Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 9, 1994 TAG: 9406100019
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Bill Cochran
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
At the top of the national organization's Virginia rankings is Rural Retreat Lake, a 90-acre, state-owned impoundment in Wythe County.
Rural Retreat Lake does have muskie. For a time, it was managed as a backup brood stock supply for state hatcheries, said Ron Southwick, assistant chief of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries' fish division. But it is no New River.
``There are more muskie caught by accident in the New River,'' said Southwick, whose work area included Rural Retreat Lake and the New River, before his promotion to assistant chief in May.
Southwick's plan for Rural Retreat is to move it away from a muskie fishery and toward a family fishing impoundment.
``I don't like it as a muskie lake,'' he said. ``I would rather have people going there on weekends and catching panfish and bass and catfish off the bank, rather than going for a chance to catch a muskie.''
Southwick has a novel plan for accomplishing that objective: stock saugeye, a hybrid of walleye and its close cousin, the sauger. Last week, 5,000 saugeye fingerlings were released in Rural Retreat.
``It is a fish that has been used in Tennessee, Oklahoma and West Virginia that does very well in small impoundments,'' Southwick said. ``It is easier to catch than a walleye because of the hybrid vigor, and it feeds primarily on stunted sunfish.''
A major problem at Rural Retreat is an overpopulation of sunfish and crappie, Southwick said. Muskie were stocked with the hope they would control the stunted sunfish, returning the lake to a decent bluegill-crappie-bass impoundment. But that hasn't worked.
``A big muskie is just not interested in a 5-inch bluegill. He is more interested in something a lot larger than that,'' Southwick said.
So what you have is a lake with a pretty impressive number of big, hard-to-catch muskie and a lot of small sunfish, which makes a handful of muskie fishermen happy but doesn't do much for the masses of family anglers.
``There are a couple of fishermen who fish that lake all the time who catch a large number of muskie,'' Southwick said. ``I am really surprised that we don't see even more based on the number of muskie that are in there. It has more probably per acre than any place in the state.''
That's how it made the Muskies Inc. list. Statistics released in the organization's new book titled ``Half a Million Muskie-Catching Fishing Facts'' show that Virginia has five lakes and rivers producing muskie catches in attractive numbers.
``Rural Retreat Lake shows up with 45 muskie boatings by Muskie Inc. members,'' said George Sandell, a spokesman for the organization, which is located in Minnesota. ``Other state waters listed in the report include the James and Holston rivers, plus Hungry Mother and Burke Lake.''
The saugeye are expected to reach 4 or 5 pounds in about four years, Southwick said. Muskie stockings will continue, but on a smaller scale.
NEW CHIEF: William Woodfin is the new acting executive director of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. The appointment was made by Gov. George Allen on Friday, when leaders of more than a dozen state agencies were purged in what is being called ``Bloody Friday.''
The game and fish department has been without an executive director since October, when Bud Bristow resigned. The department board was close to naming Bristow's replacement when officials of the Allen administration asked it to hold off. Woodfin's past assignments include work with the State Water Control Board.
MOOMAW TROUT: Lake Moomaw has been producing a good number of trout in the 3- to 4-pound class, with an occasional fish bigger than that. Charles Luger of Covington weighed a 7.7-pound brown at the Bait Place.
Many of the trout are being caught after daybreak by anglers trolling lures that include the Krokodile Spoon, Super Dooper and Huss.
by CNB