ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, June 20, 1996 TAG: 9606200042
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: OUTDOORS
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
A little good luck and a lot of conservation should send increased numbers of ducks winging across the trackless skies into Virginia this fall and winter.
Ducks Unlimited is reporting the best water conditions in 20 years in the Prairie Pothole Region, the prime nesting area for migratory waterfowl in the north-central United States and Canada.
Water is a critical factor in the success of ducks' nesting efforts.
``We had 10 years of major drought all across the prairies and a major decline in waterfowl production,'' said Ducks Unlimited biologist Alan Wentz on Wednesday during a telephone interview from Ducks Unlimited headquarters in Memphis, Tenn.
The drought began to break four years ago. The last two years saw the largest fall migrations of ducks in decades, including 80 million birds who came down the flyways last year. Ducks Unlimited will announce its assessment of 1996 fall migrations later this month. The number is expected to be up.
``It should be in the mid-to-upper 80s this year,'' Wentz said. Ducks Unlimited, a conservation organization devoted to the purchase and protection of waterfowl habitat, has a goal of 100 million.
Frequent spring rains have wetlands brimming with water, and high soil moistures have delayed agricultural operations, factors that benefit nesting waterfowl.
Add to this the Conservation Reserve Program, recently refunded by Congress, which has helped farmers retire environmentally sensitive land from production to much-needed grassland habitat for waterfowl. Farmers have enrolled more than 36 million acres in the reserve program nationwide. Eight million is within prime waterfowl breeding areas in the Prairie Pothole Region.
BLUES VS. STRIPERS: You get an idea how sorry the fishing for bluefish has become in the Chesapeake Bay when you take a look at the annual fishing contest sponsored by Smith Point Sea Rescue.
When the contest began 13 years ago, bluefish were the king of the bay, and you had to catch one weighing nearly 20 pounds to place in the money. Last weekend, a 6.36-pound blue was tops in the tournament, a pretty puny catch when you consider 308 boatloads of fishermen had entered the contest.
The bluefish action has been so disappointing that the tournament this year put striped bass on equal footing, even though the event is called the Reedville Bluefish Derby. The winning striper was nearly twice the size of the best blue.
Maybe a name change for the contest next year?
WHAT'S BITING: Fishing for brown trout at Lake Moomaw has been improving, giving hope that this might be one of the best seasons in several years. Many of the browns are in the 3- to 4-pound range, but almost every week a fish twice that size will be caught. Richard Smith of Blacksburg got one that weighed 6 pounds, 7 ounces on a recent trip.
Across the state, freshwater fishing has gone into its summer patterns. For bass anglers, that means casting surface lures early and late in the day and going deep with plastic rigs during the heat of the day. At Smith Mountain Lake, many of the bass are being caught at night.
Stripers are taking bait at Smith Mountain, especially at the dam, where they are being hooked at 25-foot depths.
If you have your flyrod, Gatewood Reservoir, in Pulaski County, is a dandy spot to go after sunfish. The lake recently produced two citation shellcrackers and one citation bluegill.
A run of blue sharks, well inshore of where you normally would expect to find this species, has sent several anglers home with big fish tales. Among them is Randall Frazier of Salem who caught and released a shark off Virginia Beach.
LENGTH: Medium: 82 linesby CNB