ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, October 17, 1996 TAG: 9610170005
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: OUTDOORS
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
Jerry Skinner and Wayne Mace knew that cooler temperatures and shorter days were sending baitfish back into the creek coves of Smith Mountain Lake and the bass were certain to follow.
The question for them last Saturday, during the B.A.S.S. Federation charity tournament, was should they probe the creeks with jigs, spinnerbaits and crankbaits, or should they stick with the late-summer, top-water pattern that had won them three tournaments in a row?
The decision was to keep on working the surface with a torpedo-shaped Zara Spook, a technique that yielded the two Lynchburg anglers an eight-bass, 19.47-pound winning catch in the charity event. That made four-in-a-row at Smith Mountain.
And it probably was the end of the pattern for this season, said Skinner.
``I think the bass are getting ready to get back in the creeks,'' he said. ``The shad are moving into the creeks good. I think that will be the place to try spinnerbaits and jigs.''
Which was exactly the technique used by Lynchburgers Lee Neighbors and Scott VanLear, who were the runners-up Saturday with a 17.12-pound catch.
``We fished back in the creeks,'' said Neighbors.
A one-half ounce black and blue Rattleback jig with a Zoom trailer accounted for most of their six-keeper catch, which included a couple of four-pounders. Shad-colored crankbaits also were productive, Neighbors said.
The jigs were worked fairly rapidly, with a swimming action that occasionally bumped them on the bottom. Most of the strikes came around cover, namely boat docks and brush, said Neighbors.
When big bunches of bait were spotted, Neighbors said he would toss a spinnerbait.
The good showing by Neighbors and VanLear didn't surprise Skinner and Mace.
``The past couple of years, when we stop catching them, they start catching them,'' said Mace.
Skinner and Mace said they worked familiar spots in the mid-lake area with their surface lures. At times, they were able to entice suspended bass to the surface with their ``walking the dog'' retrieve. It was a painstaking process.
``It seemed like we got about one bass an hour,'' said Skinner.
At many spots, the two anglers changed sizes and colors of their lures before earning a strike.
Now that cooler temperatures and improved oxygen have encouraged the shad to move shallow, Skinner and Mace are advising fishermen that the time has come to turn their back on the main lake and fish the creeks and coves. That, most likely, will result in the greatest number of strikes the next several weeks. The same can be said of other major lakes, Gaston, Kerr, Philpott, Anna.
Black bass aren't the only fish that respond to the seasonal movements of shad. So do stripers. Stripers have been migrating upstream and going shallow at Smith Mountain. Hefty catches have been made in the upper reaches of the Roanoke River arm of the lake, said David Webb, of the Fishing Hole, a tackle shop in Roanoke. Some of the fish being caught are in the 20-pound-plus class, he said.
TOUGH HUNTING: Bowhunters say they are observing disappointingly low numbers of deer, probably because a heavy acorn crop has the animals scattered. When food is abundant, deer don't have to do much moving between bedding and feeding areas, nor do they have to spend much time in fields where they are easily spotted.
The kill appears to be down, but some bowhunters have managed to bring fine deer from the woods. Carl Madows of Roanoke killed an 8-point buck in Roanoke County that weighed 149 pounds.
LENGTH: Medium: 71 linesby CNB