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Bill Cochran

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BILL: Many thanks for the additional background on Laurel Bed Lake (last week’s Cochran Column). I had read the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries’ press release online, but really appreciate the history of the fishery you provided.

I guess my greatest concern would be that Laurel Bed Lake may represent “just the tip of the iceberg.” DGIF lists nearly 150 public fishing lakes on its Web site, and the Department owns almost 40 of those. Since almost all of these are impounded waters (as opposed to natural lakes), it is probably just a matter of time before infrastructure maintenance issues loom for many more of these waters. I hope the department has or will develop a long-term plan to address dam maintenance. If it does not have one now, then this certainly seems it would be a good time to start.

Perhaps Laurel Bed Lake is indeed just an isolated instance. But I would have to think that many small (and not so small) reservoirs constructed from the late 1940s through the mid-1960s are also facing some pretty serious cyclic maintenance needs

I recall that there was a bill at one point in the General Assembly that could have provided up to $30 million for dam maintenance, but apparently DGIF waters were not included. Any word on what ever happened to that possible legislation?

Perhaps sometime before the next General Assembly, DGIF and other Commonwealth agencies with dams and impounded recreational waters might want to convene to explore the scope of this issue and what it would take to address it. Seems to me there might be some economy of scale if all the serious dam issues could be identified and addressed at once.

Again, many thanks for the detailed information on Laurel Bed Lake.

BILL: I watched the forecast, and saw a stiff southwest wind turning and coming out of the northwest associated with a front rolling though [the Virginia Beach/Eastern Shore area] late this evening. That sounded like red drum weather to me, so my plan was to shoot across the Chesapeake Bay while it was blowing southwest and get anchored in red territory and wait for the switch from the northwest.

The ride across the bay was smooth, but when we reached the Eastern Shore at about 7 p.m. we were greeted with 3-footers. I was still fine with that, and while watching the sky closely, we snuck around to the calmer leeward side of Fisherman’s Island and dropped the anchor in 9 feet of water. Not much competition, since most smart boaters were already gone.

I set out four lines with blue crabs, and watched the wind pull a huge bow in all my lines. I chatted with two other buddy boats, and no one was catching anything yet, and one of them left to head in.

After about 20 minutes, the wind turned and started howling from the northwest, right on schedule. OK, it’s time. Ten minutes later, I picked up my cell and dialed my buddies’ numbers to see what they were up to. Just then one of the rods took off, and began screaming as the line peeled off. I threw down my cell, and picked up my rod and held on. The thing was moving off so fast, I thought it was a big Southern Ray. Great, what a pain. Then it turned and ran toward the boat.

After a few minutes, it came to the top and rolled, and I saw a huge red tail flip as he took a dive. It’s a red! The fish was a pretty one, measuring out to 50 inches. A few photos and an easy release, and the lines were back in.

As I began to look around, the seas were building, the sun was setting, and the wind was now whipping to about 30 out of the northwest. We also noted big dark clouds passing to the south with flashes of lighting.

I didn’t want to deal with that in the dark, so we pulled up and headed toward Rudee Inlet. Too late. As we reached the mouth of the bay, the clouds made it really dark, and we met up with a 4- to 6-foot following sea. Not good. The boat handled well, but there was a little stress factor involved. We made it in fine, and so did both buddies. I was home by 10:15 p.m. Whew!