Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, May 28, 1995                   TAG: 9505300037
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

DEBATE CONTINUES OVER HOW TO GET THE JUMP ON BASS

The shad were like a banquet table for marauding gangs of husky striped bass, which would smash into the wide-eyed baitfish, tossing them into the air like silver flecks.

If you could get a lure into the fracas, you would be guaranteed a jolting strike. And at night, the stripers would move along the shoreline shallows where you could hear them wallowing like hogs in the ebony water. When they struck, they would head for deep water, pulling your boat behind them. On an average night, you'd get a dozen or more rides.

Smith Mountain Lake remains Virginia's best striper fishing hole, but it is pale in comparison to the good old days. Few anglers disagree on that point. Where the debate rages is on what needs to be done to improve the fishing. Can it be improved in view of the heavy fishing pressure and the decline in nutrients to feed forage fish?

In March, the Smith Mountain Lake Chamber of Commerce/Partnership drafted a resolution to the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and Gov. George Allen asking ``for immediate steps to substantially increase the stocking of striper fingerlings.'' Later, the Franklin County Board of Supervisors sent a duplicate resolution.

The documents stated ``the striped bass fishing has declined dramatically in productivity in recent years, thereby causing a loss in the reputation of Smith Mountain Lake as a premier striped bass fishery.'' The result, said the resolutions, is a loss of interest in striper fishing to the point it has impacted the economy.

This month, Gov. Allen received a letter from the Virginia B.A.S.S. Federation opposing any increase in the stocking of striped bass.

Introducing additional striped bass into the 20,000-acre lake could disrupt the food chain for all fish species, and that would result in a negative impact on largemouth and smallmouth bass as well as walleye and crappie, said R. Edward Rhodes, the conservation and natural resources director of the federation.

``The black bass population is the best that it has ever been since the crash in the late 1970s and early 1980s,'' Rhodes said. ``Presently, the catch rate is four to five times higher than in those years.''

The restored fishery isn't being overlooked by the people who sponsor fishing tournaments. ``These tournaments bring an economic impact to the communities surrounding the lake,'' Rhodes said.

Rhodes might have pointed out, but didn't, that the chamber of commerce/partnership sponsored a two-day black bass tournament on the lake this past weekend.

Caught in the middle of the debate is the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, which has been stocking about 300,000 stripers annually. Studies by the department and Virginia Tech reveal that simply dumping more striped bass into the lake isn't the path to improved fishing. The number of survivors for 300,000 is just as good as it is for 800,000, say the biologists, which is a theory that has been difficult for many fishermen to accept.

The game and fish department is conducting research to determine if stocking a larger-size fingerling would improve survival. Officials also will be scattering this year's crop of striper fingerlings over a wider area of the lake in an effort to cut down on predation, something that should have been done all along. So progress is being made, although not as much as many fishermen would like to see.

One thing all anglers should agree on: Stocking rates and other fishery decisions are the business of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. That's the only proper forum for the debate. The governor's office isn't the place to manage Virginia's fisheries resources.