Roanoke River got trout — including some big browns — today
A couple weeks ago a guy sent me an email complaining about the stocking methods on the Roanoke River in Roanoke. The gist of it was he said the construction on the low-water bridge below Smith Park had really screwed things up.
I told him I’d be happy to spy on the stocking effort the next time trout truck came to the Roanoke, but that would mean someone would have to call me immediately as soon as it became evident that they were hitting the Roanoke. This guy apparently is in the trout truck following crowd, or at least has connections, because he called me this morning at 9 a.m. and said the trucks were hitting the river.
I headed to the Wiley Drive section because that was the section in question. The truck had already hit the water below Franklin Road, and was already below the top low-water bridge by the time I got there. I asked two guys on the bridge if the crew had stocked up along Wasena Park and they said the truck had stopped at several spots and the guys had dumped many nets of trout into the river.
I made my way down toward the truck, which was making its second stop down below the low-water bridge. When I got closer I saw that none other than George Duckwall was one of the guys with a net in his hand. Duckwall is the biologist who oversees the entire catchable trout program, so I guess this was like an Undercover Boss kind of thing. Except he wasn’t undercover.
Duckwall had no idea I was going to be there. I told him I didn’t expect to see him, though I wasn’t surprised. Long story short, he had gotten complaints (I was cc’d on a couple of them) and wanted to come out himself to make sure the stocking was being done up to snuff. (“Up to snuff” are my words, not his).
Truck driver Chris Huff said that he did not, in fact, stock the entire section between the two low-water bridges last time around because there was so much machinery and other construction stuff going on. That’s understandable, but I can see where those complaints could have gotten started.
Anyway, this time that section got stocked, and stocked well.
The trout above are pretty representative of the fish I saw going in the river through the entire section. That brown is every bit as big as it looks. I’m guessing 4 pounds.
I cropped this picture to not show the bank so y’all won’t know exactly where this fish is. I’m going to hit that hole with my crew of fishing kids and hope one of them can hook him.
Actually, like I said, there are many in there this size. Because the greenway is closed to traffic, you will have to walk in for them. Sorry!
March 16, 2011 - 3:14 PM
nice picture …… flying fish!!
Dewey — That’s actually the lead I’m using in my story about trout fishing that will run in tomorrow’s Roanoke Times. I didn’t steal it from you, though. I promise I wrote it yesterday!
mark I know that section of the roanoke well and i think I can nail exactly where that hole is just by the current lines. You may have some company in that hole Saturday including my little guy!
I suppose I have been most critical of the way fish are stocked but when you get past the emotions of how it could be done better they do a pretty good job. I still tend to feel “bridge hole dumping” is a far too common method. My biggest beef is on the distribution and disbursement but with water like we have had recently that problem is solved. I still wish they could or would…
1. Close streams to fishing on the day of stocking and maybe even the
day after.
2. Make truck following a violation.
3. Use more volunteers for stocking. I offered to help long ago with a promise NOT to fish waters I had helped stock, only to be laughed at!
4. Develope more Special reg and delayed harvest waters.
5. Resolve the issue of Kings Grant on the Jackson once and for all.
Nice pic..
I have been fishing for trout for quite some time and I can see a big increase in the number of trout fishermen these days. What I also see happening is the trout stocking is getting much worse as each year comes along. The last few years the small fish size was blamed on the renovation of one of the hatcheries. This year I can see the fish are bigger but with a MUCH LESS amount of fish being stocked. North creek and Middle creek were stocked yesterday so I decided to take my kids,what a waste that was. Out of 12 different spots that we stopped at, we saw 6 fish total on both creeks. Jennings creek a couple weeks ago, hardly no fish. South river and Irish creek last week same thing hardly NO fish. Maury River and mill creek last month, same thing. Not sure what the EXCUSE is this year, but it’s getting more difficult each year to justify buying my trout license….
Greg: We fishermen are a hard lot to please. I feel much of the problem we are having so far this spring is there is just too much water. For example the Maury was stocked recently along with Mill Creek. A day or so after the area had very heavy rain and the flow on the Maury shot to about 9000 cu ft/sec…9000!!! The fish that were stocked are so scattered and down deep that you just cannot reach them. I find the Maury hard to fish with a flow of 200 Cu ft/sec. At 9000 it is IMPOSSIBLE and dangerous as well. Don’t know if the link below will work, but if so I think you’ll see the problem.
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/va/nwis/uv?cb_00060=on&cb_00065=on&format=gif_default&period=30&site_no=02021500
I fished Back Creek today. Similar situation. Flow around 400 Cu Ft/sec and you needed so much weight to get it down you were always getting hung up. When water drops you should see some good fishing but you are probably going to need to move about and not just look for the bridge holes!
I also toured the new hatchery AND fished the Bullpasture and Spring Run last week before it shot up. Did pretty well. All brook trout. The newly re-opened section of the Cowpasture is a super fishery BUT the road in is all mud up to the running boards, none the less worth the time spent following fishing, at the car wash.
I agree with you on the water being somewhat too high for good fishing, but the other creeks that I refered to, this wasn’t the case. These streams were low and super clear. I walked up and down the creeks and checked many spots (away from bridges), even talked with other anglers and they are experiencing the same as I am. They just aren’t stocking the quantity of fish this year like before. Maybe we all just were accustomed to seeing more fish in the water like in years past. I can say that Virginia could really take notes on a trout stocking programs from West Virginia.
You know it would be a great topic for a story. Just exactly how does the high water impact trout movement in a stream. Wild fish may deal with it better than hatchery fish???? I have often thought a stocking immediately before very heavy flow would move the fish out of the designated public access areas. But I have seen the fish of the South Holston hunker down in a hole and still be there when the flow dropped. Are hatchery fish as adapt? Another point of interest is the “water pressure” near the bottom. Does a fish sense a difference in 200 CuFt/Sec vs 9000 Cu Ft/Sec when it is just inches off the bottom? Any experts out there know???
Hey Greg: I made my discovery of WV fishing about 4 years ago. I too was in fish heaven. Visited a couple of hatcheries and spoke to a lot of people and concluded they really had it together. I also caught plenty of fish in years 1,2,and 3. Last year however was completely a different story for me. I fished several waters and found things like you described in Va. Most disappointing. I’m beginning to wonder about the possibility that Virginia may be doing something different, like not stocking a full section at the same time. Take the Maury, for example. If they stock during week 2 of a month, might they only stock the upper section from the foot bridge about 1/2 way to Goshen Wayside and then on week 4 stock the lower section up to the middle where they ended the first stocking??? I think I have asked game wardens about this in the past and they say “NO”… When they stock they do the full section but I wonder. Honestly, I don’t fish a lot of the put and take waters but sometime I do. I feel I have had better results this year over the last few years, not in the numbers of fish but in bigger fish. What few times I fished put and take water this spring I would say the average length would be about 13 inches but maybe only 3 or 4 per outing. BTW, When I do fish it’s pretty much an all day event so I do agree the numbers are not good for the effort.