Thursday, July 01, 2010
Bill Cochran's Outdoors: New license will save South Holston anglers time and money
Bill Cochran is a Roanoke Times outdoors columnist.
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Just in time for the busy July 4th holiday, anglers on the South Holston Reservoir have the option of buying a new fishing license that gives them the right to cast to the entire 7,580-acre impoundment which sprawls across the Virginia/Tennessee boarder.
In the past, if you were a Virginian and wanted to fish the approximately 6,000 acres in Tennessee you had to purchase a Tennessee non-resident license. It was the reverse if you lived in Tennessee.
The dividing line between the states is marked with modest-size signs dangling from trees on either side of the lake. They can be easy to miss and tempting to overlook when the fish you are after are on the opposite end of the lake. That happens in the spring when white bass tend to fin about in the upper end of the lake and in the summer when the trout hold to the depths of the lower end.
This has caused many South Holston anglers to reach deep into their pocket and purchase a non-resident license.
Starting today, anglers from either state can buy a special $21 license and fish the entire impoundment. You still must have a resident license, and if you keep trout you must have a trout license.
The new license is pricy, but cheaper than buying a nonresident license, and considerably less expensive than paying a fine for fudging on the dividing line.
State officials have been calling the new arrangement a reciprocal agreement, but it hardly is that. A true reciprocal agreement is like the one Virginia has with North Carolina on Kerr and Gaston lakes where one state’s license is honored by the others on the entire impoundments.
Virginia had a true reciprocal agreement with Tennessee on South Holston Reservoir starting in the mid-'60s, but dissolved it in 1982 when Tennessee officials felt they were getting the raw end of the deal since they were providing about three-quarters of the surface acres.
So what you have now maybe isn’t the best deal, but it is a good deal and it will save anglers’ money, not to mention the effort required to purchase a nonresident license.
With the new license comes a revised fishery management plan between Virginia and Tennessee along with uniform fishing regulations that become effective today.
STOCKING: The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries is to stock 14,500 pounds of 10-inch rainbow trout and 2,000 pounds of 10-inch brown trout in late winter and early spring. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency is to stock 3,000 pounds of 10-inch lake trout during the same time period. Virginia is to stock 189,500 walleye fingerlings. As can be seen, Virginia carries the burden of stockings in exchange for Tennessee providing more acres of water.
REGULATIONS:
Black Bass: 5 per day, no smallmouth less than 15 inches
Walleye: 5 per day, none less than 18 inches
Crappie: 15 per day, none less than 10 inches
Trout, 7 per day, only two can be lake trout, no size limit
Catfish: 20 per day, only one over 34 inches
Bluegill: 50 per day, no size limit
Rock bass: 20 per day, no size limit
White bass: none can be kept
Trotlines, 100 hooks per angler; jugs, 50 per angler; limb-lines, 15 per angler. All must be tagged with the angler’s name and address or license number.
