Thursday, March 25, 2010
Bill Cochran's Outdoors: Major changes proposed for Smith River trout fishery
Bill Cochran is a Roanoke Times outdoors columnist.
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A three-mile stretch of Smith River downstream from Philpott Dam is a favorite of anglers who delight in casting dry flies and nymphs little larger than wind-blown specks to brightly hued, river-born brown trout.
Fly-rod artists pretty well have had this stretch of clear, frigid water to themselves, where special regulations emphasize sport rather than meat by calling for artificial lures with single hooks and restrictive catch limits. Above and below this area, the river is popular with bait fishermen who enjoy taking home their catch.
Now, in a bold and surprising move, the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries is proposing that the special regulation program be abolished and the river, from Philpott Dam downstream about 31 miles, be open to all types of trout fishing, bait or flies, under a restrictive slot limit designed to protect brown trout.
At first glance, it may appear that the proposal would make neither catch-and-release fly-fishermen nor put-and-take bait-fishermen happy. For sure, both camps would give up some benefits, but fish officials hope both sides will recognize they also stand to gain an improved fishery. DGIF officials want anglers to make the choice.
The proposal calls for a slot limit where no brown trout 10 to 24 inches could be kept and only one brown longer than 24 inches could be taken. Rainbow trout regulations would maintain a seven-inch minimum size limit, and there would be a six per day limit of combined rainbow, brown and brook trout. The rainbows are stocked while virtually all of the browns are spawned in the river.
“In short, the reg will allow/encourage harvest of stocked rainbow trout and smaller brown trout while protecting larger brown trout,” said Scott Smith, DGIF fisheries biologist.
This is just one of nearly 20 fishery regulation proposals by the DGIF, but it is likely to be the most controversial. Sportsmen are being afforded a comment period through May 11 when input will be received on the DGIF Web Site, HuntFishVA.com. A final vote on the proposals is scheduled for Oct. 5.
Smith recently met with the Smith River Trout Unlimited Chapter to introduce the proposal.
“The fly-fishermen weren’t crazy about losing the three miles of no-bait water, but were willing to give that up to get better protection for the brown trout,” he said.
“I’m not sure how the put-and-take guys will look at this. They will be allowed to use bait in what’s currently the special-regs area and the regs for stocked rainbows won’t change at all. They won’t be allowed to keep bigger brown trout, but will still be allowed to keep the most plentiful size, eight to 10 inches.”
The brown trout slot limit doesn’t create that much of an obstacle for put-and-take fishermen, because these fish have remained small during recent years, Smith said.
What everyone gains is an extra 10 miles of the lower river for trout fishing, said Al Kittredge, a long-time guide on the stream. The proposed trout fishery continues on the downstream side of Martinsville Dam where a sparse brown trout fishery will be given an opportunity to grow.
The prize for bait-fishermen is additional river to fish and less restrictions as far as tackle used.
What fly-anglers hope to gain are bigger brown trout. One year Kittredge caught more than 500 trout and only one brown exceeded the current 16-inch minimum size limit. That’s a far cry from the mid-'70s when the state brown trout record was broken three times in a three week period. It finally settled on a 1979 catch by Bill Nease of Martinsville that weighed an amazing 18-pounds, 11 ounces.
No one is suggesting that a few regulation changes will usher a return of the good old days. The river is beset with challenges, and Smith named them at the recent TU meeting: not enough food, water too cold for fish and insects, daily temperature fluctuations, scouring of the river bottom, sedimentation. Solutions to these demand big money that isn’t readily available, while regulation changes are an inexpensive method of tweaking a fishery.
“This is one thing we can do to try to improve things,” Smith said. “Based on my computer models, the reg should roughly double the number of 12-inch brown trout.”
A slot limit also has been proposed for Virginia’s other major cold-water tailrace fishery, the Jackson River below Gathright Dam. This fishery holds impressive numbers of rainbow trout, but most are less than 12 inches. When they exceed the current 12-inch minimum size limit they frequently are taken home, leaving too few to reach bragging size.
A 12- to 16-inch slot limit has been proposed, meaning that rainbows of that length would have to be released. This would give fishermen an opportunity to thin some of the smaller fish and it would protect midsize fish, affording them the opportunity to reach trophy size, said Gary Martel, DGIF fish division chief.
Brown trout would be under a more restrictive regulation. None less than 20 inches could be kept. The combined trout limit would remain the same, four daily; however, only one brown could be included in the limit.
Your comments welcome at xtrails@earthlink.net
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