Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 30, 1995 TAG: 9503300076
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
By big bass, too. The time is right to land a wall-hanger.
During three back-to-back trips to Potts Creek in Craig County, Curtis Johnson of Pearisburg caught three citation brown trout. The first fish weighed 5 pounds, 14 ounces. The next day, Johnson pulled in a 6-pounder, and the day after that an 8-pounder.
Two were hooked on minnows, one on a Mepps spinner.
Richard Fulp of Roanoke caught a 7-pound, 3-ounce brown trout from one of the low-water bridges on the Roanoke River along Wiley Drive. He was casting a nightcrawler on 4-pound line.
``That thing went up the river and I didn't think he would stop,'' said Fulp, who has a career total of 12 citation trout.
Twelve-year-old Eric Rosser of Roanoke caught a 6-pound, 8-ounce brown from the Salem section of the Roanoke River. The 25-inch fish hit Power Bait.
Raymond Perry of Springwood hooked two huge Jennings Creek browns while casting a Joe's Fly to the deep, green water of the big hole near Arcadia. One weighed 6 pounds, 7 ounces, the other 6 pounds, 9 ounces.
Trophy-size smallmouth bass are hitting at the New River, Claytor Lake and Lake Moomaw.
Fishing guide Dave Keys said his boat had accounted for 11 smallmouth weighing 5 pounds or more during float trips taken on the New River the past 21/2 weeks.
``We are catching 5-pounders nearly every time out,'' he said.
A jig-and-pig has been the best lure, but a few bass are being hooked on spinnerbaits, Keys said.
``You have to fish gently with a jig-and-pig, because you can't tell when a bass has picked it up until suddenly you have a 2-pounder swimming off with it,'' Keys said. ``If you know where to throw it, they will eat it.''
Mike Butler of Narrows has taken several 4-pound bass from the New River and Cliff Sanders of Pearisburg landed six up to 4 pounds.
Claytor Lake has produced 5-pound smallmouths for Red Hemley of Pulaski and Tony Quisinberry of Pulaski. Eric Beery of Pulaski landed a bass that weighed 4 pounds, 9 ounces. Roger Scott, 11, of Dublin claimed a 3-pound, 2 ounce smallmouth.
Tackle shops at Lake Moomaw have weighed smallmouth up to 5 pounds, 10 ounces and largemouths better than 8 pounds.
At Smith Mountain Lake, Mike Pendleton of Roanoke hooked a 6-pound, 11-ounce largemouth while casting a Shad Rap plug along a mud bank in Beaver Dam Creek. Ten minutes later, he landed a 20-pound musky.
Briery Creek Lake produced a 10-pound, 2-ounce largemouth for Wayne Schlater of Mechanicsville. Rankin Ring Jr. of Wytheville leads the 1995 Quaker State Big Bass World Championship with a 12-pound, 21/2-ounce Briery Creek largemouth taken on a pumpkinseed-colored Berkley Power Worm.
A state-owned, 845-acre impoundment near Farmville, Briery Creek is one of the spots in Virginia where Florida bass have been stocked. Lake Conner is another, and that's where Bill Bosko of Lynch Station recently landed a 13-pound bass. It was the second 13-pounder of the season for the lake.
At Lake Gaston, two North Carolina fishermen had a catch of 10 bass that weighed 50-pounds, 9-ounces. A couple of the fish just missed being 8-pound citations.
Several trophy-size crappie have been reeled in at Smith Mountain Lake. Buddy Stevenson of Eden, N.C., caught two of them. Cooler temperatures have slowed the lake's striped bass action.
White bass from Kerr Lake are running up the Staunton (Roanoke) River. Most appear to be located from Brookneal downstream, but a few have been caught in the tailrace of Leesville Dam. They are hitting small Sassy Shads, Rooster Tails and curly-tail jigs. An occasional walleye or striper shows up with the white bass.
by CNB