Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 15, 1995 TAG: 9505180006
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
``We are getting some very nice pictures, I might say, of people holding their fish in their hands. Sometimes they are cradling them just like a baby. That is really neat, but there is no ruler.''
Under the old Trophy Fish Citation Program, you had to weigh your catch if you wanted to earn a certificate suitable for hanging on your wall. You still can do that, but beginning this year you also can enter a fish by measuring it. That way, you can pop it back into the water after you determine it meets minimum length standards.
All you have to do is get your buddy to witness the measuring. If you don't have a buddy handy, you can photograph the fish next to a measuring rule and send the picture to Archie.
Those are the kind of pictures she was expecting. But she has received only a handful, even though the total number of applications is about 50 percent greater than last year.
The majority of the applications Archie is getting have both the weight and length recorded and witnessed. As for pictures:
``Here's a guy who caught two sunfish,'' said Archie. ``He is just standing out in his back yard holding the fish.
``Here's a fellow who got himself a bowfin and he is really proud of it and he is standing out in his back yard with it.
``Here's a little boy looking real proud and holding his sunfish.
``We have a guy here with a pike that is as long as he is. He qualified it with weight, but he just wants to show us how big it was.''
The regulations don't require a picture unless the applicant lacks a witness and is entering a fish photographed next to a measuring rule. What few of these Archie has received contain examples of rulers being so far away it is difficult to see the measurement, or rulers that have been distorted by a camera flash.
Archie has no way of knowing what kind of problems fishermen are having with their solo efforts to send a picture of their fish next to a ruler. Fish tend to flop a lot just after being caught.
What is certain is the new option of entering a fish by length has boosted interest in the program.
``We have been inundated with applications,'' Archie said. ``We are still working on March applications and it is now the middle of May.''
Last year, under the old system, 6,279 citations were awarded.
by CNB