THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 15, 1995 TAG: 9510140435
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C15 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BOB HUTCHINSON
LENGTH: Long : 132 lines
Virginia anglers literally have been gearing up for the 1995 Chesapeake Bay striped bass season, which opens at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.
Local tackle shops report brisk sales of fishing gear designed to trick one of the craftiest fish on the East Coast.
``It looks like everyone is going striper fishing,'' said Malcolm Pine of Sandy Point Tackle on Colley Avenue in Norfolk. ``Stuff for rockfish is practically all I'm selling.''
Anthony Whitehurst of Princess Anne Distributors in Virginia Beach, popularly known as the 17th Street tackle shop, said business is at least a good as it was a year ago.
``We're selling a lot of wire-line (trolling) outfits,'' he said. ``The biggest difference I see this year is that more and more people are buying their own molds for pouring lures.''
The Chesapeake Bay striper season will run through the end of the year, with anglers limited to keeping two stripers a day, with an 18-inch minimum.
This will be the longest Chesapeake Bay season since 1989. For the past several years, anglers have been restricted to a 32-day fall-winter season, with fishing only from Thursday through Sunday for eight weeks.
This time, they'll be allowed to fish seven days a week, a 76-day season. That means a total of 107 fishing days for the year, as there was an unprecedented 31-day spring season.
Yet while that early season attracted some fishermen, this is the one thousands of anglers have been awaiting, almost like children awaiting Christmas.
``I'm really excited about it,'' said Richard Welton of Virginia Beach. ``We've been going and releasing the fish, and there's really been a lot out there. But in November, there'll be even more.
``The comeback of the striped bass just goes to show you what good fishery management can do if people will just give it a chance. Fifteen years ago, we didn't have any rockfish, or at least not very many.''
Once abundant all along the East Coast, the striper was almost wiped out by three decades of excessive fishing by both commercial and recreational fishermen. However, rockfishing has been either banned or strictly controlled since 1983.
``There's no question but that the controls have been primarily responsible for the fishery's recovery,'' said Jack Travelstead, head of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission's fishery-management division.
Anyway, while many anglers are stowing their fishing gear for another season, not so Chesapeake Bay striper fishermen. They're getting ready for one of the biggest events of the year.
Unless something very strange happens, the best catches will be made along the 17.6-mile Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. Good hauls should also come from the Hampton Roads and Monitor Merrimack Memorial bridge-tunnels.
For the first few weeks of the season, most stripers pulled from around the Bay crossing's pilings and artificial islands will weigh under 12 pounds. But by late November, when the season peaks, there should be lots of 30-pounders around, and even a few 50-pounders.
Small wonder, then, that so many anglers are gearing up for the 1995 season. It should be a doozy.
STRIPER CONTESTS: With the return of the rockfish and the long season, it follows that some folks will be holding striper tournaments.
A few already have been announced, the latest being the Great Shore Rockfish Festival, set for Friday through Sunday, with $4,000 in cash prizes. It is being staged by the Shore Drive-Great Neck Merchants Association and will offer awards for the heaviest rockfish and speckled trout.
Part of the program will include a children's fishing contest from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the Lynnhaven Inlet Fishing Pier, with awards for the three heaviest edible fish.
In the adult division, $1,000 will go to the angler with the heaviest striper, with a $50 registration fee for the category. The registration fee will be $25 in the trout category, where $500 will go to the angler with the biggest entry.
Additionally, an exhibit of tackle, boats, motors and fishing gear will be displayed at the Virginia Beach Resort Hotel and Conference Center on Shore Drive, east of the bridge over Lynnhaven Inlet. . It will be presented by Princess Anne Bank, with free admission. Hours will be noon to 7 p.m. Friday, and 9 a.m. until noon Saturday.
Live entertainment will be presented from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday on the beach in front of the Duck-In restaurant, at the foot of the bridge.
For details, call 456-1317.
THE WINNER: Steven Harding of Norfolk was honored Saturday night as the winner of the Super September Series of fishing tournaments.
The series was conceived by Dr. Jim Wright of Virginia Beach to promote September fishing in Hampton Roads. It included several fishing contests, plus a distance-casting event.
Harding won the Marina Shores Open by scoring the most points with heavy entries in several categories. He also won the Cobb's Marina flounder tournament, part of the series, with a 4 1/4-pound flatfish.
The awards ceremony was at the Virginia Marine Science Museum in Virginia Beach.
VIRGINIA TOP 100: The BASS professional circuit returns to Virginia on Wednesday for the first time since 1990. The event will be the BASSMASTER Top 100, on the James River out of Osborne Landing, near Richmond.
Most of the big names in pro bass fishing will compete, including Guido Hibdon of Missouri and Rick Clunn of Texas, winners of the 1988 and 1990 BASS Masters Classics, when those events were held out of the location. The Classic was staged out of the site a record three consecutive years, with Hank Parker, now retired, winning in 1989.
The anglers will be going after $272,300 in cash and awards in a contest that will feature both pro and amateur divisions and will run through Saturday.
Among the 33 Virginians in the field are Rick Morris of Virginia Beach, Woo Daves of Spring Grove and David Dudley of Lynchburg, all in the pro division.
Those in the amateur division include Ted Lindsey Jr. and Robbie Pepper of Virginia Beach, Dallas Turner and David Drew Wheelbarger of Chesapeake, Scott Whitmore of Suffolk and Don Tross of Newport News.
David Ward of Kill Devil Hills also is in the amateur division.
BUCKS BOOK: If you like to look at pictures of big trophy deer, you'll love ``The Top Buck Book,'' covering big deer killed in Virginia during the 1994-95 season.
Published by American Deer Hunters of Bunnell, Fla., the 48-page booklet was edited by Buddy Mills and assembled by the Mills family, formerly of Virginia. It details, with photographs, about 100 of the top whitetails bagged in Virginia last season.
It's available from: American Deer Hunters, P.O. Box 668A, Bunnell, Fla. 32110-0668. The cost is $9.95, including shipping and handling.
SHORT CASTS: The Outer Banks King Mackerel Festival, offering more than $57,000 in cash and prizes, will be held Thursday through Saturday, with headquarters at Pirate's Cove Marina near Nags Head. Registration will be held there from 3 to 10 p.m. Thursday. The marina will share weighing-station duties with Teach's Lair Marina at Hatteras. For details, call 1-800-537-7245 or 1-919-473-6800. . . . David Frie of Virginia Beach won a recent yellowfin tuna challenge tournament among boats from the three major marinas at Rudee Inlet. Skippering the Predator out of Inlet Station Marina, he boated a 68-pounder. . . . Phil Townley, a Virginia game warden based in Suffolk, has been named warden of the year by the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. on fishing, has joined with sportscaster Jim Hall to co-host a fishing show on WTKR-TV. The show airs Saturdays at 7 p.m. by CNB