July 1, 2008What, if anything, should DGIF stock in Carvins Cove?As I wrote about in a note in my Sunday column, Roanoke has tweaked its rules at Carvins Cove Natural Reserve, the 12,000-plus acre outdoor paradise at the center of which sits a pretty little reservoir. Starting today the city will charge all users the same fees, and will also allow anyone to bring their personal boat (as long as that boat meets the city's inspection criteria). The changes open the door for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries to once again take an active role in the lake's management. The DGIF had backed off for years because the previous rules that gave preferential treatment to residents of just a few localities essentially privatized the lake in the DGIF's eyes, and the agency doesn't work with private lakes with restricted access. Even without DGIF help the lake has been doing pretty well. It's a pretty good bass lake, although it can be tough to fish. It also has some nice sunfish and some great crappies. Could it be even better? I spoke with DGIF biologist Bud LaRoche on Monday and he thinks so. He says the DGIF would like to get back involved, and would probably stock walleyes and stripers. If you follow the Virginia Angler Recognition Program you know the lake still has a few stripers from long-ago stockings. Last year it produced a couple of whoppers. When I moved here about 10 years ago I heard the walleye fishing was still decent even though it hadn't been stocked since the early 1990s. I haven't heard of any walleyes in a long time. Whatever happens, we anglers won't reap the benefits for a while. If the lake is stocked it probably won't happen until next spring, so the fish won't be catchable size for a couple of years. Before putting any fish into the lake biologists will have to get out there and do some sampling to determine the forage. It used to have gizzard shad, LaRoche told me. Without a decent forage base a predator like stripers wouldn't work very well. The question is, assuming the biologists find sufficient forage for stripers, what would you all like to see stocked out there? Just stripers and walleyes? Something we haven't thought about? Would you support special regs to protect certain fish? Or are you happy just letting the reservoir keep going on its own? June 17, 2008Sean Snyder with a 29-pound James River muskie
He stuck with his lightweight gear (8-pound-test) but had the sense to put a steel leader on in front of the big white spinnerbait he chose. It's a good thing because this 44-inch long muskie hammered the lure and the fight was on. Snyder plans to get the 29-pound fish mounted. "It's going on my wall," he said. I've heard of a couple other good muskies pulled recently from area rivers. In one case I even got a picture of another big one, but the sender swore me to secrecy regarding that catch. June 11, 2008It may be a while before I catch a bigger catfish
I can't take all the credit. My buddy Erich Faber had actually cast out my bait (a live sunfish) a while earlier after reeling it in to keep it from a marauding turtle. He also had to yell to wake me up. And then he had to net the thing. So it was a team effort. I hope to get back to the lake soon for another catfish trip, although I'm not sure I can hack another all nighter. I'm still recovering from this one. June 9, 2008Anybody have some turtle avoidance suggestions?
He pitches a tent on his dock in the back of the creek (on the Roanoke River) and we pretty much stay up all night fishing. A couple hours before dark we start catching sunfish to use for bait. Then we cast them out, engage the clickers on our reels and wait. We didn't have to wait long for action on Saturday. Unfortunately, it usually came from one of these buggers. We must have pulled in close to two dozen. It was brutal. Most managed to swallow the circle hooks so they cost us a bunch of expensive hooks. We caught only four catfish all night and I have to believe it would have been better had these things not kept bothering our baits. Does anyone have suggestions for keeping turtles at bay? I realize that fishing in deeper water would probably help. And maybe we should use a float rig to give the sunfish a little more mobility. Any other suggestions would be much appreciated. Despite the bothersome turtles it was still a fun trip. And it actually produced my two biggest cats ever -- a 19-pound flathead and 29-pound flathead. I'll post a picture of the big cat soon. June 4, 2008Some pictures of sick fish from the James River
\As this picture shows, the findings Tuesday weren't pretty. About a third of the fish shocked up showed some level of illness, mostly in the form of lesions of sores. As you can see from these pictures, some were pretty nasty. Smith and Kovacs planned to be back on the river at a different site on Wednesday and I haven't heard from them how that went. If there is good news here, it is that what I saw Tuesday was similar to what I saw on a similar electroshocking trip this time last year. And when it was all said and done, Smith said the estimated mortality on the river last year was about 10 percent. Considering that natural mortality is probably around 5 percent, that might not seem that bad. Certainly, it could be worse. (Mortality has been thought to hit 80 percent among some species in some sections of the Shenandoah in certain years.) But that 10 percent adds up. Plus, there's some evidence that suggests that mortality rates may be higher in larger fish. A lot of speculation and accusations are floating around out there about what might be causing this. Those of us who love the Cowpasture or Jackson or James want to blame someone or something. But there's still no proof. The best thing we can do is keep on top of this, making sure the groups investigating these problems stay on top of the investigation. Is the team, at the center of which is the specially appointed Shenandoah River Fish Kill Task Force, doing everything it can to solve the mystery? Given the available resources, I think yes. I wish they had more resources, of course. So do they. Rock bass seemed to be most heavily affected
Mouth sores on a James River rock bass
June 2, 2008Just another (frustrating) day at the lake
My hope was to get a few carp to use for cut bait for an upcoming catfishing trip. So we get my little johnboat in the water (at the Hardy public ramp) and the 15hp Yamaha 4-stroke fires up on the second pull. And I had to say, "Second pull. Gotta love it." At which point the engine sputtered and died. And that was it. Nothing would get it going. I didn't have tools or spare plugs or anything so there wasn't much we could do except head out with the trolling motor and try the engine from time to time (to no avail). Visibility was terrible. I'm not sure why as it hadn't rained lately and the river wasn't up. I wasn't seeing much except turtles and sunfish. On a bank that's never been that good for me I spotted this carp and it gave me what turned out to be my easiest shot of the evening. I stuck it in the spine and it didn't even flinch. That was it. I got at least 20 more shots and didn't connect on any. I shot over some but shot under others. It was frustrating. I'm going to make a sunken target and do some practicing on the water because I haven't been able to hit squat for two years now. Eventually I put down the bow and got out the 3-wt fly rod and started tossing a little popper up near the shore. Bluegills were crushing it. Unfortunately, most were about 3 inches long. Alfie was casting a worm for bass and had one good hit. The weather started getting iffy and we headed the mile or so back to the ramp. Well, we started too late because we ended up having to fight a stiff wind for the last part of the trip. It started pouring just as we got to the ramp. (My new Cabela's Gore-Tex rain jacket, purchased after that soggy trip to Pa. a couple weeks ago, worked great, by the way.) I'm frustrated by the motor issue. The thing is 4 years old but is pristine because I just haven't used it much. That's probably one reason it's been a bit finicky. I'm not a motor tinkerer. Never have been. But I'd like to try to get this fixed on my own if it's simple, which it seems it should be. Bad gas or plugs, maybe. I'm not sure where my manual is so I figured I'd pull one up on the Yamaha Web site. Well, naturally, the manual I'm trying to download won't open up in my Web browser. Yamaha's site says they will happily sell me one -- but they're out of stock. So I guess I'll be digging through my junk tonight trying to find the manual. One thing about my boat when I was a kid, it never broke down. And rowing it kept me in pretty good shape.
May 19, 2008A wet day fishing and shooting in the Lehigh Valley
Chris is the president of Wildlands Conservancy. I spent a morning fishing with him on a trip arranged through the Pennsylvania Outdoor Writers Association, at whose spring conference I was an invited speaker. We floated with guide Dean Druckenmiller of Fly Fish Pennsylvania on the Lehigh River. This is big water and beautiful country. It was chilly and poured all day -- this was one of the top five wettest fishing trips of my life -- and that didn't help the fishing, which was unfortunate because I didn't get the true feel of the river, which is an amazing success story. The river used to be so polluted with coal silt that it was sometimes called a "lava river." "It never caught on fire, but it could have," Kocher told me. Now it's clean and has a good population of smallmouth bass, stocked trout and a few holdover and wild trout. Chris and I managed to catch about 10 smallmouth bass between us, and he caught two trout. On the other boat on the trip the two anglers managed just two bass between them so I think we did about as well as could be hoped for. Most of the river's trout are stocked but there's some holdover. Flow is controlled by a dam and Drruckenmiller and other fishing advocates are pushing for more coldwater releases during the summer to help with carryover of trout. But because the dam was constructed for flood control, cold water releases aren't a priority. It's a complicated issue, further complicated because the river also supports a booming whitewater business and those guys prefer a relatively small number of big releases as opposed to more smaller releases. Based on the size of the water, I think Druckenmiller and other coldwater advocates are right when they say that a year-round coldwater fishery would draw anglers from throughout the East. I will be interested to see how this fishery continues to evolve. We spent the afternoon shooting sporting clays. We shot the easy B course. I started slow but then got hot. At one point I had 23 in a row, which is by far the best I've ever shot. Then my gun started jamming so bad I had to finish with a borrowed gun and that was that. The trip also gave me my first chance to stop by the big Cabela's store in Hamburg. Wow. Usually I have the family along when I've gone to Bass Pro Shops stores but this time I was solo and could take my time. That gave me a chance to check out the sales so I didn't spend as much money as I could have. My one "big" buy was a new Gore-Tex rain jacket, the need for which became clear during Friday's rain. It was 40 percent off an already reasonable price so that helped.
April 30, 2008Fish kills: It could be worseI'm doing some research for a story on the Cave Spring Optimist Club's 40th annual fishing tournament at Smith Mountain Lake and have been digging through some old newspaper clippings. Yesterday I looked at a bunch of clips from 1969 and 1970 and one type of story stood out: fish kills. As frustrating as the recent kills we've seen have been, it was a lot worse back then. Unlike many of the kills we've been dealing with lately, the kills back then were most from point source pollution. Somebody put something bad in the water and it killed a bunch of fish. Just a basic search turned up stories on kills on just about every stream in the region, including the New, James and Smith Rivers. A kill on the Clinch River in June of 1970 wiped out most life in the river in a 10-mile stretch. The kill was caused when an equipment failure at a hydroelectric plant allowed acid into the water. I also found stories about anglers complaining that fisheries managers were unfair about the attention they gave to certain species and fisheries. It's safe to say that's one thing that hasn't changed. April 11, 2008Search the freshwater fish trophy databaseWe just got the database from last year's Virginia Angler Recognition Program, which tracks trophy freshwater catches. You can learn some interesting stuff just checking out the basic info on the most productive waters and where the biggest fish came from. But the real value is when you can really dig in and look for details, down to the peak fishing days or weeks for certain seasons. We've got the last two year's of data in a searchable database at Roanoke.com. If you take a good look at the data and put what you learn to work this coming season, I can almost guarantee you'll have more fishing success. April 4, 2008Beach driving suit sides get a week to settleThe much anticipated case that threatened to close Outer Banks beaches to driving was in court in Raleigh this afternoon. Instead of ruling on the case, the judge gave both sides a week to reach a settlement. Here's the short story the Associated Press just filed: Judge allows additional week to settle beach driving lawsuit The Associated Press The lawsuit filed in October argued that existing National Park Service rules didn't protect nesting birds and sea turtles on the Outer Banks. U.S. District Court Judge Terrence Boyle said Friday, however, that he was ready to order a temporary ban on driving in parts of the seashore. But lawyers for both sides said they were sure they would have the settlement completed in a week. Boyle also told attorneys that representatives from two counties that intervened in the lawsuit should participate in the negotiations. April 3, 2008Here we go again: Fish kill on the James is backScott Smith, the fisheries biologist who oversees the upper James River, said we could expect to see another fish kill this year on the James. In short, he said nothing had changed in the watershed since last year so there was no reason to expect a different outcome. Still, it was impossible not to hope that last year was just a one-time deal. As I wrote about in my Sunday column, that hope quickly faded. The DGIF and DEQ have announced that reports of sick and dying fish -- smallmouth bass, mostly -- have already started coming in. I guess the best we can hope for is that this year's kill, like last year's, won't be too terrible. I got the following detailed report late yesterday from river rat Louis Tudor of Roanoke. He sent it as a comment on an entry I did last year on the fish kill, but I wanted to give it better play some I'm posting it below in full: "I would like to report a sick fish sighting. I was fishing Buchanan to Arcadia. I put in at daybreak at the Buchanan boat ramp. Resting there was a very large smallie, well over 20”. When I reached down to to touch him he was slow to move but that he did. He was covered with fuzzy white “caterpillar” like lesions on at least four parts of his body. I could have easily caught this fish with my hands but I let him be. After about 30 minutes he swam back into the main body of water. I caught no citation smallies last year, four the year before that, and seven two years ago. I fish a lot and am seeing fewer big fish every year. I am catching the same aount of redeyes and small fish over this same period. I personally think that there is a correlation of a low flow rate (drought) which magnifies bad things that are obviously happenning in the river. Places where I used to catch large fish are less hospitable because the river is lower in those areas changing the dynamics of what made the area good to start with (stagnation). I hope that this is not nature's way of reducing fish population because the river itself is shrinking. Let's face it, how many other rivers could you go to and catch over fifty fish in a day?" If you have a report or pictures of sick or dead fish on the James (or any other river), let me know. Be sure to also send the report to the DEQ at fishreports@deq.virginia.gov. March 17, 2008Fish rare but stout on New River float
We floated from Fosters Falls to the Route 100 bridge and I really had high hopes. This was the same section I'd done exactly a month earlier and that day we'd caught a few walleyes and I'd lost a nice smallmouth. But I figured a few days of mild weather and the forecasted cloudy weather could really make for a good day. It was a good day -- when you're on the river, most of them are -- but the fishing wasn't as great as I'd hoped. Casting mostly jerkbaits and spinnerbaits, we couldn't buy a sniff in the morning. If there was any consolation it was that we were sharing the river with guide Forest Pressnell of Greasy Creek Outfitters and his clients Jim Sowder of Fairfax and Chris Rinehart of Blacksburg, and they weren't exactly knocking them dead, either. We had lunch with them and shared our tales of woe. Like me, Forest was surprised. They took off first and before they were out of sight Jim caught a really nice walleye of 23 inches. Alfie and I fished from shore for a bit then headed out. About 10 minutes later I finally hooked a fish on a Rapala X-rap jerkbait. It turned out to be a stout 16-inch smallmouth. Just a few minutes later Alfie hooked this nice one. We moved on down the river and I caught a 13-incher on a spinnerbait. Then it got quiet again until were were almost done, when Alfie caught a 17-inch walleye. We saw Forest and his clients at the take-out and they reported that they had only one more fish, but it was a dandy -- a 20.5-inch smallmouth caught by Chris. I was surprised we didn't do better. Maybe we should have tried jigs. Anyway, that's the thing with fishing in March. You usually don't catch a bunch of fish but they tend to be nice. (I noticed in the Greasy Creek photo log that several clients had stout bass on Friday.) Donnie Eaton knows this. On March 12, 2003, he caught only one bass on a New River trip. But it weighed 8 pounds, 1 ounce and remains the state record. March 12, 2008For Backlash: A dedicated belly/pontoon boat threadI'm one of those guys who, when I get onto something, I can become somewhat obsessed. So I can relate to Backlash, who clearly has lost it on belly boats. As you may have seen he's been dropping his belly boat comments on other entries -- Taylor: "Virginia hunters kill record number of whitetails." Backlash comment: "Check out this belly boat livewell design." That's my fault for not giving him the dedicated thread I've been promising for a while. So, finally, here it is. To get it started, my basic thoughts. I have two belly boats, one that I've had for years (and used quite a bit in the little ponds around Virginia Beach when I lived there) and one that my neighbor just gave me. Float tubes have their time and place. But if I had it to do over again, I would get a pontoon boat, or so-called kick boat. I've used them out West on big rivers and they are awesome. Nowhere near as portable as a float tube, obviously, but a MUCH better fishing platform. They also excel in whitewater, which we admittedly don't have much of in this part of the state. One of the downsides of a float tube is that you are right on the water. I don't really like that. I want to be up, at least a bit, and, ideally, standing.. Some of the larger pontoon boats are stable enough that someone with decent balance can stand on the seat. But a standing platform works best. So if I ever do spring for a pontoon boat (and it's on my list), I'm going to get one with a standing platform or one on which I can install one. My current river craft is a canoe and hate it as a fishing platform. Its best use is to get from one spot to the next, at which point you get out and wade fish. The upside is that it can carry two paddlers and a bunch of gear. Two-man pontoon boats are much more of a pain in the butt to haul around. For a single angler float-fishing a bass river, I don't think you could do better than a single-man pontoon with a standing platform. I really don't understand why they haven't become more popular around here.
March 11, 2008Proof that my brother can produce good fish pix
As far as basic fish hero shots go, this one is solid. My only suggestion would be for him to pull off the shades. A primer on how NOT to shoot fish pictures
Some of those bad pictures could have been a lot better had the hero and the photographer followed a couple basic rules. When pointing out mistakes, it's much easier when you have a good (bad, really) example. But I'm not going to publicly ridicule a reader who sends me an awful picture. Unless that fisherman is my brother, Greg. Greg is capable of good fish pix. I'll post a great one later today. He also has a good sense of humor, so he laughed heartily when I told him the picture above may have been one of the best examples of bad redneck fish photography that I've ever seen. I mean, you have a fence in the foreground, a shrub on one side, a house in the background (complete with what appears to be a vacuum cleaner on the porch) and a random 5-gallon pail in the middle of the yard. Then, by raising the fish above the fence, Greg put his face in a shadow. The only way this could have been better (worse) is if Greg had a cigarette dangling from his mouth and a can of Hamm's in his right hand. But he doesn't smoke (or drink Hamm's). So, let's dissect the image, which may help some of you achieve better results the next time you're taking a hero shot with a nice fish. 1. The setting. Back yard? Not ideal. Take the picture where you caught the fish, if at all possible. If you have someone with you when you catch a pig, it's simple. You have the other guy take the pictures. (And I mean, PICTURES. Yeah, you want to get back to fishing. But take at least a half-dozen just to make sure you get a couple decent ones.) So, what if you're fishing solo, as Greg was when he caught this 11-pound steelhead? Ideally, you'll be carrying a small point-and-shoot camera with a small tripod. Use the camera's self-timer function and get at it. It might take a few attempts to get a well-framed image. If you are solo and plan to immediately release the fish, that might not be possible. In that case you might just have to shoot the fish next to your rod and then release it. 2. Making the most of a less-than-ideal setting. Greg asked his neighbor to help him out, and the neighbor kindly obliged. Greg didn't want to put the guy out so he just had the neighbor snap a couple quick shots and that was it. Hence, we have the fence in the foreground, the house in the background, etc. If you must shoot the picture at your home, find the "cleanest" background" that you can. If necessary, kneel down and have the standing photographer shoot down so the only thing in the background is the ground. 3. Sun and shadows. You want the sun in the face of the angler and at the back of the photographer. But the photographer must be careful not to cast his shadow on the subject. This isn't always easy. Also, if the sun is high and the hero is wearing a ball cap, there's a good chance his face will be shadowed. In that case it can help to turn on your camera's flash to fill in shadowed areas. 4. Fill the frame. A really common mistake is for photographers to shoot from too far away. The angler and fish turn out to take up just a small part of the frame surrounded by lots of useless space. Yes, you can crop photos with any basic photo-editing computer software. But why not crop when you shoot the picture in the first place? It's simple: get as close to the subject as you can without cutting off key elements, such as any part of the fish or the angler's head. (Admittedly, a pro like Dusan Smetana can get away with interesting cropping in the name of art. But we're talking snapshots here.) Again, we're not talking about a quest for perfection here. Just a quest for good. And it's something well within the reach of every fisherman reading this. Keep those shots coming. Even the bad ones! February 29, 2008After 43 years, a 20-pound steelhead for my dad
Notice the pontoon? They were fishing in my dad and brother's two-man pontoon boat -- basically just a beefy version of the belly boats Backlash has been trying to get us excited about. So, yeah, they work. My brother and Will fish big water in their single-man pontoon boats all the time. Anyway, the fish was just a hair under 40 inches long. There's a rule of thumb that a 25-inch-long steelhead will weigh about 5 pounds and you can add a pound per inch after that. This is a stout fish so obviously it's over 20 pounds. That's the magic mark for a true trophy steelhead, and this is my dad's first 20-pounder in 43 years of fishing for them. The fish was wild and had to be released. So after Will netted the fish dad snapped this one picture and that was it. As for those kick boats, I highly recommend them over the old-fashioned belly boat. They get you off the water and the oars really help you get around. Of course, if you're backpacking or biking in to a place, you have to do the belly boat. February 18, 2008Big carp a surprise on walleye/goose trip
In one of the first runs I felt a tap on my jig and set the hook a freight train. I knew it was too strong to be a walleye or even a big smallmouth bass. So I was thinking it was a big flathead catfish. When I finally got the thing close I could see it was a big carp -- and it was snagged right behind the dorsal. Had we been in a hurry I would have ended it but I figured I'd try to get the thing in. Eventually I did, and it weighed 18.1 pounds. That's my career best by rod and reel, but I know it doesn't really count because it was snagged. The carp was just one highlight of the trip, which I also wrote about in my Sunday column in The Roanoke Times. I also managed to catch the first walleye of my life, and hooked a big smallmouth that broke my heart when the hook pulled. The other guys did their share. Tom had a couple walleyes and just missed a big smallmouth. And Chuck was the dominator on geese. How cool is it when you can catch carp, smallmouth and wallleyes and bust a bunch of geese in a single trip? January 23, 2008Fred Barnes with his pending state record striper
Date: Jan. 23, 2008 Even though this fish is barely 5 pounds shy of the world record, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if this record falls again soon. It sounds like there are just loads of stripers off Virginia Beach right now and you know there have got to be some bigger ones in there. News flash: Pending record saltwater striper caughtIt looks like Virginia could have a new saltwater striped bass record. The fish just tipped the scales at 73 pounds, 4 ounces at the Virginia Beach Fishing Center, more than 5 pounds over the current record of 68 pounds, 1 ounce. The angler was Fred Barnes of Chesapeake, who was fishing with charter captain Pat Foster aboard Country Girl, one of the boats that runs out of VBFC. Claude Bain, the retired director of the Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament, called me with the tip. Claude works part time at a tackle shop near the Fishing Center so he was able to get down there when he heard about the catch. "I saw the fish," Claude said. "It's a monster." The fish is barely 5 pounds shy of the world all-tackle record of 78 pounds, 8 ounces, and probably one of the top 10 saltwater stripers ever landed on a rod and reel. Even though the monster striper breaks the record it won't be the official record until Barnes submits an application and it's approved. August 16, 2007Land of Umpqua campaign catches my eyeI was paging through my new copy of Field and Stream this afternoon when I saw a full-page ad featuring a guy standing in a stream with a fly rod in his hand. The guy is Frank Moore, who is labeled the "Ambassador for fly-fishing in the North Umpqua" river. Oregon's North Umpqua, which is just a short drive from where I grew up, certainly is deserving of attention as it's one of the great steelhead rivers in the country. But this is the first time I've seen it featured like this in an ad campaign. This is not a rich area by any stretch, so for tourism folks in nearby Roseburg to be putting this kind of resources into an ad campaign is a pretty big deal. It just goes to show how forward-thinking leaders in some of these tucked-away paradises are realizing that tourism can be an important part of their economy and is worth investing in. June 5, 2007Another look at the pending state record muskie
June 4, 2007Video: Chasing carp
May 30, 2007A great technique for fishing with kids (or anyone)The other afternoon I took my girls fishing to Carvins Cove reservoir, one of our favorite spots. My plan was to use it as a shake-down cruise for my boat. (Yeah, I haven't had it out all spring. Sad, huh?) When I had trouble getting the lights on the trailer to work it didn't look like it was going to happen. The girls said they were wanted to fish from shore if I couldn't get it working. (Yeah, I'm a proud father.) But I did eventually get things working so we headed out there. Our plan was to fish for bluegills. We cruised into a little cove, anchored and I had them pitch out their worm and bobber rigs. Elisabeth had a cane pole so obviously she was fishing close the boat. Madeleine had a spincast rig but insisted on casting herself so she was also fishing close to the boat. The water is clear and I could see there were no bluegills anywhere near their worms. Before I picked up to move I decided to make a few casts with a little Rebel Wee Craw. As I reeled the thing in I could see a couple nice bluegills following it and nipping at it, but they weren't getting hooked. When the lure was next to Madeleine's worm I stopped reeling. The bluegill immediately hammered her worm. Fish on! So that was our method. I lured them in with the crawdad and they hit the bait -- the lure and switch technique, if you will. We didn't crush them, but we caught more than we would have had they just left those sad worms sitting out there next to the boat. May 22, 2007James River fish kill is the real dealI spent the better part of the morning with biologists collecting fish o |
