ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, November 21, 1996 TAG: 9611210026
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Outdoors
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
The Bass Anglers Sportsman Society has staged back-to-back tournaments in Georgia, but the contestants really have Alabama on their minds.
B.A.S.S. has announced that Lake Logan Martin and nearby Birmingham, Ala., will play host to the 1997 BASS Masters Classic Aug.7-9. With two Top 100 qualifying tournaments remaining, a couple of Virginians are in the running: David Dudley of Lynchburg is ranked 14th with 270 points and Woo Daves of Spring Grove is 20th with 247 points.
The leading 24 anglers in the Top 100 circuit make the Classic cut, and the angler with the most points earns B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year status. The race is a tight one, with Davy Hite in the lead with 322 points. Only nine points separate the next six contenders, who read like a who's who of B.A.S.S. fishing. Second is Rick Clunn, 309; third, David Fritts, 304; fourth, Kevin VanDam, 302; and tied for fifth are Denny Brauer and Larry Nixon with 300 points each.
A 13-time qualifier for the Classic, Daves took a leap in the standings last week by placing second in the Georgia Bassmaster Top 100 on Richard Russell Lake.
``The key was slowing down,'' said Daves, a 50-year-old. ``I just stayed there and kept working it [his fishing area].''
Daves located fish along two river bends that held blueback herring. He used green pumpkin colored worms to catch 15 bass that weighed 26 pounds. The winner, Mike Wurm of Hot Springs, Ark., had a three-day, 31-pound, 3 ounce total.
Beginning today, Daves and Dudley will be fishing in the Georgia Bassmaster Eastern Invitational at Lake Hartwell, which is just upstream from last week's contest. Only five anglers from the eastern division advance to the Classic, and neither Dudley nor Daves are ranked high.
Last year, no Virginian qualified for the Classic, which was held at Lay Lake, a neighboring impoundment of Lake Logan Martin.
FOLLOW UP: Sheilah and Gary Hodges became victims of the 21-day camping limit on national forest property. The New Castle couple has protested enforcement of the limit saying it would take them a day or so to move their camp in the Tub Run area of Craig County.
Five officers came to their camp and issued both of them citations, Sheilah Hodges said. The Hodges say they will continue to protest the limit as being unfair to people buying hunting licenses. Forest officials say long-term campers are denying other people an opportunity to use campsites, and their camps are becoming the target of vandals.
The Hodges camp remained in place as the modern firearm's deer season opened Monday.
THINKING SNOW: Three Southeastern ski resorts have posted plans to open Thanksgiving Day weekend: Massanutten in Virginia; Canaan Valley in West Virginia and Ski Hawksnest in North Carolina.
Already in operation are West Virginia's Snowshoe, and North Carolina's Sugar Mountain and Ski Beech. An early December opening is planned for Virginia's Bryce Resort. Wintergreen, in Virginia, and Timberline, in West Virginia, plan to open in mid-December.
EARLY CHRISTMAS: The Appalachian Trail Conference received an early Christmas gift when Congress appropriated $6 million in funds for trail land-acquisition programs. That was about 85 percent of what the conference had requested.
The money should be enough to purchase nearly one-third of the remaining 19,000 acres that the conference says is necessary to protect the corridor or greenway of the Maine to Georgia footpath.
The expansion of ski resorts in New England has become a major challenge in the preservation of the quality of the trail, said David Startzel, executive director of the conference.
LENGTH: Medium: 71 linesby CNB