Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 6, 1994 TAG: 9403060027
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It wasn't your usual 8- to 10-inch river scrapper. This one had the size and muscle to rip line from my reel. When he came exploding out of the water, in a blur of bronze and flash of red, there was no question he was a trophy.
Once in my hands, I figured he was every bit of 4 pounds, the weight then required to earn a trophy-fish citation from the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
The problem: I would have to weigh him on state-inspected scales, and there was no way I could do that without killing him.
I recalled getting a citation earlier for a Smith Mountain Lake smallmouth during an outing with Dale Wilson. We were fishing in Craddock Creek when the bass smashed a lure I was working along a rocky ledge.
Once it was netted, we roared the boat to Saunders Marina, where Wilson sprinted up the hill to the marina store, weighed the bass, then bounded back down and tossed the wiggling trophy into the lake.
It was one of those rare cases of having your cake and eating it, too, but there was no way for me to accomplish that on the James. For a guy who preaches catch-and-release, I was in a quandary. Should I keep the fish in an effort to earn a wall plaque, or should I let him go and be content with memories?
I kept him. On a set of scales in Buchanan he lacked 2 ounces of making the 4-pound citation minimum. It was a judgment I've always regretted. I don't think I've kept a candidate for a fresh-water citation since.
The state's trophy fish citation program provides valuable information on fishing trends and it gives personal recognition to more than 6,000 fishermen annually, but there is no question it also kills fish that otherwise would be released.
Isn't there some way the state can recognize a trophy catch without the fish being sacrificed?
There is.
It is a catch-measure-and release system, and the game and fish department has agreed to implement it beginning next year.
The new concept, made public last week, will be called the Virginia Angler Recognition Program. It won't contain the word "citation." Fishermen still will be able to earn recognition the old way, by meeting minimum weight standards, but they also will have the option of getting a fish qualified if it meets a certain length standard. That way the fish can be measured in front of a witness then released.
It is a change that is long overdue, and it finally came at the prodding of the Potomac Smallmouth Club. State fish officials will establish qualifying lengths so that the minimum size standards for trophy classification will be about the same whether a catch is measured or weighed.
"We are expecting a significant increase in the number of trophy fish awards," said Larry Hart, deputy director of the game and fish department.
Catch-and-release citations have been highly popular in the state-sponsored Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament.
"Over the past four years, fish that were released alive have accounted for almost 50 percent of all tournament entries," said Claude Bain, the tournament director. Seldom is a blue or white marlin hauled into the dock nowadays. Releases for these species are 99 percent.
Catch-measure-and-release should be particularly popular with freshwater anglers who go after smallmouth bass, striped bass, muskie and wild trout. Many already pass up citation opportunities, preferring to release their catch rather than kill it. Now with a quick flick of a measuring tape they can be rewarded twice: with a citation and with the joy of watching their catch swim away.
by CNB