ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, February 10, 1997 TAG: 9702120027
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
Laurel Bed Lake, a 330-acre impoundment in a high-altitude bog north of Saltville, was the hot spot in the 1970s if you wanted to catch trophy brook trout. The 1- to 3-pound-plus trout finning amid scenic splendor could give an angler the feeling that he had found a little piece of Canada gone in Southwest Virginia.
Now the lake is a bed of mud, but officials of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries hope to return it to its glory days through a reclamation project under the director of biologist Tom Hampton.
Twenty-five years ago, trout in the insect-rich impoundment grew broad backs and thick sides that gave them an impressive amount of weight for their length. They were peppered with red specks more brilliant than a cardinal's hue.
Richard Pauley of Daleville remembers their inside color, too. When you filleted them - yes, they were big enough to fillet - you exposed bright, orange flesh.
``We caught them up to about 31/2 pounds - almost 4,'' Pauley said. ``They looked like the the brook trout you would catch in Quebec.''
Pauley was averaging four citation catches per season in the early to mid-1970s.
Not long after that, the fishery crashed.
``I am real hopeful that it will return, and we are committed to that end,'' Hampton said this past week. ``There are people from all over the country who enjoyed the fishery in its heyday.''
Problems occurred when low pH levels adversely impacted the previously abundant insect population, Hampton said. The trout were left with an inadequate food supply, and their days of rapid growth ended.
The plight was compounded when fishermen illegally dumped rock bass into the lake.
``The rock bass caused problems, and in this case, big problems,'' Hampton said.
The result was an overpopulation of stunted rock bass that competed with what brook trout were left.
``I don't think people appreciate the fact that a brook trout is really special,'' Pauley said.
Laurel Bed Lake is at the headwaters of Big Tumbling Creek, a popular fee-fishing area in the state's Clinch Mountain Wildlife Management Area. Last year, when repairs to the lake dam were required, fish officials seized the opportunity to attempt to reclaim the lake's storied brook trout fishery.
The water was drained, the rock bass were removed and a liming project was initiated. When the water flows over limestone sand, which was applied to the lake bottom with a helicopter, biologists hope the pH level will increase.
The plan was to see the lake refilled and stocked in time for spring fishing, but delays in the dam-repair efforts make that unlikely.
``The lake is still down,'' Hampton said. ``We are not in the refilling stage. I had every hope that the contractor would have it repaired sometime this spring. We now hope it will get fixed sometime in March or April, when there still is time for spring rains to fill the lake, but it is speculative at best.''
Additional liming will be done after the lake refills, an act that Hampton believes will improve the pH for several years.
``It will be managed as a put-grow-and-take fishery, which always has been successful,'' he said. The lake is a part of the Big Tumbling Creek fee-fishing program.
In time, Hampton expects to experiment with an exotic strain of brook trout, called Triploid, which have worked well in the Adirondacks.
``They don't have the spawning urges and leave the system,'' he said. ``They stay in the lake and have really good growth rates. We are probably a few years away from doing that. We probably will be using just standard stocking fish this year.''
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: TOM HAMPTON. Drained Laurel Bed Lake has a dusting ofby CNBsnow in this view from the upper end toward the dam. color.