Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 24, 1990 TAG: 9005250036
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-3 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
One minute the tailrace water is low and tranquil, as friendly as a mill pond, the next it is a raging torrent.
For the striped bass, a fish whose origin is the tempestuous sea, the area offers ideal habitat: plenty of food, in the form of bait fish, and ample room to escape danger.
Catches this spring at Leesville have been fair to good and should remain that way for another week or two.
Downstream, in the free-flowing river - the locals call it the Staunton - most of the stripers have spawned, but good numbers were present early in the week when the high water hit after heavy rain Monday and Tuesday.
"The water is high and muddy right now - unfishable," said the Brookneal area's Steve Arthur at mid-week. Arthur, who manages the state hatchery there, said he believes the river will be fishable by Sunday.
At the Leesville tailrace, fishermen continued to catch stripers in the high water, but they traditionally do best during low-water cycles when they can exert good control over their live bait.
"They seem to be catching most of them on shiners that they are getting from Smith Mountain Lake," said Richard Blanks Jr., a state game warden who works the area.
The tranquility at the dam is broken when a siren sounds, and, just after its last gasp, the gates open and tons of water thunder through to spin the giant turbines.
At the tailrace, fishermen on a public fishing platform reel in their lines and move their bait buckets and tackle boxes to higher ground. The water suddenly and powerfully mushrooms, moving like a flash fire. Electricity flows through power lines that crackle overhead. The fish surely are looking for pockets of relative calm to ride out the surge of water.
Some fishermen cast bucktail jigs during the high cycle, but most wait and watch until the water goes back down. Then they move to the spots they vacated and resume bait fishing.
An increasing number of anglers are switching to night fishing, said Blanks. "Some of the guys get off from second shift and start fishing at midnight," he said.
When fishermen leave after sunrise, often they are toting striped bass, big fish with black, horizontal stripes running down their silver sides, their swollen bellies the color of week-old snow.
One of the best recent catches was a 16-pound, 14-ounce fish landed by Wayne East of Abingdon.
Night fishing also pretty much has taken over in the river at Brookneal, Arthur said.
"People have been putting in around midnight and have been catching fish," he said.
Arthur said he would rate the season's fishing as average. He predicts that fishing will be productive next week, then it will ebb as the stripers move back down to Kerr Lake.
A number of spawned-out fish already are turning up in Kerr, especially around Buoys 11 through 16. Striped bass also are being found at G, H and I Buoys in the lake's Nutbush Creek. Drifting live shad or trolling with bucktails or deep-diving Red Fins are techniques that have been successful.
\ OTHER CATCHES: Harold Speer of Salem landed a 17 1/2-pound channel catfish on a bucktail at Carvins Cove.
Bass are off their beds and locating under docks at Gaston Lake.
The white bass run out of the South Holston River was hampered by high water all spring, and appears to be over for the season.
by CNB