Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 9, 1991                   TAG: 9104090132
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TOUGH TO GET A LINE ON JAMES RIVER BASS DECLINE

Sure, the James accounts for the highest total of smallmouth citations, he said. But when you consider it has more than 200 miles of smallmouth habitat, while the New has less than half that in Virginia, the New could be even a more potent bass producer.

He may have been right then. He certainly is correct now.

For the first time since records have been kept, the total number of citation smallmouth registered from the New in the 1990 season was more than from the James, no matter the difference in mileage. The New had 59; the James a mere 28.

It was not so much a matter of the New getting better as it was the James becoming a tougher place to catch a big bass.

As little as five seasons ago, James River anglers registered 377 smallmouth citations, fish that weighed 4 pounds or more. (It now takes a 5-pounder to earn a citation.) That year, February, March, April, September, October and November each had more citations than the 1990 total.

While anglers blame the citation decline on a number of things, the one voiced most often is the increase in river use. Not only is another angler likely to be stalking the bass you are after, but a fleet of canoes or kayaks probably already has spooked the skittish fish.

Research by Virginia Tech shows that the annual use of the river has reached about a quarter-million recreationists. Some days it can appear that every last one of them is sharing your pool.

Even so, the biggest contributing factor in the James citation decline could be river flow, not river traffic. That's a theory of A.L. LaRoche II, a regional fisheries manager for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

Bass enjoy their best spawning success when the river flow is fairly low and steady, he said. "You don't want high water and floods."

So when you look back at the flow records of the James for the past 20 years, 1976 and 1977 will jump out at you as providing perfect springs for spawning. Add about eight or 10 years to that, the time it takes a bass to reach 4-5 pounds, and you come into your major citation-producing period of 1983 through 1987, LaRoche said.

It is so rare to have outstanding back-to-back spawns that they can make an impact on the fishery for a dozen years, he said.

"Other times, the river tends of oscillate between dry, wet, dry, wet. There are still good year classes being developed. I don't think the overall fishing has declined that much."

The early 1980s produced a couple of springs when spawning conditions were good, so the James could rebound as early as this season. Also ideal was 1986, LaRoche said.

On the New, 1976, 1982 and 1985 were years in which the river's flow should have provided prime spawning results, he said.

The lower portion of the James grows bass faster than the upper, because of a longer season. Because cold water now is being released season-long out of Gathright Dam, it could slow the growth of upper-river fish even more, LaRoche said.

On the positive side, LaRoche says he has a feeling that increasing numbers of fishermen are beginning to release the trophy bass they catch. That could mean that the number of citations are declining, but the number of big bass are not.

It's tougher, too, to catch a citation, following the July 1989 jump from 4 to 5 pounds in the minimum weight requirement. A 5-pound smallmouth is a huge fish - anywhere. It makes both the New and James an excellent place to be in the spring.