Lake Anna Bass – was it the Fluke?

Recently I was able to join my two kayak angling buddies, Jeff, and Zach for a trip on the “private” side of central Virginia’s infamous lake Anna. This lake is special because it is divided into two parts; the “public” and “private” regions or as the locals know it as the warm and cold side, the reason for this is that Dominion Power has a power plant on the lake that pulls cooling water, then dispenses the now warm water into what the plant calls, the cooling pools. The great thing about the cooling pools is that no matter how cold it is the water is always warm, so you can enjoy warm water fishing even in the middle of the coldest winter. The only issue is that access to this side of the extremely, extremely limited, and to use one of the handful of access points into the lake you need to “know” someone. Jeff knows someone.

Met with Jeff and Zach early that morning unloaded the kayaks (I was paddling the Cuda 12) and we launched to bluebird skies and light wind, water temps where in the mid 60’s. We where working docks, and flats with many baits that morning, from crankbaits, lipless cranks, A-Rigs, wacky rigged senkos, spinnerbaits, and bladed Jigs, with barely a bite or follow. Getting very frustrated with not putting any fish on the deck, we made a move and hit a bridge with rock and a concrete partition. I switched techniques and went with a Tommyhead Jig with a Powerteam lures finicky tickler in watermelon red flake, and immediately hooked up with a decent 9″-12″ largemouth bass. With moral now on the upswing I started catching bass on Cranks and Lipless Cranks.

With the bite now stalled I called out to Jeff and asked for a white Zoom Super Fluke in Albino. I rigged it weightless with a 4/0 EWG Mustad Ultra-point hook. I set up on a dock and made a short cast, and while the bait was sinking I used the Jackson Stand assist strap to get into a better position. I started working the bait with a jerk jerk pause and letting it sink when I watched the Fluke disappear in a flash of violence! Setting the hook I quickly realized that I had a very substantial bass on the end of my line and after a short, and spirited fight I landed the best bass of the day, an 18.5″ Largemouth bass, with a few quick pictures I released her to fight another day. Shortly (after Jeff and Zach switched over to weightless flukes) Jeff hooks up with his first bass of the day. As we worked our way out of that area I hit a long sand point with the fluke, working it back in near the surface the water explodes in a flash of green, and I am hooked up again with another large bass.

We worked our way back to the take-out, catching small bass all the way back. After a very long day on the water, the final tally was Zach, took the skunk home with him, Jeff, pulled 3 decent bass, and myself 13 bass, on 4 techniques but the fluke was the winner in this situation. One of the reasons for the basses sudden turn on is the bait switch, one thing I noticed is a single dying shad in the water, he was twirling and swimming very erratically, that is when I decided to switch baits up and we started catching bass. So next time your not getting bites hot and heavy take a look at the bait, mimic as close to the color, speed and size as possible, put the odds into your favor.