Bill Cochran

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The big question at Smith Mountain Lake: Are bragging-size striped bass making a comeback following a nosedive that devastated a nationally renowned fishery?

The answer appeared to be a resounding “No” during the early stages of the two and one-half day Cave Spring Optimist Club fishing tournament the past weekend.

Friday: Striped bass entered -- 0.

Saturday: Striped bass entered -- 0.

On Sunday, Ike Harris, the club workhorse, arrived at the lake about 5 a.m. He immediately checked the contest leader board at Foxport Marina. There they were. A 24.50-pound striper entered at 2:16 a.m. Sunday morning by Carlos Brown of Hardy and a 19.50-pounder entered 3:40 a.m. by Gary Ayers of Rocky Mount.

“We were told that probably none would be caught,” said Harris.

The contest catches underscored what is becoming increasingly evident: that there are some big stripers in the lake following population-pounding, parasite-related fish kills that crashed the once proud fishery.

Last year, 24 trophy striped bass from the lake were entered in the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries’ Angler Recognition Program. These were fish at least 20 pounds or 37 inches. The largest was a 38-pound, 7-ounce late-April catch by Robert Armstrong of Penhook.

While the volume of catches hardly rivals the good old days of the '70s and '80s, when citations averaged around 600 per year, the renewal is a welcome new beginning. The fact is, Smith Mountain was the leading, freshwater producer of trophy stripers last season. In second spot was Claytor Lake, with 13.

The Optimist Club had restored the striper category to its 39-year-old tournament this year after a 26-year absence. Stripers, along with five other species, were part of the contest from 1974 to 1981, but controversy caused club members to replace striped bass with catfish in 1982. Many anglers at that time expressed fears that too much pressure from this contest and other would be harmful to the striper fishery.

Looking for ways to boost declining participation in its tournament, Optimist members put out feelers to see if there would be opposition to dropping walleyes and reinstating stripers to the 2007 contest. There was no major protest. Like Harris said, most people figured no one would catch a striper big enough to meet the protective 37-inch minimum that tournament imposed.

Enter Brown and Ayers.

Brown started the contest by targeting smallmouth bass. In time, that became boring to his two sons, who persuaded him to go after stripers. In the wee hours of Sunday morning they pushed up the Roanoke River arm of the lake where they found stripers stirring the surface along the shoreline.

They began tossing shallow-diving Storm Thunderstick lures. The party was on. They caught stripers 30, 32 and 33 inches, big fish, but slot-limit throwbacks.

At 1:30 a.m. Brown connected with the Big Momma. It fought like a junkyard dog, rendering Brown’s lure into a piece of junk, ripping off two rear treble hooks and straightening the rest, save one that remained in the fish’s tough jaw. Never mind that Brown had replaced the lure’s original hooks with some he considered better.

A little over two hours after Brown had registered his striper, Ayers docked with his 24.5-pounder. Earlier, Ayers had entered the contest winning 32.38-pound catfish, a flathead from the Blackwater River arm of the lake that sucked up his Rapala lure and strained his 14-pound line. Like Brown, Ayers caught his striper on a Thunderstick he was tossing to areas where fish were feeding along the shoreline under the guise of darkness.

The return of stripers to the lake and to the contest added pizzazz to the tournament, but there is no way to tell how many additional tournament entries it inspired. The contest entries did increase, easing up to nearly 550.

“We don’t know if the stripers made a difference or not,” said Harris. Well, they did in one way. They created a $1,500 payoff -- $1,000 to Brown, $500 to Ayers.

But it wasn’t stripers that lured these two anglers to the contest. Both are long-time participants who would have been there, stripers or not. Ayers, who is 44, estimated that he has fished the contest for 30 years. But he had to admit that stripers provided a nice touch, not to mention some extra cash in his pocket.

Check this week’s Cochran Field Report for details on other winners of the Optimist Club tournament, including kids in the Bill Cochran Youth Tournament.