My girlfriend lives near Martinsville, VA so I had been thinking about trying out Philpott for a while. It is a deep highland reservoir that has smallmouth in addition to largemouth. I love wintertime fishing for bass when I can use a float and fly technique. Not much info available on the internet about fishing and no lake topo maps online so I was just going to learn as I went. I decided to start on bluff walls as I know these hold fish in winter time.
I caught a 15.5" smallmouth about 30 min into the day on the fly. Thought it was going to be a good day but I struggled. Fished what I thought was the main river channel for about 2 hours without another bite (I later found out it wasn't the channel) and saw very little bait. Made a move into a creek and found lots of bait and other fishermen. The day started calm and overcast but the a front was blowing through and the winds picked up to over 20 mph so it was hard to fish where I wanted. The bait I found was deep near the bottom with very little suspended. Conditions were tough to say the least.
For the rest of the day I got 2 bites on a swimbait, hooked one vertical jigging a tailspinner, and caught a tiny 6" bass near the end of the day on the fly. I only got to explore about 1/4 of the lake but what I did see definitely looks like it could be a good winter fishing destination.
Water clarity was at least 8-10 feet and the temp was 51.5 degrees. I later found a paper map online which shows lots of locations I can try on my next trip. It was $12 from Kingfisher maps if you are interested.
Hopefully, my next trip will have a bit better weather and I can get some more action but I caught a couple and got on the water for the first time in months. Overall a nice day.
PS. There are quite a few ramps on the lake but not all are open this time of year. I used the one near the dam where the marina is. The marina operator said this one stays open all year. There is a $5 fee to park and you need cash for the drop box.
I caught a 15.5" smallmouth about 30 min into the day on the fly. Thought it was going to be a good day but I struggled. Fished what I thought was the main river channel for about 2 hours without another bite (I later found out it wasn't the channel) and saw very little bait. Made a move into a creek and found lots of bait and other fishermen. The day started calm and overcast but the a front was blowing through and the winds picked up to over 20 mph so it was hard to fish where I wanted. The bait I found was deep near the bottom with very little suspended. Conditions were tough to say the least.
For the rest of the day I got 2 bites on a swimbait, hooked one vertical jigging a tailspinner, and caught a tiny 6" bass near the end of the day on the fly. I only got to explore about 1/4 of the lake but what I did see definitely looks like it could be a good winter fishing destination.
Water clarity was at least 8-10 feet and the temp was 51.5 degrees. I later found a paper map online which shows lots of locations I can try on my next trip. It was $12 from Kingfisher maps if you are interested.
Hopefully, my next trip will have a bit better weather and I can get some more action but I caught a couple and got on the water for the first time in months. Overall a nice day.
PS. There are quite a few ramps on the lake but not all are open this time of year. I used the one near the dam where the marina is. The marina operator said this one stays open all year. There is a $5 fee to park and you need cash for the drop box.