Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 6, 1995 TAG: 9504060064
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
``Don't go to work; go to Briery Creek Lake,'' Harlow said.
So Searls, a painting contractor who lives in Richmond, traded his paint bucket for his minnow bucket.
A few hours later, Searls was weighing a 9-pound, 14-ounce largemouth bass at Worsham Grocery, just down the road from Briery Creek Lake, near Farmville.
A bass that size is a catch of a lifetime, but at Worsham's it really wasn't that special, not when you asked store-owner Sandra Fore to go down the list of recent catches:
Joanne Arrighi, Richmond, 9 pounds, 151/2 ounces, on a minnow.
Bruce Lee, Fredericksburg, 10 pounds, 13 ounces, jig-and-pig.
Fred Steinke, Farmville, 11 pounds, 5 ounces, jig-and-pig.
Rodney Stubbs, Mechanicsville, 13 pounds, 3 ounces, jig-and-lizard.
John Raymond, Powhatan, 14 pounds, 3 ounces, jumbo minnow.
Ronnie Harlow, Richmond, 13 pounds, 8 ounces, jumbo minnow.
Now you know why Searls got the call from Harlow.
``I thought it was a little one when he hit,'' Searls said of his bass. ``He took the bobber down, then it came back up. He took it down, and it came up again. He did that three times. He was in about 12 feet of water in the open.''
The 14-pound, 3-ounce largemouth landed by Raymond is believed to be the biggest produced by the 845-acre fishing lake, which opened to the public in 1989. It has anglers wondering if a state record is finning among the gray hulks of hardwoods and pines protruding from the water in what looks like a Deep South setting.
The largemouth state record is a 16-pound, 4-ounce Lake Conner catch taken mid-April 1985. Conner and Briery Creek were stocked with Florida-strain largemouth bass. Conner has produced a couple of 13-pound-plus catches this spring.
``In 46 years of reporting on the outdoors, I can't remember a run of big bass to match what is going on at Briery Creek right now,'' said Jack Randolph, who compiles a weekly fishing report for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
BIG TROUT, TOO: Garland Farmer of Marion came close to setting a state record when he landed a 13-pound, 10-ounce rainbow trout from a private pond in Washington County. The record is a 14-pound, 7-ounce pond catch.
Farmer, who is a student at Virginia Highlands Community Collage, was casting a frog-colored Super-Duper spoon at a pond owned by one of his professors when the 28-inch fish struck.
``She fought me for about 45 minutes,'' he said. ``I had intended to release her, but she fought so hard that when I tried to resuscitate her she kept bellying up.''
Tim Cline of Pilot caught a 7-pound, 2-ounce rainbow trout from Little River in Floyd County while casting a black Roostertail spinner.
``He made a pass at it the first time, and I said, `That's a big fish,''' Cline said. Five casts later, Cline had the fish hooked and was wondering if his 4-pound line would hold.
BASS TOURNAMENTS: The Roanoke Valley Bassmasters Spring Invitational tournament at Smith Mountain Lake turned up some hefty catches. The winning team was Jimmy Coleman of Amherst and Rory Dunn of Madison Heights.
Second place went to Ed Smith - remember that name - of Forest and Tim Wilson of Natural Bridge, who entered 31.64 pounds. The lunker catch was an 8.42-pound largemouth landed by Buddy Mason of Roanoke.
The fishing was a bit tougher the next day during the Stone Mountain Bassmasters tournament, but Smith was there with a new partner, Larry Raker of Forest. Smith and Raker tossed a jig-and-pig to boat docks and reeled in a winning 20.30-pound catch.
The top bass was a 5.06-pound smallmouth landed by Steve Crist of Forest.
In March, Smith and Wilson won the Smith Mountain Ruritan Club tournament with a 30.2-pound total.
OTHER CATCHES: Greg Shank of Hillsville found a honey hole recently while fishing the New River. Shank used shad to catch two citations, a 5-pound, 8-ounce smallmouth and a 2-pound, 6-ounce brook trout.
by CNB