THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 30, 1995 TAG: 9507290431
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C11 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BOB HUTCHINSON
LENGTH: Long : 109 lines
Anglers using live bait to catch and release striped bass at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel are doing the conservation movement a sad disservice.
It's a practice which has been gaining widespread popularity in recent weeks. Increasing numbers of fishermen are learning that stripers are available and can be suckered by live baits.
Anglers can't keep the stripers, since the season will remain closed until Oct. 17. But that hasn't stopped them for fishing for them.
Scientific studies indicate that the hotter the water, the less likely cold-water species like stripers are to survive hook-and-release. Water temperatures along the bridge-tunnel have been running in the low 80s.
It's a different matter during the peak of the open striper season each fall, when average temperatures can be less than 60. Then, studies indicate, most fish will survive unless hooked deeply.
Claude Bain, director of the state-sponsored Virginia Salt Water Fishing Tournament, made an experimental trip to the crossing recently and caught and released 12 fish.
Bain said he would be surprised if they all survived.
``None of them were in great shape when we released them,'' he said, ``although every one was hooked in the lip. I'm pretty sure that two of them didn't make it.''
Bain, who works for the Marine Resources Commission, said he wanted the state to know firsthand about the situation.
He also said that high hook-and-release mortality in a situation like this could lead to anglers being granted less access to stripers or other species in the future.
When Peter W. Rowe, a commission member from the Eastern Shore, was told of the incident, he said he thought it was time to ban fishing for stripers during the closed season or during the hottest months, at least with live bait.
``I understand that this could be a law-enforcement problem,'' Rowe said, ``since it'll be hard to prove that someone was actually fishing for stripers.
``But this is as much a matter of education as anything else. Maybe if we ban the activity, people will get the word. I don't want them to stop using live bait for other species. But I don't want to see any fishermen needlessly killing a species we've worked so long and hard to reestablish.''
Amen to that.
PIER CLOSED: A crumbling bulkhead has forced closure of the fishing pier at Kiptopeke State Park on the tip of the Eastern Shore.
Officials of the state's newest park said they are not certain when repairs will be made. Money will have to be appropriated through Division of Parks headquarters.
The facility's boat ramp remains open, although shoaling around the ramp renders launching and loading hazardous when the tide is low or when seas are rough.
Most anglers fishing nearby waters are using a private ramp on the Intracoastal Waterway near the Eastern Shore National Wildlife Refuge, formerly Cape Charles Air Force Base. The fee there is $10.
The park site was the Eastern Shore terminal for the Chesapeake Bay ferries until 1964, when the bridge-tunnel was completed. It has been a state park since 1992.
TAR HEEL DATES: A three-part, 69-day dove-hunting season opening Sept. 2 has been approved by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.
The first segment will run through Sept. 30; the second will be Nov. 20-25; the third Dec. 11 through Jan. 13. Hunting will be allowed from noon until sunset the first week, then from a half-hour before sunrise until sunset.
Other seasons set by the commission include: railbirds, gallinules and moorhens, Sept. 1 through Nov. 9; woodcock, Dec. 7 through Jan. 20; and common snipe, Nov. 14 through Feb. 28.
The season for resident Canada geese will be Sept. 6-20 in the counties of Bertie, Camden, Currituck, Dare, Hyde, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Tyrrell and Washington and Sept. 16-30 in all other counties. The daily bag limit will be three.
The commission has also approved a series of public hearings to give sportsmen a chance to comment on proposed waterfowling seasons. One will be in the North Carolina Aquarium near Manteo at Aug. 21 at 7:30 p.m.
RICHMOND SHOW: Competition in the Virginia Deer Classic and the Virginia Gobbler Classic will be a part of the Virginia Outdoor Sportsman Show Aug. 11-13.
Sponsored by the Virginia Deer Hunters Association, the events will be at The Show Place, 3000 Mechanicsville Turnpike, Richmond.
Awards will go to hunters with the highest-scoring deer heads in six antler classes. Turkey beards will be judged in two classes.
The 1994 competition featured more than 200 deer racks and more than 50 turkey trophies, according to Denny Quaiff, executive director of the association. Call Quaiff for details at (804) 743-1290.
SCHOOL BELLS: The popular Outer Banks Surf Fishing School will return to Nags Head this fall, taught by Joe Malat, a veteran surf guide from Nags Head, and Mac Currin of N.C. State University.
This year's school will feature two classes, Surf Fishing 101 for entry-level students, and Surf Fishing 102, for anglers who have completed the first course or have some experience.
Classes are scheduled for Sept. 21-24 and Oct. 19-22, respectively. Each will include classroom instruction and 1 1/2 days on the beach.
Details: Malat at 1-919-441-4767.
SHORT CASTS: Public deer hunting will again be offered on Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in Suffolk, where hunters killed more than 250 deer in 1994. Both shotgun and archery hunting will be allowed. Details: refuge office, 986-3705. . . . Dave Pate of Virginia Beach has earned a citation from the Key West, Fla., Fishing Tournament by boating a 27 1/2-pound blackfin tuna. He was on the charter boat Ramerezi. . . . Steven Hardison, 14, of Chesapeake, has earned a Virginia freshwater citation by releasing a 22 1/2-inch, 7 3/4-pound largemouth bass caught on a private pond. . . . The Atlantic Coast Conservation Association of Virginia, a federation of recreational fishermen, has changed its name to the Coastal Conservation Association of Virginia. by CNB