Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 7, 1991 TAG: 9103070108
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Bill Cochran
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
When the two Roanokers left the dock one day this week, they had a fervent desire to catch stripers. They were in the right place, the upper Roanoke River arm, but after casting bucktail jigs unsuccessfully until their arms felt like bologna, they decided enough was enough.
So they tied on a 6-inch plastic worm, a pumpkinseed pattern. Maybe the largemouth bass would be more cordial. And they were.
In a brief flurry, when there was so much action the water didn't have a chance to settle, Moretz landed four bass that totaled about 15 pounds, including a 7-pounder.
"Those bass hit for five minutes and it was all over," Williams said.
Williams had an opportunity to keep an eye on the time because he wasn't catching any of the fish. His buddy was getting every last one of them.
So Moretz can be excused for being a bit giddy: the first fish, the biggest fish, the most fish.
Here's a lake-by-lake look at other activity:
\ CHICKAHOMINY: Go fishing here and can get the feeling you are a whole lot farther south than Richmond. The 1,500-acre body of tea-colored water is shallow, often swampy, and it holds a grab-bag variety of finny characters.
Right now, chain pickerel are hot. Don Arthur of Richmond used jumbo minnows to catch and release 17 of these elongated minimuskie. They weighed 2 to 3 1/4 pounds apiece. As if there weren't enough to fill Arthur's day, he also reeled in 10 bass ranging from 2 1/2 to 4 pounds.
\ BRIERY CREEK: This is the home of the Florida bass, a creature with an unique genetic makeup and a long life span that gives it the potential to grow a lot of flesh on its boney frame.
Briery fishermen are discovering what Texas and California anglers already had learned: The Florida bass aren't easy to catch. No wonder they grow so large.
The largest bass registered thus far at Worsham's Grocery, just up the road from the lake, is a 7 3/4-pounder, not bad considering the first stocking was in 1986. But most of the fishermen showing up at the 845-acre lake east of Farmville are catching foot-long fish, which are striking minnows.
\ MOOMAW: Trout fishing appears to be on the rebound after a couple of seasons in which there were stocking problems. The catches are averaging about 1 1/2 to 3 pounds, and the biggest fish weighed at Alleghany Trapping Supplies thus far is a 7 1/2-pounder. Some fishermen are going after trout with live minnows; others prefer spoons, such as the Kastmaster and Hopkins.
The 2,530-acre lake northeast of Covington is in a mountain backdrop where the March wind can come galloping out of the north and leave angry, gray whitecaps. So you have to pick your days.
\ PHILPOTT: This 3,000-acre impoundment near Bassett has the kind of rocky bluffs that bass anglers like to fish with jigs or minnows during cold weather.
Ricky Young of Bassett landed a 3 3/4-pound smallmouth on a jig, about the kind of catch you can expect in March. A bit more unusual were the 2 1/2- and 3 1/2-pound rainbow trout caught by Martinsville's Steve Kitchem, who was using a lure called the Super Duper.
\ ELSEWHERE: Woody Mayhew of Hurt caught a 34-pound striper at Leesville. . . . Pea Hill Creek is producing some largemouths for fishermen casting crankbaits and jigs at Lake Gaston. . . . Tom Sawyers of Vinton got an 8-pound, 5-ounce walleye at Smith Mountain on a bucktail. . . . Doug Ball of Spotsylvania landed 30 crappie that averaged about a pound apiece at Lake Anna.
by CNB