ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, October 25, 1996 TAG: 9610250062
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
THE JACKSON RIVER isn't the place to go anymore if you want to fish with live bait.
If you plan to fish the trout-rich Jackson River below Gathright Dam, take along your flies, your single-hook spinners and your jigs, but beginning Jan. 1 leave your bait at home.
The Department of Game and Inland Fisheries approved a controversial proposal Thursday that will establish the river from Gathright Dam downstream to Westvaco Dam at Covington - about 16 miles - as an artificial-lures only stream.
The department's board also gave final approval to several changes to the Douthat State Park fee-fishing trout program, but backed away from a recommendation that would have closed the program during the summer months.
The board's 5-to-3 vote to outlaw the use of bait on the Jackson was supported by Trout Unlimited, which has argued that bait fishermen on this catch-and-release stream cause a higher trout mortality than anglers using artificial lures.
The artificials-only proposal received a 64-percent favorable vote from sportsmen attending 10 public hearings across the state, but the department's fish biologists said the extra protection for trout really wasn't needed. The stream's carrying capacity is high and the mortality is low, said Larry Mohn, a supervising biologist.
``We literally have a fish behind every rock,'' he said.
The department's fisheries biologists recommended an artificials-only regulation on a three-quarter mile section immediately below Gathright Dam, where they said both natural reproduction and fishing pressure is the highest.
The artificials-only proposal received strong backing from Catharine Tucker, board member from Richmond and past president of the Virginia Council of Trout Unlimited.
``I have a real problem with the consistency of saying you can catch and release with bait,'' she said. ``We need to look at the long-term management of the stream.''
Biologists said they wouldn't stock a 3-mile section of the stream where the Virginia Supreme Court recently ruled the fishing rights belong to landowners who trace the ownership of their property to king's grants.
The Douthat fee-fishing program will be closed during the summer months only if water conditions aren't suitable for stocking trout, said Gary Martel, chief of the department's fish division. The agency received strong opposition to a routine summer close from Douthat anglers.
Children age 12 and under will be able to fish Douthat without paying a daily fee when they are under the supervision of an adult who has a permit; however, the adult's limit of six fish must not be exceeded.
The Douthat fee program will open later beginning next season, the first Saturday in April rather than the third Saturday of March, but it will extend to Oct.31, a month longer than in the past.
Pay programs at Crooked Creek and Big Tumbling Creek also will open the first Saturday in April and will end Sept.30, rather than on Labor Day.
More restrictive regulations were set for the artificials-only section of the upper Jackson River in the Hidden Valley area of Bath County. The minimum size limit was boosted from 12 to 16 inches and the catch limit was lowered from six to two trout daily. All the regulations become law Jan.1.
The board reacted unfavorably to a Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission report recommending that the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries be consolidated with the Virginia Marine Resources Commission.
LENGTH: Medium: 69 linesby CNB