Lake Anna _ Feb 8th

Lake Anna trip on February 8th yielded over 125 crappie. The fish were all male and moving up in to the shallow water. I caught the fish in 5 to 10 feet of water on jigs and minnows but only 25 keeper size crappie between ten to 12 inches. Water temps started around 46 degrees and ended up near the 50 degree mark. Jig colors were smoke, Arkie electric blue, and shad color. All fish were caught in the upper end of the lake near the creek beds. Sorry but no pictures as I am just learning to navigate this site.

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Welcome to the board. Nice mess of fish.

Thanks Ranger690

Glad you had a good day. Sounds like you know the lake and how to catch those slabs. Keep us posted when you can!

I am hoping to be able to post regularly from the Fredericksburg area and the lakes around here. Thanks!

That's pretty impressive for early February. This month has never treated me kindly. Nice job. Surprised to hear they are shallow this early.

Thanks for the report--sounds like a very nice day of fishing.

Great report, thanks for sharing.

nice report, thanks for sharing

Nice job! Water temps probably dropped quite a bit after these last couple days.

Thanks to all for your support and welcomes to the forum. I hope to go again on Tuesday.

I'm new here so if I do something that I'm not suppose to just let me know. I just started fishing Lake Anna. I'm trying to figure out the crappie here and haven't had much luck. Can anyone tell me where I need t be at to find them? I keep hearing upper lake but I'm not sure where that is. I usually put in at christopher run. I'm going out tomorrow (for my birthday) to see if I can find them. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome. I've only been on Anna twice in my life and both times for stripers. But bridge pickings are a great place to start a search in winter or summer. Perfect structure and normally provide plenty of depth. Now they might be at 3' or 15', but I'd bet there are some there. Bridge pillings also give a great, defined sun/shade line when the fish do come up. Something the like baits moving into the Shad, sometimes they hammer them when they hit the sunny side. Ole Dave at Buggs Island proved that to me.

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Originally Posted by Ranger690

Bridge pillings also give a great, defined sun/shade line when the fish do come up. Something the like baits moving into the Shad, sometimes they hammer them when they hit the sunny side. Ole Dave at Buggs Island proved that to me.

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I found this true last year on the hot side of Anna. Not crappie, but we hammered the LM on one of the canal bridges two days in a row doing the exact thing you mentioned. Fishing soft jerk type baits they would get destroyed as soon as they left the shade of the bridge and hit the sunny water.

Stitch, sorry for the late reply but ive been working the past couple of days long hours. I have been catching a lot fish infront of tims restaurant in the north anna arm of the lake. Tha but this week they had moved on probably to shallower water and I didn't find them again. I figure they were I In transition. However they were biting small minnows and electric blue jigs pretty good. I went twice this week and nothing much but small crappie. White perch are really hitting blood worms.

Never fished Anna But I would look in the backs of the creeks and see if there are shad flicking on the surface start there. Also the fish turn on after 3 pm in the late winter. Some of my best days were in feb and fishing 3 ft in 5 feet of water. Good luck!!!