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#1 Jul-18-13 9:30AM

CrankbaitGuy
Member
Registered: Mar-08-11
Posts: 90

Lake Brittle July 17 Report

With my unemployment tour happily ending soon, I literally accepted a new job from the water, out of morbid curiosity I went to Lake Brittle yesterday.  I haven't been there for at least seven years, early into Brittle's run as the Burke Lake of the Western PW/Eastern Fauquier area.

The lake is shallow and has very little shade, so the bass fishing was nothing as I feared.  I did talk to a guy on shore who claimed he caught 10 dink bass the day before, so as long as he released them, there will be some bass there.  Switching to mealworms on a bobber, I caught (and unfortunately gut-hooked) a pair of tiny green sunfish and safely caught and released a 5"..... golden shiner.

The real interesting story, at least according the concessionaire is the catfish.  As you'd expect this time of year, people are catching good numbers at night there.  I was also shown a picture of humongous flathead catfish that was caught there over the weekend.  Supposedly it weighed in at 87 lbs., which would be a new state record, but I don't think any proper measurements were done and I don't know what happened to the fish.

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#2 Jul-18-13 10:18AM

Bryan
Patagonian Toothfish
From: Bealeton, VA
Registered: Mar-18-11
Posts: 1194

Re: Lake Brittle July 17 Report

IMO, Brittle is not a great lake, but it is definitely full of catfish. There are some monsters caught there every year. Big channels and flatheads that were stocked by the state and blues that were stocked illegally by others. Not sure what to think about that alleged 87lber.

Thanks for the report.


tight lines

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#3 Jul-19-13 7:29AM

GregF
Northern Snakehead
Registered: Mar-21-11
Posts: 712

Re: Lake Brittle July 17 Report

Tyler and I fished Lake Brittle about 7 or 8 years ago in the Spring.  Rented a Jon Boat with a trolling motor.  I don't recall catching too much, BUT as we were cruising on the trolling motor to the far end of the lake toward a shallow flat, the entire area exploded with fish scurrying away.  We must have spooked several hundred fish (I am not exaggerating).  I was told later by the guy at the concession stand that they were Walleye that were mating.  That never made sense to me because it is such a shallow lake and would get awfully warm for Walleye.  Bottom line is that there was a lot of something in that lake and they were pretty good size.

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#4 Jul-19-13 8:06AM

Bryan
Patagonian Toothfish
From: Bealeton, VA
Registered: Mar-18-11
Posts: 1194

Re: Lake Brittle July 17 Report

GregF wrote:

Tyler and I fished Lake Brittle about 7 or 8 years ago in the Spring.  Rented a Jon Boat with a trolling motor.  I don't recall catching too much, BUT as we were cruising on the trolling motor to the far end of the lake toward a shallow flat, the entire area exploded with fish scurrying away.  We must have spooked several hundred fish (I am not exaggerating).  I was told later by the guy at the concession stand that they were Walleye that were mating.  That never made sense to me because it is such a shallow lake and would get awfully warm for Walleye.  Bottom line is that there was a lot of something in that lake and they were pretty good size.

If it was late March/early April, it was probably walleye. They come up on the shallow rocks and try to spawn every year around that time. You can shine a light in the water at night and see them all over the place. There are good numbers of them in Brittle (and some are quite large) but they are tough to catch. I usually get them by accident when I'm fishing for something else.


tight lines

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#5 Jul-19-13 2:09PM

CrankbaitGuy
Member
Registered: Mar-08-11
Posts: 90

Re: Lake Brittle July 17 Report

Brittle for some reason has been holding walleye relatively well since the 1980s at least.  I remember reading about the place back when the Washington Post had a fishing report.  According the VDGIF bathymetric map http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/fishing/wa … ittle.pdf, there is a relatively deep channel in the middle of the lake starting just before the two points.  I guess the walleye would just stack up in that until the fall.  If I knew how to troll effectively, I'd know what I would do.

For whatever it's worth, the photo looked like it was taken at Brittle and the flathead itself looked bigger than the picture I've seen of the current state record.  Of course, maybe the guy from the picture is really small?

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#6 Jul-20-13 6:19AM

GregF
Northern Snakehead
Registered: Mar-21-11
Posts: 712

Re: Lake Brittle July 17 Report

I know in Canada we BackTroll to move the bait as slowly on the bottom as possible, just bouncing off the bottom.  Not sure if that works on these Walleye.  Might have to give it a try on the Kayak sometime.

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#7 Jul-22-13 6:04AM

Bryan
Patagonian Toothfish
From: Bealeton, VA
Registered: Mar-18-11
Posts: 1194

Re: Lake Brittle July 17 Report

I've spent a good bit of time fishing for walleyes in Brittle and never had much success with traditional trolling tactics, though I know some people do catch them that way. Most of what I've caught has been by casting small plastics on ultralight gear, and I've caught some on cranks and jerks too. The biggest one I ever hooked in there was on a husky jerk cast from shore. I catch more in the winter than any other time, but they're typically very small.


tight lines

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