ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, August 22, 1996 TAG: 9608220020
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: OUTDOORS
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
The hills are as green as spring and the streams are running cooler and fuller than you'd expect in August, facts that have anglers thinking about trout.
Maybe - just maybe - the state will begin its fall trout stocking earlier than usual, with August having been void of traditional stretches of hot, sticky and dry weather. In fact, some streams could have been stocked throughout much of the summer this year. Shouldn't this mean an earlier fall stocking?
The answer is yes and no.
``It looks good for us to get started right on time,'' said George Duckwall, the trout cultural supervisor for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
``Right on time,'' is Oct.1. ``There have been some years we haven't been able to stock trout up till close to December,'' said Duckwall, recalling periods of dry weather that have turned autumn streams into a trickle.
``This has been a nice summer,'' said Duckwall, referring not just to stream flows and water temperatures, but to hatcheries as well.
``It is always nice for hatchery people to see good environmental conditions for the fish,'' he said. ``The fish do so much better. When it is real hot and dry, the water doesn't have the capacity to carry oxygen, which the fish need, and their metabolism speeds up. It is real tough on them.''
So if the weather pattern remains cool and wet, why not begin the stocking before Oct.1?
Duckwall has considered that idea. But it appears any chances for an earlier stocking have been blocked by a new regulation that eliminates the need for a trout license June 16 through Sept.30. The regulation is designed to give anglers an opportunity to fish for warm-water species in trout streams without the requirement of carrying a trout license during periods when few trout are available.
``The feeling is, if we were to stock trout during the early part of the fall, before the trout license is required, it wouldn't be fair to the people who purchase the trout license,'' said Duckwall.
The fall stocking program will be similar to last year, which means three to four times more fish will go into streams than previous autumns. If you kept the January issue of Virginia Wildlife, you have a directory of streams that will be stocked. Duckwall will crank up the trout information telephone line when the stocking begins. It received nearly 150,000 calls last season. New lines were added to help meet the demand, but even then getting a busy signal was a common occurrence.
The quality of trout fishing last fall and early winter was excellent, Duckwall said.
``We had a lot of fish put into the waters last fall and the angling pressure wasn't high enough for them to get harvested, and there were large numbers of holdover fish right through the winter months,'' he said. ``The people who went out were able to catch fish every day.''
Look for nearly 400,000 trout to be stocked from Oct.1 through mid-March, Duckwall said.
FLOUNDER: ``Outstanding'' is the word being used to describe flounder fishing in the lower Chesapeake Bay. Hot spots include the area around Buoys 42 and 36A, the Baltimore Channel near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel complex and the Hump. A 91/2-pounder recently took the lead in the Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament.
A camper at Cherrystone Campground on the bay side of the Eastern Shore drifted a minnow and squid combination to catch five flounder ranging from 5 pounds, 8 ounces to 6 pounds, 10 ounces.
Wilson Hayes of Roanoke earned a citation in the Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament with a 6-pound, 7-ounce flounder taken on a minnow in the bay. More than 90 flounder weighing 6 pounds or more have been entered in the tournament.
LENGTH: Medium: 73 linesby CNB