
DATE: Sunday, October 5, 1997               TAG: 9710050099

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY NANCY YOUNG, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  101 lines

STRIPER SEASON OPENS QUIETLY TRADITION STRIKES AT MIDNIGHT, BUT NOT THE FINICKY BIG ONES.

On his third cast, Harvey ``Fast Cast'' Caldwell reeled in his first striper of the evening.

Before the fish was even fully out of the water, he asked, ``What time is it?''

It was 11:30. Too early.

A few minutes later, voices sounded over the scanner radio.

``Hey, David.''

``Hey, Andy.''

``What time is it?''

``11:39.''

Still too early.

If you caught the world's largest striper bass - also known as rock fish - at 11:39 Friday night you would have had to throw it back. Open season didn't start until midnight.

Even though the best striper fishing isn't for another month or so, fishermen come out in droves each year on opening day, some beginning their expeditions in the late evening and not coming in until close to daybreak.

Early Saturday morning was no exception. Fishermen staked out their territories in the water along Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Others fished from piers.

``This is my vice. This is what I like to do,'' said Bill Hawley as he fried up a burger on a makeshift grill on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel fishing pier around 5 a.m. Saturday morning. He started fishing around 10 p.m. Friday, and planned to go late into the morning.

Ask fishermen why they'd rather give up a night's sleep than miss opening night of striper season - or, frankly, any night where fishing was possible - and it's hard to get them to wax philosophical. There's tradition, yes. There's that timeless connection to the seas, yes.

But they'd rather talk about lures and currents.

``Got a good current moving here, don't we, Forrest,'' Harvey Caldwell said to his younger brother on their way out to the fourth ``island'' of the Bay Bridge-Tunnel around 11 p.m.

That would be the last you would hear of the good current - essential because stripers like their waters rough - until 4 a.m.

All signs were there for a great night of fishing, from the shooting stars for luck to the seagulls who signaled where the fish were.

And it was a beautiful night period. Clear, calm, just chilly enough to be invigorating.

But it was a lousy night for striper fishing - at least on Caldwell's boat, named, like him, ``Fast Cast.''

Soon after midnight the current disappeared, never really returning in force. Picking up on currents, tides and wind direction are the kinds of things that come as second nature to the Caldwell brothers.

Harvey, who by day owns Old Dominion Roofing and Siding, takes the time to show a novice how to cast. Put your four fingers of your right hand at the base of the pole, using your index finger to hold down the line as you snap back the bail on the reel. Release your finger as you cast the line out, remembering to flick your wrist. Wait, then turn the reel.

In the right hands, the line sails until it hits the exact spot where a hungry striper is waiting. In the wrong hands, the featherweight line sinks like lead a few feet from the boat.

Early on Harvey points out where to look for stripers: near rocks, in rushing currents. Look for lighted areas, whether it's a bridge lamp or the moon. The light attracts the silverside minnows which in turn attract the stripers.

Harvey's knowledge extends beyond what can be learned in a book.

``The cast is all important,'' Harvey said. ``You've got to picture in your mind where he's (lying) and try to put the lure right in front of his mouth.''

He is talking about a mouth whose diameter can be measured in inches and that mouth is not sitting at the surface, a willing target.

The advice seems a tad unrealistic.

Until you see Harvey cast.

Harvey calls, before he casts, when he's going to catch a fish. He is often right. While the fish are easily above legal minimums, they are too small for his liking and he throws all but one striper back.

``We'll catch bigger ones later,'' he says - though, on this night, the big ones either just aren't biting, or they're biting the lures right off. Trout mangle lures with their sharp little teeth. The striper swallow them whole.

Opening night for striper season is sometimes described as fishermen waiting until that magic midnight minute, poles poised, to drop their lines in the water. Truth is, to wait for midnight wastes good fishing time. It is only the striper you couldn't keep before midnight Friday. Anything else was fair game.

So the magic moment passed without great fanfare.

``Well, striper season is open,'' says Forrest, checking his digital watch. ``It's 12:02.''

A moment later, Harvey, for reasons unknown, suddenly shifts from fishing off the stern to the bow of the boat. He casts his line. In a moment, the pole bends and he reels his first legal striper of the season in.

It's too small for Harvey Caldwell. He lets it go.

He'll catch bigger ones later. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos

STEVE EARLEY/The Virginian-Pilot

Harvey "Fast Cast" Caldwell brings in a striper on opening night

that he caught from his boat at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.

Justin Roberts, casting out for stripers, and Andy Luchard, taking a

5 a.m. nap Saturday, arrived at the Seagull Fishing Pier on the

Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel at 10 p.m. Friday.