Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 26, 1995 TAG: 9501260094
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Bloxom has introduced a bill in the Virginia General Assembly to expand the saltwater recreational fishing license.
That license now applies only to the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal tributaries. Bloxom wants it to include the ocean water and the salt marshes that stretch eastwardly from Eastern Shore.
The bill is an attempt to save the Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament, which under Gov. George Allen's budget goes broke June 30. Fifteen percent of the funds collected by the license would be earmarked to pay the cost of administrating the tournament.
This is the most promising way for the popular tournament to survive. It is unlikely that financial support will continue to come from the general fund, nor can the present license system be expected to rescue it. A saltwater license currently is required of Chesapeake Bay fishermen only, yet about 75 percent of the tournament awards go to anglers fishing the ocean and the east side of Eastern Shore.
The bill is expected to receive support from anglers during a hearing before the Committee on Chesapeake and its Tributaries next Thursday. Opposition could come from the business establishment in Virginia Beach, but that would be self-defeating since one of the tournament's strong points is tourism promotion.
For anglers, the tournament is the glue that helps hold recreational fishermen together in their effort to preserve saltwater fisheries resources.
FISHING IS SLOW: Fishing around the region appears to be a captive of that awkward, in-between season, too late for fall action, too early for spring tonic.
At Smith Mountain Lake, a few striped bass are being hooked at dawn on surface lures, then again later in the day by fishermen working spoons or bait at about 30-foot depths.
Black bass fishing is slow at Philpott Lake, and Claytor has been so high, muddy and trashy it is difficult to fish.
The best report comes from the lower James River where huge blue catfish are on the move. Thomas Buterbaugh of Richmond weighed one that lacked just 4 ounces of being 50 pounds. Other catches from 20 to near 50 pounds have been reported.
Stripers up to 18 pounds and largemouth bass up to 8 pounds are being reported from Lake Anna.
BIG DIFFERENCE: Ski resort operators in Virginia and North Carolina are watching their snow base climb several inches a day, thanks to deep-freeze temperatures and even natural snow. Wintergreen, near Waynenboro, was closed this time last week. Wednesday it was reporting a base of 20 to 30 inches, with six slopes open and groomed.
Since Friday, nearly 2 feet of snow has fallen at West Virginia's Snowshoe Mountain Resort and snow-making operations have been a round-the-clock affair. By Wednesday morning, the resort had 40 slopes - about 75-percent of its skiing terrain - open.
GOOD FRIEND GONE: Max Ailor was a fun guy to share a fishing boat or a duck blind with, and thousands of people knew that joy through his writings. For years, Max was the outdoor columnist of The Richmond Times-Dispatch. He died in a Richmond hospital Monday after struggling against a variety of respiratory diseases since retiring from the newspaper in 1986.
Max was a genuinely nice man, but he could be tough on people and programs who were a threat to his beloved outdoors.
ROBIN RIOT: Normally when you spot a robin sometime late February or early March and you think spring is near. But how do you account for the huge numbers of them that have been spotted recently across a wide section of Virginia, including Roanoke County and the Smith Mountain Lake area? Observers say they have seen waves of thousands of robins in areas on the west side of Richmond..
by CNB