Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 28, 1995 TAG: 9509280029
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
By Wednesday, the Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament, had registered 12 citation spot - fish that weighed 1 pound or more. You have to go back to 1987 to match that number. Last year, there were no citations. In 1993 only one was recorded.
The past weekend saw a strong showing of spot along the Virginia Beach oceanfront, Rudee Inlet, off Sandbridge and at the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
``Many spot have already left or are leaving the [Chesapeake] Bay,'' said Lewis Gillingham of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. Some, however, are bunched up near the mouth of the bay.
``Fish were reported from Pocomoke and Tangier Sounds, but their stay will be brief,'' said Gillingham.
Look for flounder to stick around longer, he said. Even with rough seas, citation-size founder have been caught along the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.
``Anglers can expect some of the biggest flounder of the season to remain available through much of October,'' said Gillingham.
STOCKING STALLED: October is the month that fall trout stocking is scheduled to begin, but it is going to take a significant amount of rain before major numbers of fish are trucked to streams.
Trout hatchery managers and other fishery officials of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries have scheduled a strategy meeting today at the Wytheville Hatchery to map out stocking plans. The year-round stocking program calls for releasing trout beginning Oct.1, but dry weather means streams are going to have to be considered on a case by case basis.
``The plan is to proceed with stocking if the waters can be stocked,'' said George Duckwall, trout cultural supervisor for the department. ``It is entirely possible that some fish will be stocked as early as next week.''
PUNCHING PAPER: Along about the 1980s, a new generation of sport shooters suddenly found paper targets to be boring. They wanted to see something bite the dust when they hit the target, so along came metal silhouette targets and gunning games that involved a lot of moving around.
Now it is back to basics. One of the hottest new matches is called I/R 50-50, which involves shooting .22 rimfire rifles from a benchrest at 50 yards. The idea is to hit 25 bull's-eyes in 30 minutes.
Leading the wave of interest in this competition is the Roanoke Rifle and Revolver Club, which will host the first I/R 50/50 national match Saturday and Sunday at its range on the Franklin County side of Windy Gap Mountain. Sixty shooters, from as far away as Wisconsin and Texas, will compete, said match director Duane Guyer.
The I/R 50-50 matches not only are attracting new shooters, but also are luring some of the old-time benchrest shooters back to the range, said Guyer. The seasoned gunners like the fact that they can enjoy precision shooting without loud muzzle blasts and heavy recoil, said Guyer.
BITTER NO LONGER: Mention Jim Bitter and if you recognize the name at all you'll probably remember he is the angler who let the 1989 BASS Masters Classic slip from his grip when a bass squirted out of his hands like a wet cake of soap. Bitter lost to Hank Parker by 2 ounces.
Now Bitter has a new, and better, claim to fame. When he won the recent Bassmaster Top 100 Tournament on the Hudson River in New York, Bitter became the first angler ever to win two Top 100s back-to-back.
David Dudley, of Lynchburg, finished 61st; Rick Morris of Virginia Beach, 74th and Woo Daves of Spring Grove, 100th
The week before, Dudley placed 48th in the New York Eastern Invitational. The next two tournament stops are closer home for Dudley: the Potomac River, Oct.12-14, and the James River, Oct. 18-21.
WYTHEVILLE WINNER: Rankin Ring of Wytheville is the Virginia champ in the 1995 Quaker State Big Bass World Championship. Ring earned that honor with a 12.14-pound largemouth bass landed from Briery Creek Lake. He will compete for a $100,000 top prize in a fish-off in Florida.
by CNB