ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, June 27, 1996 TAG: 9606270041
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: OUTDOORS
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
Myrtle Beach and Surfside Beach in South Carolina aren't places you'd go just to fish. Not like the Outer Banks of North Carolina, for example.
But they are popular summer destinations for vacationers from the Roanoke Valley, so if you are there anyway, why not wet a line? That's what Mary Ann Maslich of Roanoke did at Surfside Beach.
``I can tell you, I'm not very good [at fishing],'' she said. ``I will not bait a hook with live bait and will not take a fish off the hook for fear of hurting it.''
Other than that, Maslich said she enjoys fishing, and has been a saltwater angler for about four years.
When she hooked a huge fish on a Surfside pier on a recent trip, her first thought was ``shark!''
``I was ecstatic and kept waiting for the line to break,'' she said.
When it didn't, a large, bronze-colored fish with a black spot on its tail reluctantly came to the surface. It was a red drum that measured 37 inches.
``I managed to bring him in with 10-pound line and some of the men brought him up in a net,'' she said.
There is a slot limit for red drum, or ``spot tail'' as they are called in the region. Fish 14 to 27 inches may be kept; others must be released.
``We had to lower him back into the water,'' Maslich said. ``They did tag him, since he was the largest thing that's been caught this year. I have no idea what it weighed, but am told that they average about a pound-per-inch.''
FISHING FACTS: Lake fishermen are having to cope with the double whammy of boat traffic going up and water levels going down.
At Kerr Lake, the lake level has dropped below the 300-foot mark, which means the water's edge no longer reaches the shoreline cover. That's bad for bass anglers, but could improve crappie fishing by concentrating the schools of fish.
White bass and white perch are hitting at an area known as ``The Hump,'' a submerged island between the Dan and Staunton Rivers. A productive lure for white bass is a small, white Rooster Tail on an 18-inch leader behind a trolled 6A Bomber.
Smallmouth and largemouth bass fishing has been good at Smith Mountain Lake, but you need to be on the water early , before the skiers and personal water craft come alive. Some anglers are fishing after dark. The Carolina rigged plastic worm has been an effective lure for bass.
Gatewood Lake is one of the best spots in the state to go after big bluegills. Several citation-size sunfish have been reported. The Pulaski County impoundment also is turning out bass up to 6 pounds.
Streams have been high and discolored much of the season, keeping fishing success low . That remains true for the James, Shenandoah and Potomac rivers. The New is fishable, but it has been unpredictable, said Wayne Gentry of Pearisburg. You can enjoy a good catch one day, and have poor success the next - for no apparent reason.
BRAGGING SIZE: The scales at the Bait Place generally are big enough to handle anything that comes out of nearby Lake Moomaw. At least until James Brown recently arrived with a huge catfish. The 35-inch fish was so big the scales ``bottomed out.'' The catch was estimated at 24 pounds.
Also, Mike Radford of Christiansburg landed a 17-pound, 10-ounce flathead catfish at Claytor Lake on a Bomber lure.
TENTH AND LAST: The 11th annual Claytor Lake Fishing Tournament scheduled for this weekend has been canceled. In the past, the event has been co-sponsored by the park and 1260-J Radio. Fishermen attempting to register for the contest through a phone number listed by the Division of State Parks have been getting a recording saying the number is not in service.
LENGTH: Medium: 69 linesby CNB