By Brian Boog
The month of June felt like you were fishing on the sun! It was no joke. Welcome back to Small Waters and I hope everybody caught ‘em during the blistering heat wave. The water temperatures are hovering in the high 80s and low 90s and topwaters, frogs and giant wake baits are absolutely getting crushed on many area waters! This is my favorite time of year to fish early and try to beat the heat and catch a few hawgs in the process before you melt. I hope your fishing this month has been as much fun as mine.
This month I’m writing about Sandy River Reservoir near Farmville. I had the pleasure of taking the two-hour drive from Williamsburg and fishing at this central Virginia bass factory. Sandy River is located in Prince Edward County, slightly east of Farmville. All you have to do is put Sandy River Reservoir boat ramp into your GPS and it’ll take you right to it. No problems at all.
This is a 740-acre water supply impoundment. It’s a relatively new lake in Virginia. It opened for fishing in 1996 and is owned by the county of Prince Edward. You can use motors up to 10 hp. The DWR website states that there are largemouth bass, crappie, redear sunfish, channel cats, bluegill and everybody’s favorite, pickerel – a.k.a. the “slime dart.”
The parking lot and boat ramp at Sandy River look to be new and in spotless condition. There are tons of parking spots for at least 30-40 trucks and trailers, two boat ramps with a dock in between and a separate kayak launch near the ramps. There’s also another, larger fishing pier.
All of the times I went, regardless of the time of day or night, there were boats out fishing. I only fished there during the week and the place was really busy – I can’t imagine what it’s like on the weekends. That’s the cost of doing business when you’re considered one of the best bass lakes in Virginia!
Sandy River is a special lake. You can feel it when you’re there. Putting the boat in you tell yourself “This is gonna be good.” It just looks fishy.
Sandy River has depths up to 30 feet, with the majority of the lake in the 20-foot range. The majority of the deepest water is right in the area of the boat ramp. The shorelines are shallow with a nice tapering drop off into deeper water. From the boat ramp, you have some choices. You can go straight out and eventually get to a fork in the lake with two long creek channels. Take the left side and it brings you to one of the stump fields. Or you can go left at the boat ramp and fish the deep water at the dam and eventually get to a third creek channel.
The biggest issue of fishing Sandy River is coming up with a game plan of what you’re going to do, because everything looks awesome.
Remember, Sandy River is 740 acres. In a long day, with your trolling motor going, you can fish the entire reservoir no problem. Or you can keep coming back and hunker down in a different creek arm for the day.
The first day I went there, I had no idea what to expect. I brought my seven or eight confidence rods and headed out. Everything from a jig to a ten-inch wake bait. I fished for four hours, and I have to honestly say, I got skunked. I couldn’t figure a thing out. I threw the kitchen sink at them, and I couldn’t get one of them to bite.
The next week I returned at the crack of dawn determined to redeem myself. I set out with a small understanding of what the lake was about. I went straight out from the boat ramp, went around the corner on the left-hand side and headed down the reservoir towards the opening of the second cove. It had trees, a lily pad field and a drop off in the middle of the cove into about 13 feet of water. It looked like a great place to start. I started the day throwing a Shower Blows 125 walking bait covering water. After casting for what seemed like an eternity with nothing to show for it, I decided to slow down and downsize to my favorite popper – a half ounce Yellow Magic in alewife.
After a few casts around the duck weed, I had my first blow up – a three pounder. This continued in the area for another half hour or so until the sun was up over the trees. At the end of this flurry, I had caught five fish and missed two more. Nothing was over three-and-a-half pounds.
I ended up going all the way down and back following the next creek arm and never caught another fish. I crossed to the other side, working my way back to boat ramp throwing a Jackhammer with a Spunk Shad trailer. By the time I got to the ramp, I had caught four more smaller fish. It ended up being a decent day. Maybe seventeen pounds on my best five fish.
The following week, I made another trek out. It ended up being over 100 degrees by the end of the day. The surface water temps in the afternoon reached 95.8.
This time, I had an even better understanding of the lake and was determined to break 20 pounds on my best five fish. This time I brought some crankbait rods and my normal arsenal of confidence baits – jig, Jackhammer, popper, walking bait and a frog.
At daybreak, I started in the same area as the week before throwing the popper and a frog and there wasn’t a blow up to be had. Seriously? I moved out into the middle of the cove and started throwing a Rapala DT-10 in blue shad towards the trees next to the lily pads. Within a minute or two, I got blasted by a 4-13 freight train. It tried to rip the rod right out of my hands. About five minutes later, another angry 4-9 did the same thing. That was it in that area, so I moved on.
After those two fish, it went quiet for an hour or so. I continued working my way around the shoreline of the lake. I couldn’t figure out what to do, so I decided for the rest of the day that I would put the half ounce Jackhammer with a white Spunk Shad trailer in my hands and throw at every piece of cover that I saw.
In the end, the slower my retrieve, the harder the fish hit it. These fish are angry! Later in the day, I started flipping the Jackhammer next to laydowns in six to ten feet of water and just getting crushed by four pounders on the drop. I had bass that weighed 3-9, 4-15, 4-7 and 4-2. It wasn’t stopping and it was fun! What an epic day! I ended up catching 20 or so fish in the three- to four-pound range. Nothing over five, but still an unbelievable day and I got my 20 pounds!
In the next couple of weeks, I went back a few more times with decent results. I never ended up breaking five but had solid days with a nine-inch M.S. Slammer wake bait, popper and a DT-10. If only it was closer to Williamsburg. I’d never fish anywhere else!
Sandy River has everything you could want in a reservoir. Deep water, pads, trees, laydowns, points, rip rap, bridge pilings, brush piles, stump fields and shallow flats. It’s so worth your time to at least spend the day or go there every day and fish.
If you live in the area close by, consider yourself lucky. You get to fish Sandy River whenever you want.
See you next month. Be safe out there. Any suggestions of small waters I should fish – Email me woodsandwatersmagazine@gmail.com.
