RECYCLED BASS PUMP NEW LIFE INTO FISHING

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, April 12, 1993                   TAG: 9304120288
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
RECYCLED BASS PUMP NEW LIFE INTO FISHING
Who could blame Mark Ireson and Troy Woolwine for having that smug "We've got the tournament won" feeling while fishing on Smith Mountain Lake the other day. Twenty-five pounds of bass were finning about in their livewell.
They had savored jolting strikes while casting spinnerbaits to riprap that was being combed by the wind and warmed by the sun. Other bass were hooked around the pilings of boat docks driven into the coves and creeks that twist off the main stem of the sprawling lake.
But back at Waterwheel Marina their catch didn't raise many eyebrows at the weigh-in of the Roanoke Valley Bassmasters Spring Invitational Partner's Tournament.
"It took 30 pounds to get into the money," said Ireson.
The winning catch, by Jimmy Coleman and Roy Dunn, weighed 37.86 pounds, and the big fish was a beefy 8.42-pound largemouth taken by the farther-son team of Gary and Jeffery Brantley. Those kind of figures reflect a healthy bass population.
Smith Mountain Lake remains a perplexing place for the average bass angler, but intermediate and advanced fishermen have seen their success increase the past half-dozen years. One of the things - perhaps the major thing - making a difference is catch and release.
According to the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries 1992 creel survey, 94 percent of the black bass caught at Smith Mountain Lake - 133,434 fish - were released last year.
"That is a whale of a lot of fish," said Mike Duval, a fisheries biologist supervisor for the department.
The bass aren't just on a rebound number-wise, they also are increasing in popularity among fishermen. Even though Smith Mountain Lake is one of the best known striped bass impoundments in the country, 65 percent of the nearly 3,000 anglers questioned during the survey said they were after black bass (largemouths and smallmouths).
That makes the no-kill concept all the more important, said Duval.
"I didn't imagine it being that high," he said. "From 1980 to 1992 there has been an expeditious increase in catch-and-release. I would think that the bass population certainly wouldn't look like it does today, and you wouldn't have the high catch rates, without it."
Most of what Duval hears from black bass fishermen is praise, but that isn't the case with striped bass fishermen who frequently complain that their sport is declining.
Striped bass anglers, according to the survey, released only 44 percent of the 21,309 fish they caught. The survival rate of released stripers is thought to be considerably lower than for black bass, said Duval.
This has led fish officials to recommend that striped bass anglers stop fishing once they catch their limit of two.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB