Sunday, May 06, 2007
New online database provides several useful tools
Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor's Outdoors column and notebook appears regularly in The Roanoke Times.
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The New River is Virginia's best smallmouth stream.
If we didn't realize this just from paying attention, we get confirmation every spring when the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries finishes compiles the data from the previous year's Virginia Angler Recognition Program.
In 2006 the river produced 115 awards for smallmouths weighing at least five pounds or at least 20 inches long, a number we know would be a lot higher if everyone who caught a fish that big actually applied for a citation.
So tell me something I don't already know, right?
While the confirmation of that and a few other annual facts is interesting, the value of the state's freshwater fishing awards database goes well beyond confirming traditional hot spots. Digging deeper can uncover some lesser know potential hot spots, which is why I've spent lots of time every spring pouring over the database since the game department started providing it to me in electronic form.
This year I decided to share the bounty.
With the help of the computer gurus in the roanoke.com shop here, we've put the database online. (You can find the link at roanoke.com/outdoors/).
I have a vague recollection that there was a little controversy last time we put a searchable database online, but I don't foresee that happening here.
The database is pretty basic. It may be sorted by body of water, or can be searched by the angler's last name.
Dates of the catches are included, which can help determine when the fishing is hottest for trophies at each lake or stream.
Short of seeing how many citations your buddy got last year, most fishermen will want to search details for specific lakes and streams.
That can turn up some interesting stuff.
Take the Staunton River, for example.
The stretch between Leesville Dam and Kerr Reservoir didn't produce a boatload of citations, but its 50 awards were pretty solid.
Most interesting was the sheer variety of species, with citations for nine species.
The information can also hint at changes in fisheries.
Take Gatewood Reservoir outside Pulaski, long a hot spot for big sunfish. Last year the lake gave up 11 big sunfish, which isn't bad for a lake of its size.
However, Gatewood also produced five citations for yellow perch, which were just recently illegally introduced into the lake.
So it seems the perch fishery is thriving, which is good news for fans of those tasty panfish. If that's happening at the expense of the lake's bluegills, it won't be good news to those who appreciated the lake's incredible sunfish.
A little digging can produce information on another small lake in Western Virginia with some big sunfish.
Lake Robertson, a small reservoir in the mountains outside Lexington, produced six citation sunfish, including a couple pushing a pound-and-a-half. It also produced two largemouth bass approaching 10 pounds.
That's the kind of information that gets me thinking it could be worth an exploratory trip.
Anglers who want a chance for sunfish topping two pounds might want to make the long trip to Flannagan Reservoir.
It's a big lake and produced only 11 citations, but a couple were for sunfish weighing about two pounds, and one award was for a three-pound whopper. If there's one area where the information is not so useful, it's in trout fishing.
It's easy to figure out which stocked public waters produced the best chance for citation-sized fish last year. But just because the state put big fish in those waters in 2006 doesn't mean they are following similar stocking protocol this year.
The trout results are, as usual, dominated by private pay-to-fish areas, the proliferation of which actually forced the state to implement a $4 application fee for citations a few years back.
You don't need to analyze the database to figure that out that if you go to one of these places and pay the fee, you've got a good chance for hooking a fish that meets the qualification minimums.
But say you want to take a closer look anyway.
You'd probably notice that one angler at one of those businesses nabbed 85 citations in 2006, which, based on the fee at that farm, means the guy spent close to $1,500 on his quest.
So, if you've got the time and money, you can pretty much buy as many trophy fish certificates as you want.
Or you can take the approach of using the database to figure out which public waters offer you the best chance to hook a monster then getting out there after them.
That still doesn't guarantee you'll end up tangling with a trophy, but it's not really supposed to be easy, is it?
