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

DATE: SUNDAY, July 16, 1995                   TAG: 9507170039
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

THERE'S A CATCH TO RELEASING BASS

But will those striped bass live?

They certainly would if they were largemouth or smallmouth bass, but fish biologists who manage the lake believe most of the striped bass caught and released during the warm months of June through September are doomed.

The same catch-and-release philosophy that has been the salvation of quality black bass fishing at Smith Mountain Lake won't work on striped bass, said Mike Duval, a fisheries biologist supervisor for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

``Striped bass are particularly vulnerable to stresses caused by being caught on hook and line,'' he said. ``They do not take catch-and-release well at all. The bottom line is a released striped bass is doomed, particularly in the warm-weather months.''

Game officials sold ``turn-them-back-alive'' to black bass anglers with such success that 95 percent of the bass now are released, so it is tough to tell fishermen the same medicine won't work with stripers, Duval said.

But his goal is to preach no-cull fishing: Catch your limit of two and quit. It is better for the resource to take home two than to turn loose a dozen.

``It is hard to catch two and walk away, but I think that's what needs to be done,'' Duval said.

John Ney agrees. He is a fisheries expert from Virginia Tech, who is heading striped bass-black bass research at Smith Mountain.

``If you catch your two stripers, quit,'' Ney said during a meeting at the lake during the past week.

That meeting was held to address the questions of anglers who wonder why the game and fish department doesn't stock more stripers to compensate for fishing pressure that has increased more than 40 percent since 1980.

Research has shown that if you stock in excess of 300,000 fingerlings annually, you are throwing money to the wind, Duval said. If you stock 600,000 to 800,000, the survival rate may be lower than if you stock 300,000.

It is what Ney calls the ``bottleneck '' theory. The question being addressed by research is how to obtain better survival of juvenile stripers. Once you get them through the first winter, about the only mortality will come from fishing and old age. But getting them through the first winter is tough.

Once you improve the survival rate, the question becomes, ``How many striped bass can Smith Mountain Lake support without affecting the black bass fishery,'' Ney said. That is of particular interest to black bass fishermen.

At a time when striped bass have been impacted by greater fishing pressure, fewer nutrients in the lake and a declining food supply - in the form of gizzard shad - the black bass have prospered. Largemouth, in particular, have increased dramatically in size and number, Duval said. Catch-and-release, a lower catch limit and improved habitat are the reasons for the upsurge, he said. And perhaps reduced striped bass stocking has been a factor.

Smith Mountain is becoming black bass tournament territory. The Virginia State B.A.S.S. Federation has scheduled its Mr. Bass tournaments on the lake in 1996 and 1997. Those events are expected to attract 200 fishermen each, said Ed Rhodes, the federation's conservation and natural resources director.

Rhodes was in the area in the past week looking for support to bring the Wrangler/B.A.S.S. National Championship to Smith Mountain and the Roanoke Valley in 1997.

The challenge for fisheries managers is to increase the striped bass population without harming black bass fishing.