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

DATE: FRIDAY, August 18, 1995                   TAG: 9508180045
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TOO CHEAP TO BUY BAIT, TOO LAZY TO CAST?

Larry W. Board, 41, of Glade Hill accepted a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to conspiring and to fishing with explosives, according to Commonwealth's Attorney Cliff Hapgood.

Board was given the maximum sentence of two years in jail - a sentence Franklin County General District Judge George Jones then suspended, the prosecutor said.

Board also received the maximum fine of $2,500 on each count.

Rodney G. Smith, 20, of Callaway was tried on the same misdemeanor charges and was found guilty on both counts.

Jones sentenced Smith to a month in jail and fined him $500, Hapgood said.

A felony charge against Smith of transporting explosive devices was turned over to a county grand jury, Hapgood said.

The men were arrested as the result of surveillance by game wardens in June.

Sgt. Ron Henry, a member of the Game and Inland Fisheries surveillance team, said because of where the men were blasting, he and others were able to watch from an area called The Cliffs. For about four hours, they watched the men blast bait fish in the pursuit of striped bass.

Hapgood said the men used a light to attract shad, a bait fish, to the surface of the water, then detonated an explosive.

The blast left floating bits of the fish to be scooped up and used as bait, attracting game fish to the area while the rest of the shad sank.

The men were arrested the morning of June 28 on the Blackwater River arm of the lake.

"It's an insult to the sport of fishing," Hapgood said.

Henry said surveillance was set up after ``some very specific complaints'' were made; other reports may lead to additional arrests.

``We're getting a whole lot of calls,'' Henry said. ``No one has been hurt yet, but we've heard horror stories of holes being blown in boats.''

When blasting caps were more readily available to the public, they were the explosive of choice. Stricter regulations have forced these blasting bass anglers to create homemade explosives, which can be unstable.

Possession of such illegal explosives is a Class 5 felony that carries a maximum prison sentence of five years, according to Henry.

\ Staff writer Lisa K. Garcia contributed information to this story.