Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 13, 1995 TAG: 9503150023
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Last year, the 1,579-acre water supply impoundment, located in Suffolk, accounted for 928 fish citations, more than from any other body of water in the state. Most were platter-size sunfish, but even if you subtract the 821 sunfish citations you still have 107 trophy fish from Western Branch that were registered with the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
"Even that would be 13th place in the state," said Rick Eades, a state fisheries biologist.
Western Branch also produces big muskie, walleye and striped bass. A striper caught Dec. 30 weighed 41 pounds, 14 ounces, the second largest registered in the state last year.
Virginia's top striper was a 44-pound, 1-ounce Smith Mountain Lake fish, caught April 6 by William Russell III of Greensboro, N.C.
Smith Mountain remains the place to go for the most and the largest striped bass, but it has lost its ranking as Virginia's biggest producer of trophy fish catches. Last year, its citation output was 235, a figure that dropped it to sixth place in the state. Second was Cripple Creek, where Cedar Spring Sportsman Lodge, a pay-fishing facility, turns out trophy trout by the hundreds. Third was the James River; fourth, Lake Prince, a companion impoundment to Western Branch; and fifth, the Rappahannock River.
Smith Mountain's 137 citation stripers in 1994 were only seven fewer than the previous year. It was the first time since 1991 that the decline hadn't averaged nearly 100 fish. The 1995 season already has produced a 45-pound, 10-ounce potential state-record striper from the 20,000-acre lake. Fishing for striped bass and black bass turned on last week with numerous good catches observed, said Lt. Karl Martin, a state game warden.
Striped bass from Smith Mountain Lake have dominated the record book for so many years that many anglers may be overlooking the fact that Western Branch could snap the streak.
"I don't see why not," said Eades. "We may break 50 pounds."
A new aeration system has been installed in the lake, which should improve the hot-weather habitat for stripers, he said.
But Western Branch is on the map because of its superb fishing for 1-pound-plus sunfish, 95 percent of them shellcrackers. That action peaks in May.
"I think it was last year or two years ago they issued 300 citations in one week" for fish that weighed 1 pound or more, said Eades. "I don't know how many thousands of 14- and 15-ounce fish people brought in.
"Last year, if you went out on a Saturday or Sunday in May, you'd better get there before 7 o'clock if you wanted a parking place. You would have 300 to 400 boats out there, every one of them fishing for shellcrackers."
Don't think catching a 1-pound sunfish is a pushover, said Eades.
"People who fish the shoreline catch little sunfish all day long, but people who want to catch the big ones, they are looking more at 12 to 15 feet of water. I think that is one of the things that separates the citation people form the noncitation people."
For additional information on the fishing, call Western Branch Fishing Facility, 804-255-0214.
300 citation fish in a single week!
by CNB