Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 24, 1994 TAG: 9402240171
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In fact, the 3,000-acre Corps of Engineers reservoir near Bassett has been the hot spot - the lone hot spot - amid what has been a pretty dismal winter fishing season elsewhere: snow, ice, below-zero temperatures, rain, high water and bass that use their big mouths for little more than yawning.
The bass blitz at Philpott has been going on for a month, getting into high gear in late January when Don Hitt's boat accounted for 69 bass in four trips. On his best day, Hitt, along with Randy Marion, caught 17 bass. The two anglers from Cana sorted out a limit of 10 that averaged 3 pounds apiece.
All this from a deep, clear-water lake where for most anglers it would be an act of kindness if Corps officials would tack signs along the shoreline that read, "Tough to fish."
"Philpott is a hard lake to fish," said Phil Helms, who operates Rakes Sporting Goods in Bassett. Rakes is like a tollhouse to Philpott, the place you stop for bait and information on the way in and stop to weigh your catch on the way out.
So why all the good catches from a lake that has a Scrooge-like reputation?
Something both mysterious and common has been happening, Helms said. On the strange side, Philpott has had open water this winter, when lakes of similar size, including Claytor and Moomaw, froze over.
"The farthest down that froze this year, to my knowledge, was the 7-mile marker," said Helms. That means the lower half of the lake has had open water. Helms remembers other winters when Philpott iced up down to the 1-mile marker. "And those winters were no colder than this year."
Helms even asked Corps officials for an explanation of why Philpott didn't turn to ice when temperatures reached zero. They couldn't tell him.
As for the outstanding winter catches of bass, these aren't as uncommon as some anglers believe, Helms said.
"These guys who have been catching a lot of fish out here this winter historically do that every year. Over the past years, nobody has made the public aware that this was going on," he said.
The fact that secret is out was evident last weekend when Helms used the word "huge" to describe the crowd of anglers that showed up.
"A whole lot of them were from Roanoke, New River Valley, Danville, South Boston who had heard about it. Some came in to say, `We fish Buggs Island and normally can catch fish down there this time of the year. With two warm days in a row the fish will be in the shallows with their backs sticking out of the water.' "
The problem this time, two warm days in a row has been a rarity.
The Philpott bass are being caught in the deep-water vaults of the lake.
"Normally they have been catching them 35 or 40 feet deep," said Helms.
Last weekend, when the temperatures went up, so did the bass. Catches were taken at 15- to 18-foot depths. The rainy weather and cooler temperatures at mid-week sent them back to the basement, Helms said.
No ordinary crankbait will reach such depths, so you have to bomb the bass with steel lures, such as the Hopkins Shorty. The technique is to locate a deep point and send a Hopkins plummeting to it vertically. Once there, you use your rod tip to dance it like a dying minnow.
Sometimes you hook bass; sometimes you snag underwater brush, which can cost you a $4.19 lure.
The Hopkins approach will be productive until the water temperature rises enough to send the bass into a shallower holding pattern, probably along the rock cliffs, said Helms. The upper end of the lake is in the high 30s and the lower end in the low 40s. That's about 20 degrees colder than a year ago.
by CNB