Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 15, 1992 TAG: 9203160181
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C14 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The fact that this has occurred just in time for the 9 a.m. opening of the trout season Saturday has caused the expectations of anglers to rise with the water.
Since mid-February, trucks laden with their wiggly cargo of rainbows, brooks and browns have been rolling from the state's aging hatcheries to streams and small impoundments in 39 counties, most of them west of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
The abundance of water has meant that the fish have had plenty of room to roam the riffles and to assume their holding stations in the pockets and pools of their choice.
"That helps the distribution of the fish, so they won't be piled up in certain pockets," said Gary Martel, assistant chief of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries fish division.
When the first baited hooks and lures pelt the water, some 322,000 pre-season trout will have been stocked. That's about 1,000 more than for the same time period last year, maybe not much if you are a fishermen, but a source of satisfaction if you manage the trout program, as Martel does.
The extra fish have been squeezed from a struggling game and fish department budget, and at a time when costs are on the rise and manpower is on a decline. The last boost in the price of a trout fishing license, the major source of revenue for the program, occurred six years ago, when it went to $6.50.
"We can't pay for enough fish for everybody to catch a limit of trout every time they go out," said Martel. "That is just the economics of the situation. It is costing us about $1.75 a pound right now [to raise trout to stockable size]."
So fish officials have attempted to hone their trout program in a way to place emphasis on a quality angling experience. Again this season, there will be in-season stockings through early June, with some of the better quality streams being visited by the hatchery truck as many as five times.
Officials won't give specific details on when a stream will be restocked, but each Friday the fish division is scheduled to release a list of the creeks, rivers and impoundments that will get fish the following week. Stockings will take place Monday through Friday.
The Roanoke Times & World-News will publish the stocking list on the Sports Scoreboard Page each Friday that it is made available. It also will be put on the 981-3385 Scoreline.
There still are fishermen who desire more details - like exactly when the truck will arrive - but the move toward secretiveness has pleased and challenged many anglers the past couple of seasons, said Martel.
"You have to be a little more skillful and you have to spend more time fishing," he said. "We are trying to create more of a recreational experience and less of a meat experience. With the economy the way it is, we just cannot afford to be putting meat on the table."
When the department conducted a survey in 1986, it found that about half the fishermen contacted wanted changes in the trout program, Martel said. A number of adjustments have been made, and with success, he said.
"The amount of criticism has dropped. We have gotten a lot of compliments. We've tried to do the best we could to give everybody something."
The agency's success will be measured during a follow-up survey next year, but already efforts to limit the crowds that once followed hatchery trucks have been well received by landowners who have trout streams flowing through their property.
The 1992 trout season will be one of the first in recent memory when more mileage of streams has been added to the program than dropped. Most of the extra fishing opportunities come in the form of special-regulation streams, where artificial lures and low catch limits are emphasized.
Many fishermen grade the trout program according to the size of the fish they catch. So how is the quality this year?
Martel gives a mixed review.
The extremely dry weather of late summer and early fall last year worked a hardship on hatcheries. When the water supply gets low in hatchery raceways and holding ponds, the fish become crowded and feeding efforts must be cut back.
"We didn't have any really significant mortality, which can occur in that kind of a situation," said Martel. "But you simply cannot feed the fish, push them [for growth] because it takes too much oxygen out of the water."
When the rains finally came, officials had to push the growth of trout as rapidly as possible, and were helped by a mild winter, Martel said.
"What you get in a situation like this is uneven growth in some places," he said. "So we have some fish that are bigger than average and some that are smaller than average."
That's not all bad, he said.
"In my opinion, it kinda gives you a more natural situation."
by CNB