A Lake Built for Power, Filled by Stripers

Smith Mountain Lake began as a plan to dam two rivers for power, and it became the largest lake wholly inside Virginia and a striped bass fishery that produced several state-record fish. This is its history, drawn from a reference history and the state’s lake page, with a note on a fish kill in 2003.

Building the lake

Plans to dam the Roanoke and Blackwater rivers at the Smith Mountain gorge date to the late 1920s. Construction began in 1960 and was completed in 1963, and the lake reached its normal level in March 1966.

The striper fishery

The lake’s striped bass fishery produced several state-record fish in the 1980s and 1990s. In 2003, a die-off of adult striped bass was linked to an outbreak of a parasitic copepod, a shad winterkill in 2002 and 2003, and overpopulation. Stocking was later reduced, from 450,000 fingerlings in 1998 to an average of 336,179 a year from 2010 to 2016.

Why it is remarkable

A power reservoir became a destination striper lake. The fishery depends on stocking, so the number of fish is something managers can change.

Connection to the waterway

The summer striper advice on the Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR) page, covered in the Smith Mountain Lake guide, comes from the same fishery.

The lake today

Smith Mountain Lake covers about 20,600 acres in Bedford and Franklin counties and is the largest lake entirely inside Virginia. DWR says largemouth bass are the bulk of the fishery, with smallmouth in the lower lake, stocked striped bass, crappie, catfish, sunfish, white perch and stocked muskie that are rarely caught. Public access includes many ramps and marinas and accessible fishing piers at Smith Mountain Lake State Park, Franklin County Park, and the Oak Grove, Scruggs and Penhook facilities.

Current rules include five black bass a day with no more than two under 14 inches. For striped bass the limit is two a day, with none from 30 to 40 inches from November 1 to May 31, and no length limit from June 1 to October 31. DWR advises against catch-and-release for stripers in summer.

Seasons

DWR says stripers concentrate in the lower lake from June. Crappie are best from March to May and again in October and November. Largemouth bass do best in coves with piers, boathouses, fallen trees and points, and fishing is best at night or early morning in summer.

What anglers can take from it

Stripers in a stocked lake move with water temperature and bait, so go by the current DWR reports. More stories from Virginia waters are in the Dock Tales index.

Sources and caveats

The history and fish-kill details come from one secondary source, Wikipedia’s article on Smith Mountain Lake. The DWR lake page confirms that the fishery depends on stocking. We did not find a DWR fish-kill report, so treat the 2003 details as unconfirmed.