The basswife and I have not been out to Lunga in several years – so what the heck – we went out there in search of Walleye. According to the fish and game folks, Walleyes are stocked in Lunga and coexist with a diverse population of fish that includes bass, catfish, perch and pickerel. After trolling around fruitlessly on Lake Erie, I was anxious to see if that fishing technique would produce better results on my home ground. Besides, I had just purchased some Down East rod holders that I just had to try out on the bass canoe.
We hit the lake fairly early in the day for us – around 0930 or so and started immediately to work. The rod holders mounted quickly, I rigged up a few of the triangle rigs the “hawg hunter” used on Lake Erie and attached a 5 inch spoon smeared with fish attractant.
We motored out using the trolling motor crusing at 1.9 miles per hour according to the GPS… and nothing. We noticed that fish were hitting surface bait as we trolled down the southern wing of Lunga so, after 45 minutes or so, we switched back to normal bass fishing.
We used the typical lures – plastics, scum frogs and buzzbaits – all to no avail. Not even a hit. Just was not meant to be.
The lake was not particularily pressured – there were a few other boats out there but not bad – so I blame our failure on our technique. One point on Lunga – it does not have a lot of good, obvious structure like Breckinridge or Curtis. You are left with fishing the points and looking for the drop offs. I suppose if you spent a significant amount of time on this lake, you would learn
where all those spots were. But for us, coming out cold after a few years (and when I was last on this lake, I did not have a fishfinder to penetrate the murky water and devine the hidden structure below), it was a crap shoot. The pros say that the secret to success is to find the 10% of the lake that the fish use – we probably spent all our time on the other 90%.
Bottom line: Count me out. If I’m going to Quantico, I’ll hit Smith or Breckinridge instead.
Getting there: Take the exit 148 off I95, go right. A mile or so after leaving the highway, you will come up on the Marine checkpoint. Show your ID and just keep going straight. The road goes right to the Lunga Reservoir. Start looking for the right turn a few miles after you go past the FBI Academy.
View up the lake. As you can see, there is not substantial structure that would be an obvious bass holder.
Even the brown gulp worm shown in the lower right of this picture failed to spark any interest…
Unless stated otherwise, this article was authored by Steve Moore