ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 10, 1997 TAG: 9704100023
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: OUTDOORS
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
The gobbler hunting season starts Saturday, but the toms have been talking for days as spring progresses up the mountains. The early green-up and the longer days should have the hens in the egg-laying business, a process to which the gobblers vocally - and otherwise - pay special interest.
For a time, when the temperatures reached the 80s, it appeared the turkey season wouldn't arrive soon enough, but cooler weather has helped turn sap to gum. The timing of the season should be just about right.
``While the spring green-up may be a little earlier, I don't think we have missed anything,'' said Gary Norman, the turkey research biologist for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. ``I still look for the incubation to be about normal, maybe a week or so earlier. I think hunters probably will hear good gobbling.''
When it comes to playing on the affection of toms, hunters can expect considerable competition from real hens that are not engaged in incubation duties. In an oft-repeated early-season scenario, a tom gobbles two or three times from his roost, then sails down into a flock of hens that leave him little reason to respond to a hunter's yelps and purrs.
But toms are vanity on two long legs. The same bird that won't commit an inch one morning can make a mistake the next when a particular box or mouth call sounds enticing.
``Our spring gobblers survey tells me that, generally, the first two weeks of our season is when 70 percent of [hunting] success comes,'' Norman said. That's also the time when the most hens are on the loose.
Virginia's spring season, which runs through May 17, is a little earlier than the seasons in some surrounding states. West Virginia's season, for example, doesn't open until April 28.
``It is set to occur after most hens are incubating,'' Norman said of the Mountain State's season. ``That is a safeguard to reduce the chance of hunters either mistakenly shooting a hen or intentionally shooting a hen during the early part of the season.''
During a recent five-year research project that involved biologists in Virginia and West Virginia, early-season mortality wasn't deemed a problem in the Old Dominion, Norman said. ``We didn't notice any difference in survival rates or mortality rates between Virginia or West Virginia,'' he said, ``so it looks like the later spring season opening really wasn't needed that much.''
Only a scoundrel would shoot a hen intentionally, and you don't want to be around the guy who mistakes a hen for a tom.
MUSKIE MADNESS: Smith Mountain Lake has been averaging about a dozen muskie catches a season, but that rate appeared to accelerate in the past week or so. Campers Paradise weighed a 25-pounder landed by James Baker of Wise, W.Va., and a 22.4-pounder by Steven Dooley of Roanoke.
Dooley hooked his fish on a bucktail.
MORE PAY: In the list of pay trout-fishing opportunities on Monday's Outdoors page we failed to mention the fly fishing at Meadow Lane Lodge on the Jackson River west of Warm Springs. It is one of the oldest such programs in the state, with the fishing coming in a package deal along with lodging. The action can be excellent in the spring. For information, call 540-839-5959.
The wrong phone number was listed for the pay trout fishery on Spring Creek in Alleghany County. The correct number is 540-559-2622. This is a day program for fly anglers, but lodging can be arranged.
BASS TOURNAMENTS: Mr.Bass, the most prestigious bass fishing tournament of the season on Smith Mountain Lake, should bring some good catches Saturday and Sunday.
It took 23.04 pounds to win the recent Roanoke Valley Bassmasters Spring Invitational. Mark Bradshaw and Allen Burns Jr. of Lynchburg won with a 10-fish limit that included a 4.18-pound smallmouth bass.
Ronnie Lemons of Vinton posted the biggest largemouth, an 8.40-pound catch.
The father-son team of Danny and Trevis Towe of Salem finished third in the recent American Bass Association tournament on Kerr Lake. They entered a 22.84-pound total, including an 8.40-pound largemouth hooked by Trevis on a spinnerbait. The contest was won by Kurk Gravitt of Boydton and Mac Elliott of Clarksville, who weighed 26.33 pounds of bass.
LENGTH: Medium: 77 linesby CNB