Berkley Lake Breakdown - 2026 Smith Mountain Lake Spring

By Pete Robbins 

 

The springtime Lake Murray events have historically been some of the toughest Big Bass Tour tournaments to predict. The big South Carolina lake is loaded with quality fish, but what contends for the overall grand prize varies substantially from year to year. 

 

For example, last year the winning fish weighed 7.84 pounds and there were four more over the 7-pound mark. The year before, however, top dog was 6.94. there were four more fish within a half-pound of that weight. 

 

It’s extra-critical to pay attention to the live leaderboard to maximize the value of a given fish – both for the hour and for the weekend. 

 

Some hours it takes over 4 pounds to get paid and at other times it takes about half that. In 2022, an 8.02 took top honors, and four other anglers who weighed in fish of 7.37 or more went home paid but slightly disappointed. 

 

Local stick Joey Sabbagha said that the lake has been extraordinarily productive over the past few weeks. He fished two tournaments last weekend. On Friday, he weighed in 24.49 and it took a bit over 25 to win. On Saturday, he had 23.88 and took top honors. But that’s for five fish, of course. 

 

He said that the big bags now are full of “cookie cutters, fours and fives. Big fish in both tournaments was about 6 ½. We’re not seeing the giants.” 

 

But that doesn’t mean they won’t show up when the BBT field puts their collective energy into the process over three full days of fishing. Sabbagha would not be surprised if the sevens started to show up. Again, anglers need to pay attention to the live leaderboard to maximize the value of individual fish. 

 

As for the fishing, he said that the lake level is still low, so “lots of the fish stayed deeper and out on the main lake.” That’s where he’s start the process, but there are two main bites going on. 

 

The first is around the blueback herring spawn early in the day, and lasting a little bit longer if it’s overcast or raining. These baitfish go through the ritual anywhere there is hard bottom – whether that be pea gravel, rock or something else, but he’d look to the north side of the lake for the best concentrations. Best lures include topwaters that create a commotion and which can be thrown a long way to breaking fish – such as the Berkley Drift Walker, Cane Walker and J Walker. Cycle among them throughout the bite. Sometimes the fish are indiscriminate and will eat anything that’s put into their orbit and other times they demonstrate a distinct preference for one over the others. 

 

Once that bite dies off or fizzles out, Sabbagha said that there are still fish spawning in the grass. There are concentrations here and there, but sometimes a monster female comes up for a short period of time and has a zone all to herself. There are a wide variety of ways to trick these sometimes-pressured fish. A Neko Rig with any one of Berkley’s soft stickbaits and worms – from the General to the Hit Worm to the new Wag Worm – can be deadly. So too can stubbier creature baits like the Power Hawg or Creature Hawg. Again, cycling through different lures can sometimes get seemingly disinterested bass to bite. If you find the right one, it can be worth the time to wait it out. 

 

There are also surprisingly some prespawn fish in the lake. While their numbers may be dwindling by the day, it can make sense to target them because they’ll still retain much or all of their winter weight. Sabbagha would target fish suspending under dock floats by throwing a Berkley Cull Shad soft prerigged swimbait at as many of them as possible. 

 

This tournament is a wild card from top to bottom, with a variety of strategies having the potential to win top honors along with multiple hourly prizes. Pay attention to the live leaderboard and adjust tactics and attitude accordingly.