Smith Mountain Lake tips and recommendations?

[poordealguy]

Spending the first week of July on Smith Mountain Lake. Rented a house with a dock closer to the state park. This will be our first trip to that area. Tips and recommendations would be much appreciated -
1) Good spots for younger kids to tube and get on a zup board?
2) Coves and/or sand bars to hang out at
3) Keep seeing bridge water plaza pop up. What are some other family friendly restaurants on the water?
4) Best spot to anchor for fireworks?
5) Any spots to stay away from or navigate extra carefully (debris in the water, rocks, weeds etc)?
6) recommended activities for a rainy day or when kids want a day off the water?
7) And lastly, any recommendations for pet sitters or doggy day cares in the area?

thanks all!

 

[h2oskierfl95]

Following. I will be there the week after you.

 

[OBXjetboater]

Following. Will be going there the 2nd week of August!

 

[granpachuck]

Spending the first week of July on Smith Mountain Lake. Rented a house with a dock closer to the state park. This will be our first trip to that area. Tips and recommendations would be much appreciated -
1) Good spots for younger kids to tube and get on a zup board?
2) Coves and/or sand bars to hang out at
3) Keep seeing bridge water plaza pop up. What are some other family friendly restaurants on the water?
4) Best spot to anchor for fireworks?
5) Any spots to stay away from or navigate extra carefully (debris in the water, rocks, weeds etc)?
6) recommended activities for a rainy day or when kids want a day off the water?
7) And lastly, any recommendations for pet sitters or doggy day cares in the area?

thanks all!

Very jealous, love that lake and the week we spent there. The lake is very deep, so make sure you bring some long anchor line. Also one of the cleanest lakes, 2nd to Lake James in NC in my opinion. I would also pack some good spot lights if you head out on the water at night, and make sure your running light are working well. I was surprised at the speed of some of the boats on the water at night.

For board sports, your best bet may to search the area near your house and find some quiet coves. I used the navionics app to check for water depth. There are some well marked shoal areas to watch out for. Plenty of beach areas too, well marked. At the bridge, you can find some good maps, try the real estate offices for good free ones.

Sorry, I do not have a specific spot to recommend. Weekdays you probably will be able to find relatively quiet water for boarding. If you are near Crazy Horse Marina, there were some good spots there to board or ski. Worth checking out too is the dam area.

We normally would pick a place for lunch and just make it our destination . The Landing was expensive, only did that once. I think we hit Jakes, Magnum, it was just fun to pull in and grab a meal or cold drink.

The bridge area is very busy, we gassed up there and had a few meals. Food was just ok, service was pretty bad. Still worth the stop and docking is easy.

No help for baby sitting or dog sitting, sorry. Depending on what part of the lake you are staying, it may be pretty remote, not much in the way of malls .

Have fun ! Pack foul weather gear. With the mountains surrounding you, storms pop up, we just rode it out and got on with it after it cleared.

 

[poordealguy]

@granpachuck, thank you! Will download area maps in Navionics before we head out. The house we will be at does not have wifi. What was your experience with cell phone coverage? We are on Verizon.

 

[granpachuck]

@granpachuck, thank you! Will download area maps in Navionics before we head out. The house we will be at does not have wifi. What was your experience with cell phone coverage? We are on Verizon.

I don't think it was an issue, that is all I remember, we have Verizon too. The house had wifi so we were not relying on cell service.

 

[poordealguy]

Saturday, Day 1 - launched from the state park ramp and docked at the house, $3 launch fee. Lots of big wake heading from the park to the house. Can see tubing being fun but may have to find a quieter channel for boarding.
Kids swam right off the dock. There are no no wake zones around the homes and lots of jet skiers going fast so our group stayed close to the dock and shore. Some other families brought their own buoys to create swim zones. We may do that next time.
Had the wrong date for fireworks so headed to Mitchell’s point marina around 8pm. Lots of nice, single boat docks, good pizza. We would visit again. Had trouble with navionics routing onThe way back and the depth alarm went off over some 6’ areas. The lake has marked channels that we will try to map on navionics today.
Fishing, tubing today. Will try to post as many updates to help others going.

 

[poordealguy]

So I failed miserably at posting daily updates! However, most of them would have read "swam, boated, tubed, boarded, fished all day"...
We ate out only thrice - Mitchell's Point marina, Edo Sushi (sashimi was not bad but not great, maki was only so so, portions are smaller than we are used to), and Benny Adelina's Pizza (giant 28" thin crust pizza, very good hot, ok cold). Bought groceries at Food lion in Moneta, the VA ABC store is right next door. Also ordered a birthday cake with whipped frosting from the Food Lion bakery - 9 y/o said it was one of his favorite birthday cakes. Also, if you, like us, don't have a Bojangles in your state, there's one a few minutes drive from Bridgewater Plaza for all your cajun fried chicken and biscuit needs.
Rented a jet ski from Bernard's landing on one day. Ski was in good shape for a rental. From Bernard's landing Parkway is the closest marina with gas. Gas was 60c per gallon cheaper at Parkway compared to Virginia Dare marina.
We needed to refuel once during the week. We forgot to take extra gas cans so pulled the boat at the State Park ramp and trailered it to be refueled at the White House store gas station. It was pretty painless.
Boaters are courteous and watchful of people in the water. We only had one, slightly nervous moment on a very windy day with a lot of chop when it looked like a boater may not see a smaller 7 y/o in the water. He swerved away when he saw the riderless tube behind us. We stayed out of the main channel when tubing etc. There are plenty of coves and often we were the only boat in a cove making it ideal for board sports.
We did not come across any debris in the water. The water was very, very clean, even near the docks and ramps. We also did not need to anchor - there was plenty of space to bob about with little to no risk of running aground. After the first night's trip back from Mitchell's point marina, we used manual routing on Navionics when out after sunset. Again, majority of the boaters were courteous and cautious at night with few boats going over 5-8 mph (of course, there's always that one idiot...).
If you have a property with a dock, would recommend washing any accumulated mud/dirt off the dock to minimize red soil stains. We have a no shoes on board policy but even then we soon had a red soil stained swim platform. Used mean green, light scrubbing and then a pressure wash once we got home and now its as good as new.
Landed a few large mouth, and crappie, and lost two dipsy divers, one of them to a monster striper. That's my story and I am sticking to it.
The State Park has good, shaded, trails for hiking/biking and a nice play ground. We spent a couple of blazing hot/rainy afternoons exploring those. The trails are not paved so a bike with off road tires may be a better choice than one with hybrid tires.
We were hoping to get some lessons at Blackwater Junction Wake Park but did not receive a response from them - they are by appointment only.

Overall, the week at Smith Mountain Lake ranks as an all time top vacation for our family - we have already reserved a week next year!

 

[granpachuck]

Great write up. Can't wait to go back. We have a friend that offers us their house, and we are trying to work out a short trip. You did better on gas than I did; I feel like I was filling up often.

Noted your comment on the clean water. Makes boating and water sports that much more enjoyable.

 

[poordealguy]

Great write up. Can't wait to go back. We have a friend that offers us their house, and we are trying to work out a short trip. You did better on gas than I did; I feel like I was filling up often.

Noted your comment on the clean water. Makes boating and water sports that much more enjoyable.

The only thing better than a friend with a boat is a friend with a lake house!! Hope you are able to make the trip. We would love to do a fall trip but the drive time for us is too long for just a weekend...

 

[granpachuck]

We are going this Sunday, cant wait.

 

[granpachuck]

The only thing better than a friend with a boat is a friend with a lake house!! Hope you are able to make the trip. We would love to do a fall trip but the drive time for us is too long for just a weekend...

We are sneaking in one more trip to SML, but to a rental on the north side of the lake near the airport. I will have to find a different boat ramp . Is there more than 1 state park boat ramp? I am hoping to find a place I can launch and also leave my trailer there.

 

[poordealguy]

We are sneaking in one more trip to SML, but to a rental on the north side of the lake near the airport. I will have to find a different boat ramp . Is there more than 1 state park boat ramp? I am hoping to find a place I can launch and also leave my trailer there.

We only used the one in the state park. I don’t recall seeing any long term trailer parking near that maybe call the state park and ask if you can you use the campground lot?

 

[granpachuck]

We only used the one in the state park. I don’t recall seeing any long term trailer parking near that maybe call the state park and ask if you can you use the campground lot?

Just got back from another great trip to SML, this one was quite different though. We stayed near the Virginia Dare Marina. We launched at the State Park, and I left my trailer in the over flow lot, locked up. The park rangers were very helpful, and did not charge me to leave it there, or to come back to recover it and my boat.

We only had time for one ride up to Bridgewater Marina. We did all of our tubing, boarding and skiing in our cove. It was large, but fairly quiet.

Driving from the Raleigh area of NC, this was a more challenging drive pulling the boat thru the mountains. The roads on the east side of the lake coming from the south are not well developed, and we probably would hesitate making that drive again.

Had a blast, can't wait to go back.