Berkley Lake Breakdown - 2026 Smith Mountain Lake Spring

Crews Says Shallow Bite Will Dominate at Smith Mountain 

By Pete Robbins 

 

In a world where “you should have been here yesterday is the norm,” it’s rare to expect a tournament to be on the best days of the year, but that’s what veteran Elite Series pro says to expect for the upcoming Big Bass Tour even on Virginia’s Smith Mountain Lake. 

 

“It’s been taking in the mid- to upper-twenties to win nearly every tournament,” he said. “And recently there was a 30-stringer. I expect to see lots of 5- and 6-pounders, and I expect it’ll take a fish over 9 pounds to win.” 

 

That’s what it took last April, when Robby Halsey’s 9.13 pound brute claimed the top prize. Just as impressive, however, is the rest of the top five, all of whom exceeded 7 ½ pounds. Indeed, Smith Mountain has been a lake on the upswing I recent years. In each of the past four BBT events there, multiple 7-pounders have made it to the scales. 

 

Making it better this time around is that Crews said that the fish are rushing to the shallows to spawn. It’s a timing deal to find the big female on the bed – some of them are only there for a part of a single day – but sight fishing might not be the best way to get the job done. Indeed, Crews said he would not be surprised at all if someone blind casting from the back of the boat took top honors. 

 

“Those bigger fish, and especially the untouched ones, tend to be further out,” he said. “Just blind casting a finesse lure in spawning pockets will absolutely catch fish. On open banks, I like a dropshot. Around docks and overhanging cover a shakey head skips better and you can use a wacky rig just about anywhere.” 

 

Those anglers absolutely committed to looking at their quarry should cover water to find bass that have moved up temporarily. The region has had minimal rain over the past few months so visibly locating spawning fish is possible in a wide swath of the lake. Once he finds one, particularly a larger specimen, Crews prefers to go after them with creature baits. 

 

“Those big females like a bigger bait,” he said. “One of my favorite colors is green pumpkin flash, which is mostly natural, but has just enough flash to look like something moving.” 

 

He said that anglers who love to use their electronics can no doubt still have some success with forward-facing sonar, locating fish moving in and out of spawning areas, but “this is one of those windows where you don’t have to do that to win.” 

 

He also expects that by the time the tournament starts there will be a shad spawn going on in some areas of Smith Mountain. He tends to prefer to look for that where there’s a little more stain, so up either river. 

 

“It’s still a little too early for the herring spawn, but the shad should be spawning,” he stated. “It tends to go on in the first hour or so. A spinnerbait is my favorite way to chase those bass, but a wake bait or a topwater is also a good choice.” 

 

One other wild card pattern would be to go all-in on big baits. 

 

A glide bait or a big soft plastic boot tail could produce a big fish, but you need wind to get that going,” Crews explained. “If it’s calm, you’ll just get lots of followers and get really frustrated.” 

 

One thing for competitors to note is that with increasingly stout weights at the top of the leaderboard, the mark to earn hourly checks has likewise skewed upwards in recent years. Nevertheless, anglers can still make bank with some “tournament-sized keepers” if they’re judicious about when they weight them. The live tournament leaderboard provides a road map to getting paid.