ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, November 7, 1996 TAG: 9611070029
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: OUTDOORS
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
A cold wind whistled across Smith Mountain Lake on Saturday, whipping the surface into angry whitecaps and sending some contestants in the Virginia Bassmasters Fall Team Classic home by noon.
As it turned out, it was perfect smallmouth bass fishing weather. At the 3 p.m. weigh-in, persistent anglers began showing up with a wiggly cargo of bass stuffed into their livewells, an impressive number of them chunky smallmouths.
``There were a lot of smallmouths caught, and they were nice smallmouths,'' said Danny Washburn, a tournament official.
The top four teams weighed in catches of 20 pounds or more, a distinct improvement over the performance of recent major tournaments on the lake.
The winners were Don Wheeler of Lynchburg and Billy Strain of Rustburg, who entered a 22.65-pound catch. A fraction of an ounce behind were Steve Crist of Forest and Jimmy Crist of Evington, who entered 22.64 pounds. The third-place team was David Witt of Goodview and Mike Johnson of Hardy, with 21.38 pounds.
The fishermen who finished high often were operating under the theory that it takes a pig to catch a hog. Many were tossing jig-and-pig combinations, Washburn said.
A spinnerbait is another lure that can work well for autumn smallmouth bass. Joe Lunsford of Roanoke landed a 4-pound, 4-ounce smallmouth in the Gills Creek section of Smith Mountain Lake on Sunday.
Claytor Lake has produced several bragging-size smallmouths for anglers tossing spinnerbaits. Eddie Akers of Dublin hooked one that weighed 4 pounds, 9 ounces. James Radford of Dublin got a 4-pound, 5-ounce fish.
The Claytor fishing will be disrupted by an annual drawdown by American Electric Power Co., which began Sunday evening. The lake will be down about 5 feet by Friday, and is scheduled to stay that way until Nov.24 when the refilling process will begin. It will make boating access difficult at most ramps.
BLACK-POWDER BOOM: Big-game checking stations have had a brisk business since the muzzleloading season opened Monday. Old Mill Grocery in Fincastle registered 65 deer the first day, a number that rivaled the opening day of the modern firearm's season only a few years ago. By Wednesday afternoon, the count was close to 100.
Another 60-plus black-powder deer had been registered just up the road at Sunset Market near Eagle Rock. The count at Northside Supply in Bedford County was near the 50 mark. Black-powder hunters often were toting home turkeys in addition to deer. An impressive number of the deer have had good racks and body weights.
A CELEBRATION: The people at the Bait Place, a tackle shop in Alleghany County on the road to Lake Moomaw, have been celebrating. The joy is over an angler who weighed a 4-pound rainbow trout at the shop. It was the first decent trout coming through the door in a long while. Moomaw has languished through a dismal trout season this year.
CONTEST CHAMP: Gary Reaves of Roanoke dominated the annual fishing contest at Cline's Bait and Tackle in Cloverdale. He won the trout category with a 6-pound rainbow from Cripple Creek, the rock bass category with a 15-ounce North Fork of the Roanoke River catch and tied the channel catfish slot with an 8-pound, 4-ounce Carvins Cove fish.
SNOW TIME: Snowshoe Mountain Resort has its snow guns aimed at lofty Cheat Mountain and has been piling up mounds of snow with plans to open its ski season Nov.15. The West Virginia resort generally wins the race for being the first ski resort in the Southeast to open.
LENGTH: Medium: 67 linesby CNB