With a great sunny day upon us, the Basswife demanded to be taken fishing on a lake. Last week, I put her on the Rappahannock River, but we had not done as well as she demanded. With the pressure on, I decided to take the quick drive to Abel Lake to see if we could do any better than the last time.
To put the bottom line up front, we were totally skunked. We had a few takes at the southern end of the lake but no hookups, and certainly, we did not touch a fish all day. So, it ended up being more of a scenic drive—motoring down the long, narrow lake at 3.5 mph—the max my trolling motor would produce.
We tried a little bit of everything. Plastic worms, crawfish, grubs, and I even put a popper on my 13-foot Tenkara rod to flip it at the shoreline. While I had some vicious strikes by the bluegills, nothing large enough to suck down the size two hook on the frog pattern I was using.
I was amazed at the number of other boats on the water. Given the lake’s size, the pressure rating remains “yellow,” but there were more people here than I had ever seen before.
Some high school kids were performing a high-diving exhibition on the tall cliffs on the eastern side of the lake below the road. The lake is very deep in most places, and I did not see anyone plunge to a horrible death. Their joyous screams and yells echoed down the steep valley created by the tall hills, which formed a narrow envelope to hold the water.
But I am not complaining. Any day on the water is a good day.
Getting There: From I95, take exit 140 onto Rt 630 towards Stafford. Turn left on Ramoth Church Road followed by a left on Kellogg Mill Road. Stay on that road until you reach the lake. The launch area is on the west bank after you go across the bridge
Able Lake Fishing Secrets Revealed? No. This is a very public location that is documented in on the Virginia VDGIF website.
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Date Fished: 6/5/2011
We fished the coves
Everyone was working the shoreline
Every cove had a boat
Even the upper lake was unproductive
Unless stated otherwise, this article was authored by Steve Moore