Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, August 14, 1994                   TAG: 9408160001
SECTION: DISCOVER                    PAGE: 5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKE HAS COME OF AGE

It still produces some impressive catches, like 40-pound striped bass. And the spring fishing for largemouth and smallmouth bass is the best it's been in years.

But the 20,000-acre lake, just down the road from the Roanoke Valley, has taken on an uptown flavor as it heads into its late 20s.

Mention names like Chestnut Creek, The Waterfront, Mariners Landing and Water's Edge, and you aren't talking about fishing hot spots. Those are the names of golf courses.

You even can play miniature golf on the glitzy Harbortown course at Hales Ford Bridge, where a misdirected ball might be added to the diet of an 18-pound carp.

A listing of the restaurants around the lake will fill a tabloid page, some with nautical names such as The Landing, Outrigger, Schooner's and Anchor House. Several are waterfront affairs, where you can drive up in your boat and tie off, then dine with a feeling of smugness as you watch the evening shadows stretch across the blue water. That's a special time at Smith Mountain.

If you want the scenery to change even more rapidly, you can eat aboard the Virginia Dare, a sidewheeler dining vessel large enough to carry more than 100 people with room left for live entertainment.

There are a multitude of ways to see the lake, from a high-wing Wilga out of Smith Mountain Lake Airport, in a hot air balloon provided by Blue Ridge Balloons of Wirtz, by parasailing - which is part sailing, part flying, part water skiing - out of Bridgewater Marina at Hales Ford Bridge.

Most visitors prefer to get around in a boat, and the lake's 500 miles of shoreline is plenty big to afford the feeling that you've been on a trip. There are posh houses to see along with green areas where you are likely to spot a deer and maybe even a flock of turkeys, and on very special occasions, an eagle. One fishing guide even reported seeing two mountain lions at the dam.

There are more than a half-dozen places that rent boats, some of them specializing in personal watercraft, those little one-or two-person craft you ride like a waterborne motorcycle. They have become highly popular on the lake.

So where do you go if you don't own lakefront property or don't own a boat?

That question no longer is tough to answer. You go to Smith Mountain State Park. This is everybody's chunk of the lake, where there is swimming, sun bathing, picnicking, camping, shoreline fishing, hiking, bird-watching and a visitor center with displays on the natural and cultural history of the region. The park is along Virginia 626 near Moneta.

As for spending the night, there are a multitude of opportunities, from pegging a tent along the shoreline, to staying in one of the best-known bed and breakfasts in the state, to lodging in a plush condo.

If you need names, directions and phone numbers, ask Mary Scott of the Smith Mountain Lake Chamber of Commerce/Partnership for a packet of information that includes a visitor's guide, map and brochures. Stop in at her office at No. 2 Bridgewater Plaza or call (703) 297-1001 or 1-800-676-8203.