Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 28, 1994 TAG: 9404280040
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"I though he had hung his line up," said Jamie. You know how kids are. Justin is only 4 years old.
But the next call was more compelling.
"Help me!" Justin yelled.
That got his parents back to the half-acre pond near Clarksville in a hurry. Justin was tangling with a fish, not just a potato-chip size bluegill, but a lunker.
"It's all yours. You take care of it," his dad told him.
So Justin got a death grip on his 3-foot long, Donald Duck Ducktales Zebco fishing outfit and reeled in a crappie so big that his dad quickly loaded everybody into the truck and rushed to the nearest set of scales. The fish weighed 4 pounds, 10 ounces, which should put Justin's name in the state record book once Department of Game and Inland Fisheries officials complete the paper work.
The current state record is a 4-pound, 3-ounce crappie landed by Jeff Bates at Lake Gaston seven springs ago.
Justin's fish, a black crappie, measured 19 inches in length and 17 inches in girth.
"Most of the big ones are white crappie," said A.L. LaRoche, a state fish biologist.
The Elliotts, who live in Clarksville, were on a family outing. "I take Justin fishing every chance I can," Jamie said.
\ HEAT IS ON: The July weather has shot the water temperature up to 66 degrees in the Roanoke River at Brookneal, and that has put the striped bass spawning run into high gear.
A major spawn occurred Tuesday night, the kind you usually expect about the second week of May.
"Things are really cooking," said Mike DuVal, a fish biologist for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
In fact, fish officials are concerned that the high water temperature could result in a quick spawn. That would hamper the production of striped bass in the state's hatchery at Brookneal. Hatchery officials like to have six to eight weeks to meet stocking obligations for impoundments that include Smith Mountain and Claytor.
Anglers are a bit happier with weather and water conditions.
"The water is low, clear and in real good shape for fishing," said Steve Arthur, hatchery manager at Brookneal. Fishermen have been finding plenty of stripers from below Brookneal to the Leesville Dam.
\ BRAGGING SIZE: Greg Roop reeled in a 30-pound, 2-ounce muskie from the New River, one of the best catches of the seasons in what is shaping up as a fine muskie year. Emogene Aldrich of Bent Mountain landed a 15-pound, 3-ounce muskie from Claytor Lake.
Claytor continues to turn out big striped bass, like the 22-pound, 2-ounce catch by Keith Marshall of Dublin. Other catches from Claytor include a 5-pound, 10-ounce smallmouth and several 2-pound plus white bass.
Gary Reaves of Roanoke landed a 6 1/2-pounder from the Roanoke River in Wasena Park - that's not a trout we are talking about, but a largemouth bass. Reaves got the strike when he spotted a couple of bass around a stump and tossed them a nightcrawler on his lightweight spinning outfit.
Chris Hutton of Moneta caught a 6-pound, 14-ounce smallmouth bass from Smith Mountain Lake. Billy Bell of Altavista landed striped bass from Leesville Lake that weighed 36 1/2 pounds and 17 1/2 pounds. He was trolling a Red Fin plug.
Charley Mayer of Roanoke stopped off at the Bait Place to weigh a 5-pound, 14-ounce brown trout he caught at Lake Moomaw, but the big excitement was over a 17-inch native brook trout an angler had landed from a mountain stream.
\ TURKEY TALK: Spring gobbler hunters, who often must cope with winter-like weather, are getting a dose of summertime in the spring woods. How has this impacted hunting success?
"We are hearing totally opposite stories," said Ken Wilkes, of Trebark Outfitters. Some hunters report talkative toms, others are saying the big birds are gobbling once, then closing their beaks.
One thing for certain, many of the birds are of butterball size. "We have checked in several in excess of 22 pounds," said Wilkes. Joseph Turman killed a 23.10-pound tom in Floyd Country.
by CNB