Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 21, 1994 TAG: 9404210031
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A snag, he figured, which wasn't bad logic. The 845-acre lake, near Farmville, is full of standing timber. The gray hulks of hardwoods and pines protrude from the ebony water in every direction, sending slivers of shimmering shadows across the surface on a bright spring day.
So Bunker, who lives in Chester, gave a couple of hard jerks with his rod, and suddenly a fish came swelling from the water. He'd hooked a largemouth, a huge one.
Bill Watson of Christiansburg was one of the first to see it. When he and his brother, Jerry, from Bluefield, pulled up to the dock, Bunker told them, "I don't know what you all caught, but look over here. This will make your day."
Bunker held up a bass he estimated at 8 to 10 pounds.
"I knew it was bigger than that," said Watson, who was fishing Briery Creek for the first time.
Watson produced a set of portable scales designed to weigh fish up to 10 pounds, but they weren't husky enough to handle the job.
Bunker headed up the road to Worsham's Store, where the bass officially weighed 13 pounds, 13 ounces. It is the largest largemouth reported in Virginia this season, and it topped the Briery Creek record, a 13-pound, 4-ounce largemouth caught last season.
Other jumbo catches from Briery Creek this spring include bass that have weighed 12 pounds, 8 ounces; 11 pounds, 6 ounces; and 9 pounds, 12 ounces.
When the lake opened to angling five years ago, state fish officials predicted 10- to 12-pound largemouths would be caught in six to eight years, and a state record would be established in 10 to 12 years. With the lake on a faster schedule, fishermen are thinking a record catch may not be far away. The state record largemouth is a 16-pound, 4-ounce fish landed April 16, 1985, from Lake Conner.
One thing Conner and Briery Creek have in common: Both were stocked with Florida-strain largemouths, a species that has produced huge catches following introduction in California.
Biologists aren't certain what contribution Florida bass are making in Briery Creek Lake, but Bill Watson knows one thing:
"I'm definitely going back."
\ BRIERY CLONE: A new public fishing lake, called Slate River Watershed, is scheduled to open May 1. At 38 acres, it is small, but here's what Bill Kittrell, a state fish biologist, has to say about it: "The lake looks like a miniature version of Briery Creek Lake. Lots of standing timber was left in the lake basin to provide permanent fish habitat."
The impoundment is located in the Appomattox-Buckingham state forest.
\ GOBBLING TIME: You can get an idea of how well turkey gobblers are responding to calls when you talk to Michael Pauley, 17, of Daleville. When Pauley called one morning this week in Botetourt County, a tom came winging across a hollow, landed in a patch of dry leaves and ran toward him at full stride. Pauley gave a couple of yelps on his call to get the excited tom to stop long enough for a shot. It weighed 18 1/2 pounds, had a 10-inch beard and was Pauley's 13th turkey.
The wind was blowing fitfully on a Franklin County mountaintop on a recent morning, when Ronald Powers and Jerry Fore of Bedford County hoped to hear a gobbler. So the two hunters decided to move to the lowlands, and that's where Powers killed a 21-pound, 2-ounce turkey that sported two beards measuring about 9 inches apiece.
Steve Jenkins, a Botetourt County native, killed a 21 1/2-pound turkey bearing a 10-inch beard in Westmoreland County.
\ BIG SMALLMOUTHS: Claytor Lake continues to produce trophy-size smallmouth bass. Jerry Painter hooked one that weighed 5 pounds, 10 ounces. Robbie Horst of Pulaski landed a 4-pound, 13-ounce bass. The one to beat is a 6-pound, 3-ounce smallmouth taken by Fred Tilley of Pulaski.
by CNB