Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 1, 1993 TAG: 9303020358
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
TROPHY SEASON UNDER WAY
A fast-moving cold front had the late-February sky over Smith Mountain Lake jammed with putty-colored clouds when Jimmy Shoemaker marked fish on his locator.The crescent-shaped blurbs that floated across the screen of his graph showed fish suspended at a depth of 24 feet over about 75 feet of water.
Striped bass!
I had found fish in there about a month ago. I have been fishing it every weekend, and I have caught several fish," said Shoemaker.
He was working his bass boat over a piece of water in the upper, Blackwater River arm of the 20,000-acre lake. Shoemaker makes the 110-mile drive to the lake from his Liberty, N.C., home often during cold-weather months to tangle with stripers, a species that knows no off-season.
Fishing by himself, he baited several rods and lowered minnows to the 24-foot velel. Then he waited.
"I had two rods out the back of the boat. I was looking at them and when I turned around he had one of my other rods bowed. When I couldn't get my rod out of the holder, I knew he wasn't a small fish."
A 50-inch striper had sucked Shoemaker's minnow into its sandpaper mouth. When the hook was socked into its bony jaw, it went straight down. For 15 minutes - "It seemed like forever," said Shoemaker - there was a fierce tug of war.
"It was just like trying to pull the bottom up. He try to go straight down running line off the drag, then he would stop. When he stopped, all I could do is stop, too. I couldn't winch him in. He finally wore out and I began to gain just a little bit on him. When I got him in I was just about as tired as he was."
The guage on Shoemaker's portable scales wavered around the 40-pound mark, which meant he was getting close to the state record, a 44-pound, 14-ounce Smith Mountain catch landed just over 6 months earlier. So Shoemaker fired up his boat and headed upstream to Magnum Point Marina.
The marina hadn't opened for the season, but Shoemaker knew he could reach the proprietor with a knock on a nearby door.
"I asked him, `Would you weigh a fish for me?"
"He asked, `How much do you think it weighs?"
"I said, `About 40 pounds.'
"He looked at me and said, `40 pounds! Really?"
The long, slim fish sank the state-inspected marina scales to the 40-pound, 14-ounce mark, exactly 4 pounds under the record.
"If he'd had a big stomach, he may have had a chance of being a record," said Shoemaker.
When it comes to fishing for a trophy striped bass - even a state record - Shoemaker was on the right lake. Last season, 258 citation-size striped bass from Smith Mountain were registered with the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, including the state record caught by Gary Tomlin of Buena Vista. He hooked that braod-backed, 48-inch fish while trolling a Sutton spoon around Christmas Tree Island on July 7.
For two decades, Smith Mountain has dominated Virginia's striper citations, and last year was no different when it accounted for just over 71 percent of them. The lake total was down from the 341 of the previous season, but it was less than 10 fish off the eight-year average.
A look back at last year's citation totals is a key way for anglers to plot fishing trips for the '93 season. Shoemaker's recent catch is proof of that.
Just as Smith Mountain dominated striped bass success, Lake Western Branch, in Norfolk, was the place to catch a trophy sunfish; the James River the spot for citation blue catfish; Cripple Creek for big brook or rainbow trout; Kerr Lake for hefty crappie, white bass and walleye.
It was a closer call for other species. Lake Gaston gave up the most largemouth bass citations, 40, but Lake Anna had 36 and Lake Chesdin 34.
The James River accounted for 26 smallmouth citations, only five more than the New River. Smith Mountain had 14; Claytor Lake, 13.
In the muskie category, the James and New were neck-to-neck, but Claytor produced some of the heftiest catches, five of the top 10.
Lake Moomaw tallied a dozen more brown trout citations last year than the season before, and it remained the state's best brown trout fishery. But it got stiff competition from Cripple Creek, which produced 61 citations.
That made Cripple Creek the best spot for brook (259) and rainbow (92) trout citations, and the second best for browns. Most of these came from the Cedar Springs Sportsmans Lodge in Wythe County, where anglers are charged $25 daily to fish a section of stream heavily stocked with trophy fish.
Long known as the best producer of crappie, including the world record, Kerr Lake also is building a strong reputation as a hot spot for walleye and white bass. Its walleye citations (53) were twice that of the nearest rival, Smith Mountain, which had 20.
Claytor Lake once dominated Virginia's big white bass catches, but it has fallen second to Kerr. Kerr had 86 last season; Claytor, 34. Smith Mountain came in third, with 21.