Tuesday Night Tournament – Sturgeon Creek Marina

Every Tuesday evening from February 10 through December 29, 2026, Sturgeon Creek Marina in Spotsylvania, Virginia, hosts a weekly bass fishing tournament on Lake Anna, one of the most consistently productive warmwater fisheries in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The tournament runs from 6 PM to 9:30 PM, placing it in the category of evening events that function as a regular social and competitive ritual for the Lake Anna bass fishing community rather than a one-off seasonal occurrence. The marina’s fully stocked tackle shop provides on-site access to equipment, and the lake’s surrounding woodland setting delivers the ambient acoustic quality of a Virginia Piedmont evening from spring through autumn in a way that repays the consistency of a weekly return visit.

Lake Anna as a Fishery

Lake Anna is a 13,000-acre reservoir in Spotsylvania, Louisa, and Orange counties, created in the early 1970s to supply cooling water for the North Anna Nuclear Power Station. The thermal discharge from the power station maintains elevated water temperatures in a designated section of the lake through all twelve months, creating a warm-water refuge that sustains bass activity and growth rates that a thermally unmodified Virginia reservoir of the same size could not support through winter. The lake holds largemouth bass, striped bass, crappie, catfish, and bluegill across its two primary sections, with the bass population responding particularly well to the extended warm-water season the thermal discharge provides. Tournament anglers fishing the Tuesday evening series accumulate seasonal knowledge across a 45-week schedule that spans every temperature and light condition the Virginia calendar delivers.

Good to Know: The Tuesday Night Tournament format is intended for the local angling community and the Lake Anna fishing circuit rather than as a visitor-facing tourism event. Families visiting Lake Anna for a weekend stay who want to observe a competitive lake fishing event in progress can position themselves at Sturgeon Creek Marina during the 6 PM check-in and departure window to watch the field launch. The 9:30 PM weigh-in provides a second observation opportunity for those remaining at the marina through the evening.

Lake Anna for Families and Weekend Visitors

Lake Anna supports a robust vacation rental economy along its 17 miles of shoreline, driven primarily by the lake’s combination of warmwater fishing, swimming beaches, boat ramp infrastructure, and a proximity to the Washington DC metropolitan area that puts it within a two-hour drive for a large concentration of urban-area households. The Lake Anna Winery, established in 1984 on a historic farm adjacent to the lake’s southwestern shoreline, is one of Virginia’s oldest licensed wineries and provides a half-day pairing of tasting room and vineyard walking trails that suits families with older children who want a non-water activity between lake sessions. For families and couples building a Lake Anna weekend around the Tuesday Night Tournament or the broader lake calendar, Lake.com lists several highly regarded waterfront vacation rentals on the lake, including Paradise at Lake Anna, Avalon II Lake Anna Waterfront, and the Sweet Serenity at Lake Anna with lake access, firepit, and hot tub, each providing the direct water adjacency that makes a Lake Anna stay inseparable from the lake itself.