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

DATE: THURSDAY, September 1, 1994                   TAG: 9409020029
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

NOT ALL FAVOR YEAR-ROUND TROUT SEASON

That has made the event a good bit like Christmas morning, the last day of school and the circus coming to town all wrapped into one magnificent box. At least for fishermen such as Richard Pauley of Daleville.

Pauley has a problem with the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries' proposal to go to a year-round trout season.

"When my sons were like 5 years old and I started taking them on opening day, the expectations from a young person is they are going to catch fish," Pauley said at a public hearing in Roanoke on Wednesday. "How many people are never going to experience the thrill of looking forward to opening day?"

The game and fish department is airing the idea of a year-round season at 10 public hearings across the state, from Windsor to Wise. The first opposition came at the Roanoke meeting.

Pauley told officials that trading opening day for a year-round season isn't a good deal. Not for people who have jobs or who go to school and can't follow the hatchery trucks.

"My main thought is one of fairness," he said. "I think we ought to try to include people rather than exclude people."

Leon Turner wondered how many people would drop out of fishing under a year-round format. Turner, who lives in Fincastle, is a past board member of the game and fish department. He expressed opposition to the idea of a year-round season.

"My main concern is the loss of young people because of not having opening day," he said. "It is about the only place a young person can go and expect to catch trout other than a fee-fishing area, and that is expensive."

Opening day attracts the casual fishermen, the one-time-a-year angler, a fact that brings revenue into the trout program, Turner said.

"If anybody doesn't like opening day of the trout season, stay home," he said.

An informal show of hands at the Roanoke meeting, attended by about 25 sportsmen, indicated that the majority preferred a year-round season. A mail survey conducted by the game and fish department showed that 73 percent of the licensed fishermen favor such a season. At a public hearing in Harrisonburg on Tuesday, every angler speaking on the subject expressed a wilingness to give opening day the boot.

State fish biologists say a year-round season has distinct advantages. It would result in a more efficient operation of the hatcheries, it would reduce the demand for game warden patrols and it would increased angling opportunity, they said in a printed statement.

The public hearings continue today with meetings in Clifton Forge, at Dabney Lancaster Community College, and in Wytheville at Wytheville Community College beginning at 7 p.m..

RED MAN: Albert Lynch of Chesterfield won the Red Man Piedmont Division tournament on the James River. Lynch used Bagley's crankbaits, Culprit worms and Mann's spinnerbaits to boat a limit of five bass that weighed 12 pounds, 8 ounces.

Second place went to Gene Wyre of Winston-Salem, N.C., who brought 12 pounds, 3 ounces to the scales. The only regional angler in the top 10 was Larry Brooke of Ridgeway, who was ninth. Robert Snyder of Roanoke won $1,000 for the biggest bass, a 4-pound, 13-ounce largemouth.