Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 2, 1994 TAG: 9405030018
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
``It wouldn't surprise me if someone just absolutely shattered the record with a fish in the low to mid-50s [pounds] just any day now,'' said Coley, a lake guide who lives in Julian, N.C. ``There have just been too many caught in the low 40s. There are bound to be a few that are growing a little faster and have put on just a little more weight.''
One thing for certain, Coley would love to be the angler who hooks a ride with a record, and he is a likely candidate. His Trophy Stripers guide service specializes in jumbo-size fish. His boat has accounted for two stripers over 40 pounds, the largest a 44-pound, 1-ounce trophy landed in early April by a young client, William T. Russell III, of Greensboro, N.C. That fish lacked 13 ounces of matching the state record, taken at Smith Mountain in July 1992 by Gary Tomlin of Buena Vista.
``A lot of the people who book trips with me have been striper fishing before and have caught smaller fish,'' Coley said. ``They have caught numbers of 8- 10- 12-pound fish, and are looking for something to hang on the wall.''
It was wall-hanging size fish that lured Coley into the striper guiding business.
``I was operating a full-time taxidermy shop in Greensboro, which I still have. I was getting these big stripers in to mount - 25- to 30-pound fish. I got to talking with some of the guys and they told me where they were fishing and how they fished.''
Coley traveled to Smith Mountain in 1978, and caught a striper on his first try.
``I haven't bought a North Carolina fishing license in 12 years. This is the only lake I am fishing.''
He hasn't missed a day on the water since March 23, his intensity spurred by the fact that late winter into late spring is the prime time to smash the record.
``The fish are as heavy as they will be anytime of the year. Once they spawn, the big females will lose 3 to 4 pounds.''
Thus far, spring striper fishing for Coley and many other Smith Mountain anglers has been slow.
``I don't know if it is because of the bad winter, or what, we haven't been getting the hits or catching the fish that we had last year at this time,'' he said.
One week in April last season Coley's boat accounted for stripers that weighed 35 pounds, 7 ounces; and 32 pounds, 5 ounces.
There's still time, Coley believes, recalling a fabulous spurt of action last year the third week of June when fish weighing 40 pounds, 2-ounces; 24 pounds, 10 ounces; 26 pounds, 10 ounces; and 29 pounds, 9 ounces were wrestled aboard his boat.
Coley believes if he is catching small fish he is in the wrong spot.
``The area where we caught the 44-pounder, we have taken five fish, the smallest was 19 pounds, two were over 30 and three others were over 20.''
Big stripers like long points or shoals that are near a sharp dropoff or river channel, where they can move into the shallows to feed, yet have deep water nearby for an escape route, Coley said.
These are the kind of spots where he drifts huge gizzard shad, operating under an old saltwater fishing theory that a big bait will hook a big fish. Maybe a state record.
by CNB