Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 7, 1990 TAG: 9006070445
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Bill Cochran
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Bain is director of the state-sponsored Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament, a program that honors anglers who catch trophy fish by awarding them an attractive wall plaque for their den or office.
This year, Bain has given 115 fewer citations than last. Poor fishing is the reason.
"We are off to a real slow start," said Bain. "It has not been a good year."
Most of the decline rests on the muscular shoulders of the elusive bluefish, which has avoided the Chesapeake Bay this spring. Through May, only two bluefish citations had been awarded.
"Your citation [bluefish] catches for the past five to eight years have come from the Chesapeake Bay," Bain said.
While the Bay begs for blues, the water off Virginia Beach is black with them.
"The Southeast Lumps are just flat covered up," Bain said.
The fish are so bountiful and easy to catch that charter boats out of Rudee Inlet, in Virginia Beach, are making two trips daily, although the run to the fishing grounds is a hefty 28-to 30-miles.
While these blues are big - 8 to 14 pounds - they are under the 16-pound minimum necessary to earn a citation.
Most of the charter boats are trolling, but Bain hooked a bunch of blues this week while casting surface lures after putting out a chum line to attract fish.
Closer to shore, Spanish mackerel catches have been impressive in the Virginia Beach-Cape Henry area. Flounder fishemen in the lower Eastern Shore are enjoying improved success, which means they are taking six-to-eight-fish per trip.
"It's not great, but it is better," Bain said of the flounder action.
Some cobia are coming into the bay - the biggest catch a 65-pounder - but albacore and bluefin tuna have yet to show up in fishable numbers.
\ ] It has been a wacky year for white bass. The run up the South Holston River near Abingdon pretty much was a failure. In fact, there were so few fish, state officials were unable to capture enough males for use in the Brookneal Hatchery, where they are hybridized with striped bass.
When hatchery officials started looking to Tennessee, West Virginia, Ohio and New York for a source of white bass, they discovered that poor spawning and fishing was widespread. None was found suitable for hatchery use.
Virginia no longer stocks hybrids, but raises them to trade with other states for species like muskie and walleye.
\ Catching an 8-pound largemouth bass is a tough assignment at Smith Mountain Lake. A season's total can be tallied on the fingers of a butcher's hand. That puts Brent Anderson of Roanoke in an elite group. Anderson used a Red Fin plug to land an 8 1/2-pounder.
At Philpott Lake, crappie and walleye fishing is reported excellent, but you have to do it after dark for the best results.
Most major smallmouth streams have been too high and muddy for angling success. An exception, the Clinch River has turned out several trophies for fishermen casting buzzbait. Doug Ratcliff of Pulaski reported landing a 6-pounder.
At Moomaw Lake, best known for its big trout, catfish is the species keeping anglers excited. Catches are being reeled in on minnows and chicken livers.
Hidden Valley Lake, in Washington County, will reopen to fishing Monday. It was drained November, 1988 for repairs to the dam.
The lake has been restocked with redbreast sunfish and smallmouth bass, but anglers shouldn't expect great fishing officials said. Fewer fish were put in than taken out.
Fishing at Briery Creek, the state's 845-acre lake opened last year near Farmville, has been poorer for largemouth bass this spring than fish officials had hoped.
Huge bluegills have provided the most excitement, while the bass, many of them the Florida strain, have played hard to get. There have been exceptions. Members of the Bay Roc Marina Fishing Team from Hardy enjoyed good success when they found cooperative bass on some flats and went after them with plastic worms.
by CNB