautiful spring-like weather this year.

The fish are gathering in thick schools in about 8 to 12 feet of water, anywhere from a foot beneath the surface down to the bottom. As the water warms, the fish will move into more shallow water yet. Right now, they are hitting jigs, sometimes tipped with a minnow and sometimes not. Kalin and Uncle Henry’s jigs have been producing well. Numerous 2-plus pound fish are coming to the scales. Bobcat’s said that the biggest crappie weighed in this February was 3.42 pounds. In one week alone, they weighed four crappie over 3 pounds.

Buggs Island Lake is probably Virginia’s premier freshwater fishery. It is a first-class largemouth impoundment. During spring tournaments, it often takes a combined catch of over 30 pounds to win — that’s for a limit of just five fish. The lake is full of shad and you rarely see a skinny bass at Buggs. They are all chunks, like a football. Prime fishing for bass occurs when the water level is high and gets up on the banks behind the bushes. A jig flipped back behind the bushes often ends up in a tug of war between a lucky angler and an angry bass.

Buggs also produces catfish over 100 pounds. The state record blue cat at 143 pounds was caught at Buggs last summer. Buggs is also a top spot for stripers, white bass, and white perch. It is one of only a few lakes in the United States where landlocked striped bass successfully spawn. It’s a great fishing lake to be sure.

If you go, stop by Bobcat’s first and find out what’s happening. The difference between a killer trip and one you’d like to forget can sometimes be the difference in a jig color. Buggs Island crappie can be more fickle than a 13-month-old sorting through a plate of sweet peas.

Bobcat’s address is 12690 on Hwy. 15. If you want to call ahead, it’s 434-374-8381. They are really nice folks, always eager to help with advice and tips.

The crappie are on fire at Buggs Island Lake — maybe I’ll see you there.

Fishing Tips

If you find yourself using a bobber this year (especially when fishing for crappie) make sure your tackle box is stocked with the lighter, more stream-lined balsa corks — not the round, plastic red and white bobbers you normally see. The plastic bobbers offer much more resistance in the water than the balsa floats. It takes more effort for a fish to pull the bobber beneath the surface and that often causes the fish to spit out the bait and hook. Use the lighter floats and you’ll get more hook ups.
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  • Home
  • Lake Fishing Reports
    • Back Bay
    • Briery Creek & Sandy River Reservoirs
    • Buggs Island Lake
    • Burke Lake
    • Chickahominy Lake
    • Claytor Lake
    • Diascund Reservoir
    • Farm Ponds
    • Lake Anna
    • Lake Chesdin
    • Lake Frederick
    • Lake Gaston
    • Leesville Lake
    • Lake Moomaw
    • Little Creek Reservoir
    • Occoquan Reservoir
    • Philpott Lake
    • Smith Mountain Lake
    • South Holsten Reservoir
    • Suffolk Lakes
    • Mid-Atlantic Freshwater Reports
    • Mixed Freshwater Reports
    • Miscellaneous Lake Reports
  • River Fishing Reports
    • Chickahominy River
    • Holsten River, South Fork
    • Jackson River
    • James River
    • Mattaponi / Pamunkey Rivers
    • Mossy Creek
    • New River
    • Occoquan River
    • Potomac River
    • Rappahannock River
    • Rivanna River
    • Shenandoah River
    • Small Streams
    • Miscellaneous Rivers & Streams
  • Saltwater Fishing Reports
    • Saltwater Reports
    • Mid-Atlantic Saltwater Fishing Reports
    • Saltwater Citation Reports
  • Tournament Reports
    • Buggs Island Lake
    • Lake Anna
    • Lake Gaston
    • Leesville Lake
    • Smith Mountain Lake
  • Upcoming Tournaments
    • Buggs Island Lake Tournaments
    • Chickahominy River Tournaments
    • Lake Gaston Tournaments
    • Smith Mountain Lake Tournaments
    • Miscellaneous Tournaments
    • Saltwater Tournaments
  • VDGIF Reports
    • 2017 Virginia Rivers and Smallmouth Bass Report
    • 2017/18 Tidal Bass Report
    • Virginia Reservoirs Ranked for Largemouth Bass Report
    • 2017/18 Tidal Blue Catfish Report
  • Virginia Fish
  • Where to Fish - Virginia Lakes
  • Where to Fish - Virginia Rivers & Streams
  • Virginia's Trophy Fish
  • Virginia State Record Fish
  • Virginia Fisherman Identification Program (FIP)
  • Virginia General Fishing Library
    • Virginia Fish Consumption advisories
    • Northern Snakehead Information
    • World Record Snakehead
    • Virginia’s Best Freshwater Fall Fishing
    • Virginia’s Top Lakes
    • 13 Local Fishing Spots in Virginia's Blue Ridge
    • 2018 Virginia Fishing Calendar
    • Didymo (Invasive Freshwater Algae) in Virginia
    • 2017 Virginia Impoundment Report
    • 16 Amazing Spots to Fish in Virginia
    • Virginia's Baitfish
    • Virginia Trophy Size Fish Chart
  • Virginia Bass Fishing Library
    • 2018 Virginia Largemouth Bass Fishing Forecast
    • The best smallmouth bass streams in Virginia
    • 2017 Top Places for Bass Fishing in Virginia
    • Aggressive Techniques for Virginia River Smallmouths
    • Virginia Reservoirs Ranked for Largemouth Bass Fishing
    • 2017 Tidal Bass Outlook
    • Where to Catch Virginia's Trophy Largemouth Bass
    • 2017 Top Virginia Bass Fishing Spots
    • Virginia Smallmouth Bass Rivers Overview Report
    • Largemouth Bass Virus in Virginia
    • Virginia Bass Fishing
    • 2017 Annual Virginia Rivers and Smallmouth Bass Fishing Outlook
    • Fishing The Shenandoah River
    • Fly Fishing for Smallmouth Bass in September and October on the Shenandoah River
  • Virginia Striped Bass Fishing Library
    • Striper Mafia Tournament Series Returns
    • Parasites Remain in Smith Mountain Lake Striped Bass
    • Striped Bass Age - Length - Weight Chart
    • Smith Mountain Lake striped bass fishery in decline
    • Big stripers reach 20-year high at Smith Mountain Lake
    • Lake Gaston Striped Bass Fishing
    • Hit Lake Gaston for Winter Stripers
    • Lake Anna Striped Bass Fishing
    • Lake Anna Gains a New Species
    • Striped Bass Fishing Looking Up at Kerr
    • Buggs Island Lake: Top Area Striper Water
    • Stripers Life Begins in Small Hatchery
  • Virgiinia Catfishing Library
    • New Virginia State Record Flathead Catfish
    • 2018 Virginia Catfish Forecast
    • Your Guide To Virginia’s Best Catfish Angling
    • World Record catfish caught at Buggs Island Lake
    • Big flathead catfish on the James River
    • Fishing for Catfish With Stephen Miklandric
    • Virginia's giant catfish are spreading
    • Monster blue catfish finding mixed reception
    • How did a Virginia lake produce a 143-pound catfish?
    • 2017/18 Tidal Blue Catfish Outlook
    • Real cool cats - How to catch Kerr Lake's catfish
  • Virginia Crappie Fishing Library
    • Virginia’s Best Crappie Fishing
    • Buggs Island has deep, slab crappie
    • Virginia’s best Crappie fishing waters
    • Get to Buggs Island Lake for great crappie fishing
    • Save the Crappies!
    • Kerr is king of Virginia's crappie fishing -- but it's no pushover
    • Kerr Lake Crappie Showing in Large Numbers
  • Virginia Saltwater Fishing Library
    • Best Bets for Saltwater Fishing In Virginia
    • Spadefish Virginia’s version of an Angel Fish
    • Red Drum and Black Drum on the Chesapeake Bay
    • Virginia Flounder
    • Summer Cobia fishing in Virginia Beach
    • Mahi-Mahi Fishing Off Virginia Beach
    • Chesapeake Bay Spot Fishing
    • Atlantic Swordfish Fishing Off Virginia Beach
    • Fishing Piers in Newport News, Virginia
    • Where Have All the Big Fish Gone?
    • Coastal striped bass a no-show, but that could be changing
  • Links