ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, January 20, 1997 TAG: 9701210024
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
FOR trout anglers, there always has been a time in the late winter or early spring when thoughts suddenly turn to the upcoming fishing season.
No longer. Trout fishing now is an eternal affair, without beginning or end. Last year was the first full year when trout season could be whenever you wanted it to be under Virginia's new year-round concept: spring or fall, winter or summer.
So how has it been received?
``I think the people who are taking advantage of it are extremely happy,'' said George Duckwall, who supervises the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries' trout production. ``I think we still need to encourage people that they should get out there and fish during the nontraditional times.''
Some anglers need no encouragement. Among them is Corbin Beach of Roanoke, who estimates he went trout fishing 80 to 100 times last year, including the winter months.
``I like it, because you get to go in January and February, if the weather permits,'' said Beach, a retired General Electric employee.
During a recent trip to Roaring Run, Beach used a power-bait-type offering to quickly catch a limit of six rainbows from frigid water cascading over 300 million-year-old bedrock shaded by aging hemlocks.
Beach missed as many fish as he hooked, a common cold-weather occurrence, he said.
``It looks like they want to run with it, and you figure they've got it and you jerk and it comes right out of their mouth,'' he said of the bait.
While Beach didn't have the Botetourt County stream to himself, there was plenty of casting room, even though the hatchery truck had visited the day before.
``A day or two afterward is really better than the day they stock,'' he said. ``It seems like they don't hit as well just after they are stocked.''
One of the purposes of the year-round season is to provide a realistic fishing experience, where an angler can go to a stocked stream anytime he desires and expect to find both trout and elbow room, Duckwall said.
``We are trying to get the fisherman to get out and fish the streams even when the hatchery truck hasn't been by recently,'' he said. ``There is a whole pile of trout out there.''
Joe Skarbeck of Roanoke said that wasn't the case during a trip to Jerrys Run, where he saw only two trout three days after the Alleghany County stream had been stocked.
Even so, Skarbeck gives the program passing marks, and does so with experience, considering that at age 82 he has been trout fishing for 76 years.
``Basically, the program is pretty good,'' he said. ``But when they changed [to a year-round season], I noticed two things: They don't put as many fish out when they are stocking; and the fish are smaller.''
The individual stockings are smaller, but the number of fish released during the season has increased, Duckwall said. Five years ago, 1 million trout were being stocked, he said. Last year that figure had increased to a little more than 1.2 million.
Several anglers, Skarbeck included, have questioned this year's rearranged stocking schedule. Gone is the list of streams and impoundments that had a ``biweekly'' stocking classification.
The biweekly streams have been switched to the Category A listing. Category A water will be stocked more frequently this spring than last, Duckwall said. Last year, the biweekly streams were getting fish 10 times a year and the Category A streams eight times. Under the new arrangement, these streams and ponds will receive trout nine times a year, he said.
Complaints about the year-round season were voiced last spring by fishermen who said they missed the traditional opening day, but overall negative comments have been few, said Larry Mohn, a supervising fish biologist for the game and fish department.
``Fishermen are about as happy as they've ever been,'' he said.
Water conditions have been good this winter, and crowds have been low, Duckwall said. ``We aren't getting a bunch of people following us,'' he said.
If acceptance and interest in the new program can be gauged by calls to the department's stocking information phone line, then, ``I think interest is picking up,'' Duckwall said.
``In October, we had three times as many calls as the year before,'' he said. ``We had more than twice as many calls in November and December. We are close to 10,000 calls in January.''
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: BILL COCHRAN STAFF. Corbin Beach enjoys success onby CNBRoaring Run, where winter trout fishing gives him cold hands and a
warm heart. color.