Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 1, 1993 TAG: 9304010092
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
TIME HAS COME FOR LAKE ANNA'S ANNUAL BASS BLITZ
Fantastic isn't a word that has cropped up much in anybody's fishing report lately, but there it was this week in a dispatch from Lake Anna.Steve Mudre, who operates Anna Point Marina, was reporting, "Fishing on Lake Anna is fantastic."
He had fresh pictures on the marina wall to back it up: a 9-pound, 14-ounce largemouth bass, along with another that weighed 8 pounds, 11 ounces, two that weighed 8 pounds, 7 ounces apiece, four that were better than 7 pounds and four that weighed in above the 6-pound mark.
Big bass have been coming into the marina so fast that Mudre doesn't even get the camera out for anything less than 4 pounds.
"This is the time of year to catch a wall hanger," he said.
Well, actually, it is a bit later than usual. Anna's flurry of big bass catches normally occurs the first or second week of March. The blitz was a couple of weeks late this time, Mudre said. In fact, considering the water temperature - in the high 40s - he was surprised the bass suddenly turned on when they did.
"A lot of the fish are shallow," he said. That means they are in pre-spawn patterns and likely to rip into a slowly retrieved spinnerbait, a Sassy Shad plug or a jig-n-pig.
\ BEAR BILL SHOT DOWN: Gov. Douglas Wilder has vetoed a bill that would have extended Virginia's bear chase season to include night hours.
During the state's first chase season last year, bear hunters could operate at night only when one of their organizations obtained a field trail permit from the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. Hunters successfully guided legislation through the 1993 General Assembly that would permit 24-hours chasing by any bear hunter.
That effort caught the eye of anti-hunting groups. The Fund for Animals, along with other animal protection organizations, lobbied to have Wilder veto the legislation.
"Wilder has taken a bold stand for wildlife and yet another brave stance against the extremism of the gun lobby," said Heidi Prescott, national outreach director of the Fund for Animals.
\ TROPHY TROUT: High water has made for a miserable start to the trout fishing season, but a few trophy fish have been reeled in. One example is a 6-pound, 4-ounce brown landed from the Roanoke River in the Wiley Drive area by James Spence of Roanoke. Spence was casting a nightcrawler with 6-pound line when he hooked the fish earlier this week.
Frank Campbell of Salem caught a 5-pound, 9-ounce brown in the Salem area of the Roanoke River. It struck a Power Bait.
\ FISH BELLY UP: This week's oil spill in the Potomac River has grabbed most of the fish-kill headlines, but death also has occurred in Little Passage Creek, a George Washington National Forest trout stream.
Biologists say that melting snow and heavy rains lowered the Ph and caused aluminum amounts in the Shenandoah County creek to increase to toxic levels.
Officials aren't certain how many fish died, but they counted at least 50, and others washed downstream.
\ STILL GOING: Ski resorts in Virginia and North Carolina have closed for the season, but four in West Virginia are like the TV battery advertisement: They just keep on going and going.
Canaan Valley, Snowshoe, Timberline and Winterplace reported snow depths that ranged from 12 to 88 inches Wednesday. Snowshoe had 33 slopes operating.
But the snow base is being taken away rapidly by warming temperatures and rain.
\ AFTER BIGGER GAME: Sport fishermen along the Outer Banks of North Carolina have made strides toward regulating commercial netters who work the surf. Now they are going after even bigger game, the menhaden boats that operate offshore.
Resolutions have been passed by officials in Nags Head, Kill Devil Hills and Dare County asking that menhaden trawl boats be kept three miles offshore. A heated meeting on the issue is expected Saturday during a Division of Marine Fisheries hearing in Manteo.