Sunday, October 14, 2007
Young angler hauls in huge catch
Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor's Outdoors column and notebook appears regularly in The Roanoke Times.
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Fishing is usually a two-handed task.
You hold the rod in one hand; reel with the other.
Unless you're Hank Lindahl.
Ten-year-old Hank has limited use of his left arm and hand after suffering a suspected stroke in utero.
Hank has been fishing for two years, since his family moved to Roanoke from Arlington. He uses a spincast rig.
After casting with his right hand, he tucks the butt of his rod into his left armpit and reels with his right hand.
It works.
Fishing mostly in West Virginia's Greenbrier River, on the banks of which the family has a cabin, Hank has caught sunfish, rock bass and even a few smallmouth bass.
Hank was in his spot on Oct. 6, wading out on a rock and casting his favorite lure -- a black and silver Heddon Tiny Torpedo -- into a deep hole.
It was a hot day and Hank figured a bass might be hanging in a shady spot under some overhanging trees.
"It was real dark under there," he said.
Hank chugged his plug across the surface, and suddenly the Torpedo disappeared in a swirl.
"At first I thought it was just a small one," Hank said.
Then the fish took off on a blistering run and Hank started yelling.
"I was up at the cabin blowing leaves off the deck with a leaf blower," said his dad, Bill Lindahl. "I kept hearing this noise."
He finally turned off the machine and heard his son.
"He was saying, 'I've got a humongous one!'" Lindahl said.
When he got to the river, Lindahl saw the dark shape underwater and couldn't help but be a little disappointed.
"I actually thought it was a carp," he said.
But it wasn't. It was a monster smallmouth bass.
Eventually the fish tired and was no match for Hank's trophy-catching technique.
"I just started walking up the bank, and pulled it in behind me," he said.
"When I got him in I thought, 'Holy moly, that's a big fish.'"
The fish stretched a bit past 20 inches and was fat as a football, a big fish anywhere but something really special for a small river such as the Greenbrier.
"It wouldn't fit in a 5-gallon pail," Lindahl said.
The family hurriedly took some pictures and measurements and then rushed the bass back to the water. Hank didn't want to keep the fish.
"It was really old," he said.
Hank personally handled the release. The family is getting a replica mount made, so the fish will be able to enjoy a place of honor on Hank's wall alongside his Scooby Doo posters.
It would be a fish of a lifetime for most anglers.
But for someone starting this young and with this much enthusiasm, it's probably just the first of many.
Near miss for the Bald Hooters
When it comes to surf-fishing tournaments, it's pretty easy to spot the serious teams.
"Some of them even have matching uniforms," said Carroll Bell, who along with five buddies with Roanoke roots, has for decades been going elbow to elbow with the locals in the Nags Head Surf Fishing tournament.
The Bald Hooters, as they call themselves, are a different story. They wear what they'd be wearing if they were just fishing for fun.
Which, is actually what they do.
"We're mostly in it for the fun and the camaraderie," Bell said of the team, which just competed in its 31st consecutive tournament.
"We don't take it nearly as seriously as some of them do."
The approach works pretty well.
This year the Bald Hooters finished second in the 80-team field, narrowly missing a chance to win for the second time.
The team captured the tournament title in 2001.
"We drew two good spots and managed to maximize the number of fish we got out them," Bell said.
In four three-hour sessions the team caught a total of 75 fish, scoring 245 points.
Their scoring fish were mostly bluefish, but they had some flounder and sea trout.
They also were surprised by four nice Spanish mackerel, an unusual catch for anglers using cut bait in the surf.
Other team members from Roanoke were Bell's brother, Henry Bell, and John Crute. Allen Palmer, Brock Beasley and Hill Ellet, former Roanokers who now live in the Virginia Beach area, were also on the team.
