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

DATE: THURSDAY, August 10, 1995                   TAG: 9508100049
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

JUNE FLOODING TAKES A BITE OUT OF NATIVE TROUT, TRAILS

He wasn't viewing pictures of Hiroshima; rather, he was touring the section of the northern Shenandoah Valley hit by flooding in June.

Of special concern to Martel, the fish division chief of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, was the damage done to native trout streams. In some instances, mountain stream beds had been ripped up and moved and now flow in boulder- and tree-strewn gullies.

``Entire new stream channels have been cut,'' Martel said. ``There are large trees inside the new stream channels. In some areas, the canopy has been removed because of the flooding. There are sycamore trees down in pastures that were just taken out from upstream areas.``

This week, state fish officials began assessing the damage to the trout that lived in the Shenandoah National Park and its foothills.

``Some of the native streams were hurt, without question,'' Martel said. ``The trout populations are going to be down. In areas where our sampling team normally may have turned up 80 to 100 fish they will get 10 or 11. In some of the heavily impacted areas, I am not sure, they may not be able to find fish.''

Streams that were hit hard include the Rapidan and Staunton rivers, which are popular catch-and-release waters in Madison County, and the North Fork of the Moormans River, in Albemarle County. The Rapidan and Staunton and a portion of the North Fork of Moormans River have been closed to fishing by the National Park Service.

There is no word on when they will reopen. Park officials said the reduced number of fish and the hazards to fishermen were the reasons for the closures.

``We've got rock and boulder fields where we once had babbling Appalachian brooks,'' said Tom Blount, the Shenandoah National Park's supervisory ecologist.

A number of hiking trails also were damaged, some so heavily that it may take years to reopen them, officials said.

Nature, fortunately, has a way of filling fish voids rather quickly, Martel said. He expects a heavy spawn of brook trout this fall.

``What happens, you get a real strong year class coming back to replace fish lost by the flood,'' he said.

Weather problems of another kind have disrupted trout fishing at Douthat State Park Lake, where stockings have been discontinued until fall. Heat is the culprit here.

``High water temperatures and low dissolved oxygen levels often cause unfavorable conditions for trout survival during late summer in some Virginia lakes,'' Martel said.

Sixty-acre Douthat Lake, site of a popular pay-fishing program, has a history of summertime weather woes.

A number of dead trout have been picked up off the lake's surface, Martel said.

Poor water quality also has resulted in a fish kill in the Roanoke River drainage downstream from Kerr Lake. Water is being pulled from Kerr Dam to increase the flow and water quality in North Carolina where the problem has occurred. That has sent Kerr's level plummeting to more than three feet below full pool.

Other major streams, including the James, New and Shenandoah, have been offering excellent fishing.

Smallmouth bass, some of them up to three pounds, have been the reward of New River anglers. Rock bass catches also are outstanding there.

In addition, this is the peak of the New River muskie season. One party of fishermen landed five muskie, the smallest estimated to be about 15 pounds. Most of the muskie, including one that measured 52 inches, are being caught, measured and released under that state's new catch-and-release citation program. The minimum length for a citation is 40 inches.

At Claytor Lake, catfish have the attention of fishermen who are bringing loads of them to the scales. Mitch Gilmore and Rob Hurst of Dublin caught seven cats that totaled 50 pounds. These fish were hooked on nightcrawlers , but another hot bait is catalpa worms, or ``bean'' worms as some of the locals call them. Allen and Shelby Bradford of Newport used catalpa worms to catch seven catfish that totaled nearly 40 pounds.

Claytor also gave up a 4-pound, 5-ounce smallmouth bass to Andrew James of Dublin.

Briery Creek Lake recently produced still another giant largemouth bass, this one a 10 1/2-pound trophy for Earl Woolton of Rice.