Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 6, 1995 TAG: 9503090025
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Before we bought a cabin, we camped in the gorge along the Bullpasture River. We woke up the morning of the opening day floating around in our tents. There had been a heavy rain and we had been sleeping on these swim mattresses and were just bobbing around. If it hadn't been for the walls of the tent we would have washed down the river.
STEVE HINER, Christiansburg, aquatic entomologist at Virginia Tech:
When I was a kid I used to do some strange things. On opening day, which is a dog-eat-dog situation, I would keep a half-dozen salmon eggs in my mouth and quickly popped them out and put them on the hook when I caught a fish or lost a fish. I remember fishing Back Creek when there was a bunch of old-timers around. Those guys went nuts. "What the heck is this kid using? He is popping this stuff out of his mouth."
CLEVE SIMMONS, Roanoke, retired contractor:
I have a 25-year-old grandson. For the past 12 to 15 years he and his dad and I have gone fishing on opening day. It is the most wonderful time together as a grandfather-grandson. I'm going to miss it.
DAVID HORNE, Big Island, director of Hunters for the Hungry:
I think I fall into the category of being happy to see it go. The times I have gone, it has been like being in a shopping mall.
JOHN HESLEP, Franklin County, state game warden:
Back in the early '70s, when the season opened the first Saturday of April, I got a call the Friday before opening day that somebody was fishing on Sinking Creek. It was a rainy day.
When I arrived, I sneaked around this ridge and got on top where I could see and there was a vehicle parked beside the creek and a guy sitting on the bank fishing. I did a low crawl across a plowed field and got mud all over me. I got his vehicle between me and him, and I did a low stalk on him and eased right around behind him. He had on a heavy coat with a hood.
I said, "You are kind of rushing the season a little bit, aren't you?"
The guy didn't say anything.
"You are kind of rushing the season, aren't you," I said again.
He still didn't say anything.
When I got in front of him, I found a well-constructed dummy that had boots on and everything. He had a fishing pole propped up and his hands were tied to the pole and a line was in the water.
I picked the line up and on the end of it was a cardboard fish and on the fish was written, "April fool, you big dummy."
LACY ALL, Salem, lure maker:
I remember the first opening day I took my son and turned him loose on Potts Creek when he was 8 years old. At noon Saturday, it was 65 degrees. The next morning in camp there was 2 inches of ice on the ground.
BILL BOWLING, Salem, architect:
We used to camp in a big tent across the Bullpasture River. I had given [the late] Jerry Nesbit, who used to own the Coffee Pot, directions on how to get there. He was going to park his car on the other side and we were going to pick him up. When I came down at the appointed time, he had tried to drive across the river and the car was submerged up to the windshield. We had to get a tractor and pull the car out.
BOB MAY, Salem, tackle manufacturers representative:
One day back when the season opened at noon, I was with my family on Potts Creek. We were around a typical big hole that was crowded with people. There was this one fellow in hip boots trying to get away from the crowd by being perched on a bank maybe 15 feet above the water. About a minute to noon, when everybody was throwing in, he did what you think he did - a head-over right into the middle of the pool.
HORACE HOOD, Roanoke, retired newspaper executive:
Chet Cooley and I were opening the season 8 or 10 years ago on Little River and it was a beautiful day - a lot of people out. There was a family right next to where I was fishing. There was a little girl about 10 years old. She hooked a trout and as soon as she hooked it she, threw the rod into the river and ran up the bank. She just didn't know what to do with it.
GRACE BOGER, Salem, Christian ministry:
I was fishing at a low-water bridge on the South Fork of the Roanoke River and glancing around at how many of the fishermen looked so professional with the right waders, the right gear, their nets - like they were out of a magazine. There were lots of people and they weren't catching much.
Then a young fellow, maybe in his early 20s, came walking down the road to the bridge in jeans and sweat shirt, a casual, everyday fellow. He cast his line in where people had been fishing all morning
and somebody said, "Look at that! Get a net! Get a big net!"
This young guy pulled out a huge trout. He put it on a stringer and walked back up the road past me. He was holding the head of the fish at his knee and the tail was down to the ground. That's how big he was.
MILLER WILLIAMS, Newport, computer programer:
I grew up on a farm along Sinking Creek. When we were kids we had a bait shop to sell to all these guys coming in. We always felt like we were being invaded.
When I was 6 or 7, I remember this guy telling me, "If this bait doesn't work I'm coming back after you." It scared me to death.
ROBERT PAULEY, Daleville, junior at Lord Botetourt High School:
I remember my dad coming home on Friday night and we'd get all the fishing gear ready for the next morning. To get away from the crowd, Dad would carry us across the creek because we didn't have waders. We'd sit there waiting for the season to open, seeing the same people every year, and thinking the same thing: "Who is going to catch the big one?"
MICHAEL PAULEY, Daleville, junior at Lord Botetourt (he and Robert are twins):
My grandfather used to go with me and we'd stay up the night before the season and he'd teach me how to tie knots. He would go with us the next day and tell us stories about his experiences and pass down stories about his father fishing.
That's not going to be there any more. The tying knots will be there, but being out with your granddad on the first day, that's not going to be there.
by CNB