Photo by Ron Sinfelt

In the classic Tony Curtis, Jack Lemon, and Marilyn Monroe movie Some Like It Hot, a curvaceous Marilyn huskily pronounces that some people prefer jazz when it is played hot. If I were asked to give a movie title, starring wintertime Virginia anglers seeking bass, I would call the film Some Like It Warm, Relatively Speaking. That’s when I think the best action is most likely to occur.

Witness the attempts that guide Mike Smith, who operates Greasy Creek Outfitters from his Willis home, co-guide Forest Presnell of Claudville, and I made to go fishing on the Upper New above Claytor Lake just this past winter. First, we planned to do a float on an early January Saturday, but snow ended our thoughts of that excursion. Then cold weather, icy rains, below 38-degree water temperatures or high winds and more snow caused Mike to cancel, in order, a mid-January Sunday outing, an early February Saturday trip, and several mid- and late February weekend floats until the three of us finally were able to go on Sunday, March 5.

That day when we arrived at 10:30 a.m. at the Foster Falls put-in on the New, the air temperature read, according to my fishing log, 45 degrees, the water temperature registered 44 degrees, the water color was green, and the wind no more than 5 mph. Indeed, the only negative for the day at its beginning was that a bluebird sky colored the western Virginia landscape. However, considering all that we had had to endure regarding the weather, the three of us were quite pleased with the conditions, again relatively speaking.

In the winter, and actually this is true anytime of the year on any of our state rivers or lakes, the two Ls, location and lures, demand attention. I asked Mike and Forest what types of areas I should target and with which baits. Both of them decreed that we would work rocky pools and that suspending jerkbaits were the bait of choice. Smith suggested such jerkbaits as the Ugly Duckling and the Smithwick Suspending Rogue in the clown pattern.

I opted for the Smithwick minnow imitation, although I had never had much luck in the winter with suspending hard-plastic artificials. Both guides assured me that that category of lure had been performing best for them the entire winter. The key, Forest detailed, was for me to make long casts, quickly work the bait down, and then bring the bait back with slow, though sharp, jerks of the rod. The two veteran Virginia anglers cautioned that I had better be prepared for a hit, for given the cold front and bluebird sky, we were not likely to receive many strikes.

For the first hour, none of us received even one of those “mushy” hits that wintertime smallmouths are so infamous for making. But at 11:40 a.m., I felt a heavy sensation on my 10-pound-test line and set the hook into what turned out to be a smallmouth. The fish immediately went deep, but thanks to some skillful boat maneuvering by Presnell, I was able to land the 17-inch smallie.