Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 17, 1993 TAG: 9306170063
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Bill Cochran
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Wade fishing is a one-on-one encounter with a stream. No expensive boat, no outboard engine to steal the serenity, no heavy, red tank filled with smelly gas.
You simply put on a pair of old sneakers and shorts or cutoffs and plunge in. It is like riding a bike compared to driving a car.
With no boots to act as armor, your body becomes a thermometer, quick to sense the fact that water always is cooler than the air when the weatherman predicts highs above 75 degrees.
A wade fisherman isn't just in a stream, he becomes part of it, savoring its power, feeling the streambed rocks and grass that comb its flow, following its course slowly enough to probe every pool, pocket and riffle.
Most likely a wade fisherman will hook a sunfish, and, if he's lucky, a few smallmouth bass dressed in bronze, with a glint of predator red in their eyes. The bass often will leap out of the water to give a wade fisherman an eyeball-to-eyeball look when they feel the prick of a hook.
But Tuck, who lives in Austinville, encountered more than just some water being splashed in his face when a leg-long muskie with a snout full of sharp teeth clamped down on his bait.
A single stare from a muskie's bulging eyes, a single sweep of its paddle-size tail is enough to give a wade fisherman the feeling that his predator status has been downgraded to prey. But even with his line stretched to the snapping point, Tuck held on and landed a 21 3/4-pound trophy, one of the season's best muskie catches.
\ A BAD TRIP: The next time you have a bad day fishing, take some comfort in the plight of Ricky Clunn, who has pocketed more than $1 million in tournament fishing, his winnings including four BASS Masters Classics.
During the weekend, during three days of effort in the Bassmasters Superstars Tournament on the Illinois River, Clunn failed to enter a single bass. The same can be said of a couple other high-profile anglers, Jack Chancellor and Charlie Reed.
The idea was to put all past winners of the Classic, all Angler of the Year recipients and all winners on the '93 tour into a single big-name contest.
The winner was Denny Brauer of Camdenton, Mo., who had a 28-pound, 14-ounce catch that earned him $50,000. Brauer won the Virginia B.A.S.S. Invitational on Kerr Lake in May.
Second place went to Hank Parker, of Denver, N.C., who came out of retirement long enough to say ,"I enjoyed it," but no, thanks, to being a regular contender.
Bill Watson of Christiansburg served as an observer-angler in the tournament.
\ CASTING ELSEWHERE: A couple of 30-pound-plus striped bass have been landed at Smith Mountain Lake, one of them taken on a Red Fin plug.
The stripers at Kerr Lake have begun to disperse following their spawning run, a fact that makes them harder to find, but the crappie fishing remains excellent. Several citation crappie recently were registered, one of them weighing 3 pounds, 14 ounces.
Frank Alderman of Blacksburg caught a 19 3/4-pound flathead catfish at Claytor Lake. Mike Carico of Woodland got a 2-pound, 9-ounce Claytor white bass.
Trout fishing is improving at Moomaw Lake, where several fish in the 5- to 6-pound class have been landed. Tom Linkerhoker of Covington took a 6-pound brown trout. Bill Uzzell of Covington weighed in a 7.11-pound largemouth from Moomaw.
Lake Anna produced a citation 8 1/4-pound largemouth for Lenny Heste of Spotsylvania.
by CNB