Courtesy of FLW Outdoors

Out-of-towners took the top three spots on the pro side at the recent Everstart Northern Series tournament at Smith Mountain Lake.

On the co-angler side, Scott Howard represented the local crew well.

Here’s my column in today’s Roanoke Times about how Howard pulled off the win.

So, a friend just tipped me off, via Facebook, of an interesting job listing on the Roanoke Craigslist site.

The “employer’ (yes, there’s a reason I’m using quotes there) is seeking four “mature ladies,” (employer’s quotes, not mine) to star in a fishing video at Smith Mountain Lake. The models (should be between 35 and 55)  will get $500 cash for three days of filming, as well as lodging on a house boat during the production.

Oh, the catch. The video is being described as an “adult nude fishing video.”

Filming supposedly starts Friday.

We are supposed to use pictures with our blog postings as often as possible, but I decided I would go ahead and leave this one to the imagination.

I know what you all are thinking. You are thinking that the local outdoors reporter, if he were worth his salt, would get on the horn right now and figure out how to get on that houseboat for a story on the “Making of the adult nude fishing video on Smith Mountain Lake.”

I’m guessing I might have trouble securing a press pass for that, however.

If you followed the recent thread about trout truck followers, you might remember Richie Ponton chiming in with an opinion that not all nice fish are pulled out of the creeks the first day.

He provided this proof yesterday, sending this shot of two big browns that he caught while fishing Potts Creek the day after it was stocked.

I was able to talk yesterday with Josh Nickerson, the fisherman who was disqualified from the Oakley Big Bass Tour event at Smith Mountain Lake.

Nickerson (pictured here) was leading the tournament and poised to win a $30,000 Nitro Z7 bass boat, plus a $1,000 cash prize, before he was kicked out for failing a polygraph test.

I also spoke with Mark Jones, who runs the tournament trail. Jones provided a basic statement, just as he did in 2011 and 2012 when the top anglers were disqualified. In the first two tournaments neither of those anglers completed the polygraph test. In Nickerson’s case, he got through the test but the examiner detected deception.

You can read my Roanoke Times column HERE.

It’s pretty unreal that this makes the third year in a row for this to happen at Smith Mountain Lake. Disqualifications aren’t unheard of in Oakley events, but Smith Mountain Lake certainly holds the record.

I’d be curious to hear from fishermen who have taken polygraph tests at other tournaments. What was the experience like?

Courtesy of Oakley Big Bass Tour

I didn’t get out to the final awards for the Oakley Big Bass Tour at Smith Mountain Lake on Sunday. I planned to write about it today for tomorrow’s column. Still do.

I see where Mike Ratcliff of Conrad Brothers Marine was the big winner. Funny, huh? Guy who sells boats wins a boat. Wonder if he’ll give me a good deal on that sweet Nitro!??

I am hearing rumblings that the tournament again was marred by a DQ. There were DQs the last two years and you’d think the streak would end, right? Anyone know anything? Send me an email if you’d rather not post anything here.

Here’s the list of the top 10. If you are one of these guys, or know one of these guys, I’d love to talk with a couple of these guys today. My office number is 981-3395. I’m running out for a couple hours of late-morning turkey chasing but will be in the office after about 11 or noon.

Congrats to all the winners!

Overall

Britt Stoudenmire is among the most passionate and concerned fishermen I know, especially when it comes to his home water, the New River.

Stoudenmire, who has built the New River Outdoor Company into one of the river’s premier outfitters, stays up on issues that impact the river. Among his concerns are the surges in water level from Claytor Dam releases.

In an email to a number of river stakeholders early last July, Stoudenmire included a graph of the up-and-down river flow, along with his assessment of the impact:

“This furthers the evidence that AEP is not taking into account river users, boaters, river related business on the New River below Claytor dam by subjecting them to nearly a 6″ increase/decrease during supposedly “run of river”, “levelized”, “recreational” flow during the busiest week of the year.

6″ of unwarned out of the blue inconsistent water jeopardizes safety and boating, ruins fishing, stresses fish, and makes running a recreational business on the New River extremely difficult.”

Stoudenmire has been providing info for my fishing report this season, for which I am really thankful. He and his guides are on the water pretty much daily, so they know what’s going on. Space doesn’t allow me to repeat his full reports verbatim, but you can find them every other week on the DGIF Outdoor Report. The short take is they have been catching some nice smallmouths — such as the big one Stoudenmire is holding here — on the New this year.

I heard from Stoudenmire this morning, in reference to my naming the James the best trophy smallmouth river in the state. As I wrote in the post below, I expected to get some feedback. I hoped for it. Today’s piece — and here’s the link again — was my opinion. But I have to say that it wasn’t like I just was making stuff up, or basing it on my own fishing experiences. I referred to data, and I considered the regular feedback I get from my sources.

Stoudenmire included some really interesting points in his note, and I don’t want to simply paraphrase them. So here it is:

“read your article in the paper today and i’d like to add several comments if that is ok:

1. the james river runs nearly 300 miles in the state of VA, with 200ish being smallmouth water. not counting claytor lake, there is roughly 100ish miles of new river in virginia. big difference there. i’d say there are still even even if you are looking only at citation registrations.

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Actually, this isn’t a poll.

For a feature on today’s Outdoors page in The Roanoke Times, I listed what I believe are some of Virginia’s best fishing spots. I suspect some might argue with a few of my choices.

Is Smith Mountain Lake really the best lake for trophy largemouth bass? What do you think?

I referred to data from the Virginia Angler Recognition Program, info that tells things like that if you want to catch citation yellow perch like the one pictured here, Claytor Lake is a good bet.

But a lot of this is subjective. Also, length restrictions kept me from going into much detail. It would be possible to write a book on Virginia’s best fishing.

Anyway, let’s hear your thoughts.

John Waldron was fishing at Jennings Creek on Saturday for Trout Heritage Day when he tangled with this fat, 25-inch-long rainbow trout. He was reportedly using 2-pound-test line.

A general rule of thumb with wild trout is that a 25-incher will weigh about 5 pounds. Clearly, this fat fish is well above that.

I suspect the Heritage Waters are already pretty cleaned out but there are certainly a few trout still swimming around in there.

As the previous thread shows, there’s a general consensus that put-and-take streams get hammered immediately after they are stocked.

The first anglers to hit the water don’t get everything.

Richie Ponton hit Potts Creek three days after it was stocked, and this fish was still in there.

Ponton said the brown trout was 22 inches long. Nice fish!

You know the deal.

Every day, when the trout-filled tanker trucks head down the road from the hatchery, they will pass stakeout areas — spots were fishermen are parked and waiting.

The truck followers, as they are known, will pull out and follow the truck to its destination. Then the anglers will watch as the hatchery workers dump the trout into the pond or stream. Some will immediately start fishing.

(Ron Horn, pictured here with a behemoth brown trout, didn’t have to follow a truck to catch this fish. He caught it on Heritage Day last April, while fishing Tinker Creek. I just used the picture because it’s such a big fish!)

I did a story on it a few years ago, and my feeling coming away from it was the truck followers seem to get as much enjoyment, if not more, out of their little game of trying to predict the truck’s destination, as well as the camaraderie of hanging out with the brethren, than they do out of actual fishing.

Anyway, I just got a note from a fisherman who is not a fan of truck followers. I’ll post it below. Please read it and then offer up your own opinions on the truck followers.

“Today’s fishing outing prompted me to write this letter. Let me start off by saying that I am an avid trout fisherman. I am fortunate to own a successful business which is 90 percent ran by my associates so I have a lot of free time. With this time I fish everyday in the fall, winter, and spring and have been doing so for years. I consider myself an experienced angler and particularly for trout. I exclusively only fish for trout. I may fish a little for smallmouth in the summer but not often. Last week I headed up to Arcadia to fish North Creek.

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