NORTHERN MOUNTAIN REGION
The Northern Mountain Region can be a tough location for a largemouth bass angler to fish. In this issue, we put the spotlight on a river that many would feel unlikely to get any positive attention because of recent unexplained fish kills that took out a number of smallmouth bass and redbreast sunfish.

Steve Reeser, regional fisheries biologist, pointed out that the fish kill on the Shenandoah River has not affected the largemouth bass at all. In fact, while on a recent sampling trip on the river, he and his crew collected plenty of bass in the 3- to 5-pound range. This trend occurred on the North Fork, South Fork and the main river.

Reeser indicated that the fish were predominately in water that was 6 to 8 feet deep near structure. The dam pools are particularly good spots to fish for largemouths, according to our source.

“Anglers should find good numbers of largemouths in the dam pools on the river near Warren, Luray, Newport and Shenandoah, as well as large, deep, natural pools. We usually sample at least one big largemouth on each sampling trip that would go 6 pounds or more.”

Reeser also explained that in some areas of the river largemouth bass make up 50 percent of the bass population. Food items for these river fish are mostly other fish, including small sunfish, shiners, minnows and crayfish.

Call (540) 248-9360 for more information on fishing in the Northern Mountain Region.

NORTHERN PIEDMONT
There are three great largemouth destinations that we are profiling this month in the Northern Piedmont. Mountain Run, located in Culpeper, is small at 75 acres in size. During 2005, it ranked third for the number of largemouth bass sampled in an hour that were in the “preferred” size range (measuring more than 15 inches). Thirty-seven bass were collected in one hour measuring more than 15 inches. There is wooded shoreline at Mountain Run, which makes for good bass cover.

Biologists have noted that they find nice bass when they sample the uplake and left side of the lake. There is a good depth profile and plenty of good habitat. Mountain Run has a very nice boat ramp with a courtesy pier. Shore-fishing is very limited, but there is a picnic area nearby. Permits are required and can be obtained from the town of Culpeper, (540) 727-3423. On weekends, the police department handles permits. They can be reached at (540) 727-3430. Take Route 29 south from Culpeper, then turn right on Route 718 to the lake.

Lake Chesdin straddles the Chesterfield-Dinwiddie county line. The 3,100-acre water supply lake has excellent bass fishing and makes a fine destination for largemouth anglers in the Richmond area.

Biologists did an intensive sampling of the lake in 2005. According to the data that Dean Fowler collected for VDGIF, largemouth bass appear to be moderately abundant and in good shape at Chesdin.

“The age distribution of the population was excellent. Bass up to 11 years old were collected and every age group was represented in the sample. The size structure of the bass population was also excellent. Bass were common throughout their size range, and four fish longer than 20 inches were collected.”