ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 13, 1997 TAG: 9703130051
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: OUTDOORS
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
If you and your partner dock with 20 pounds or so of fish during a bass tournament, chances are your names will be on the leaderboard. But that weight would be peanuts at a catfish contest.
A tournament this past weekend held by the new Virginia Catfish Association had a winning catch of 105 pounds, and the limit was three catfish.
The winning entry, by Ronnie Peebles and Bobby Lyles of Richmond, wasn't a fluke, either. Second place was 99.9 pounds; third, 97.8. In all, nearly a half-ton of cats were weighed, and released alive, by the 21 teams of fishermen. The largest fish weighed 38.35 pounds.
About as close as you can get to that kind of weight in fresh water is to fish for striped bass. Several 20- to 25-pound stripers have been landed from Smith Mountain Lake, along with a 21 1/2-pound muskie by Carl Maggard of Rosedale.
Bobby Pagan of Narrows caught a 38-inch, 30-pound striper from the New River below Claytor Dam while casting a 5-inch surface lure for walleye.
``She ripped off about 40 or 50 yards of drag,'' Pagan said. ``I knew she was no walleye.''
A short time later, while casting the same plug, Pagan hooked a muskie and battled it to the bank, losing it when he tried to beach it. He estimated it was longer than the striper.
Largemouth-bass fishing has been productive at most Virginia impoundments, but some of the biggest catches are coming from Briery Creek Lake. Bill Black of Powhatan hauled a 13-pounder and George Watson of Appomattox an 8-pounder from the lake.
HOLD ONTO YOUR CAP: Competitors in B.A.S.S. fishing tournaments will be able to hang an additional 100 horses on their boats this fall. The maximum horsepower rating has been boosted to 250 hp. Since 1976, it has been 150.
Before anyone rushes to buy a new engine, be aware that B.A.S.S. says it will begin enforcing speed limits. The limits haven't been established, but word is they will be between 55 and 70 mph.
One of the factors that brought the change is that B.A.S.S. will sponsor a Western circuit next season. Outboards in the 200- to 235-hp range are standard equipment in the West.
THINGS HOPPING AT SNOWSHOE: A couple of seasons ago, when Intrawest Corp. purchased Snowshoe Mountain Resort in West Virginia, skiers looked for big changes. After all, Intrawest is known as North America's premier developer of four-season mountain resorts. And nothing happened.
This week, Interwest announced plans to develop what it is calling Camp 4, a community of 32 mountain condominiums, located on a scenic ridge near the Powderidge lift, which means there will be ski-in/ski-out opportunities. Prices for the condos will range from a little less than $105,000 to more than $279,900. The public will get its first look at the project March 23. Owners of existing properties at the resort will have a chance to select one of the new condos the day before they are made available to the general public.
DON'T SAY `NUTS' TO THIS: Lucille Griffin of Newport has some nuts she'd like you to nurture. Griffin is the executive director of the American Chestnut Cooperators' Foundation, a modest organization dedicated to the restoration of the American chestnut tree.
Chestnuts once were a reliable food source for all wild creatures, from song birds to bears. Then blight wiped them out.
The science is in place to bring these magnificent trees back to the forests. If it happens, ``it could be the ecological triumph of our times,'' Griffin said. But it will require an army of volunteers.
Griffin has nearly 2,000 nuts that need to be planted. Growers can get a packet of 30 if they promise to plant them and report each September on the survival rate. Then, Griffin will graph scions from blight resistant trees into the new shoots.
Volunteers can contact Griffin by phone, 540-552-5943, or e-mail at jmassey@mail.vt.edu.
LENGTH: Medium: 73 linesby CNB