Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 12, 1993 TAG: 9308120016
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Bill Cochran
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Dolphin was the target.
"You are liable to get 10 to 15 jumps out of one," he said. "They are very acrobatic. They will sail five feet into the air and do somersaults."
And that's only the beginning.
"Then they are liable to just scream on you like a bonefish, just take 100 yards of backing off your reel," Bryant said. "The next thing you know, they are somersaulting on you 150 yards back."
Dolphin have been abundant off the coast of Virginia and North Carolina this summer. Most often they are caught by trollers using tackle that is way too heavy. It's still rare for someone to go after them with a fly rod, but that's changing.
As manager of the Orvis store in Roanoke, Bryant is seeing growing interest in saltwater fly fishing.
"It once meant going after bonefish - $4,000 Florida trips," he said.
Now anglers are probing the Virginia-Carolina coast, casting flies to species such as bluefish, stripers, dolphin and Spanish mackerel.
Bryant joined three companions from Charlottesville for his dolphin outing off Hatteras, N.C., the nearest port to the Gulf Stream in this region.
The riotously colored dolphin have been about anywhere offshore that there is floating cover this season.
"Primarily, you go find the grass lines," Bryant said. "Anywhere you find some junk out there, they will be around that."
The trick is to tease them up within fly-casting range. That can be done by hooking one on conventional tackle and bait. The fight often will lure others to the surface, and once up they stay shallow. Then you set aside the big Penn reels and go after them with a fly outfit.
"We were lucky and had a good captain who liked the idea of catching them on fly tackle and who wasn't overly concerned about getting big numbers of fish," Bryant said.
As it turned out, the captain didn't have to worry about not making a good showing back at the dock, where potential customers might be watching. The four fly fishermen landed 53 dolphin, a bigger catch than some bait fishermen brought in on their boats.
"We had four on at a time," Bryant said.
The fish went for clouser-type flies that had a lot of shine and shimmer to them. Bryant used a 9-foot, 8-weight rod, but a back-home smallmouth bass outfit would have worked, he said.
The big difference when fishing for saltwater species is that considerably more demand is placed on your reel. So you need one with a good drag and plenty of backing.
\ BIG CAT: The late-summer catfish action at Claytor Lake has been a bit slow, but it may have received a jump start from Chris Turman of Pulaski. While jigging with 8-pound line, Turman hooked and landed a 34-pound, 11-ounce flathead cat.
\ ELSEWHERE: Smallmouth bass fishing has improved on the New River, where some anglers have been catching and releasing more than 100 bass per outing.
The big excitement on the James River has been caused by flathead catfish, but most of the anglers hooking these huge fish are keeping their success quiet.
At Kerr and Gaston lakes, where bass and striper fishing is slow, the locals have been having fun with white perch. The perch often are on top chasing minnows, providing excellent targets for small topwater lures such as the Pop-R.
by CNB