Mark Taylor

Mark Taylor's Outdoors column and notebook appears regularly in The Roanoke Times.

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One of Virginia's most unique high-elevation lakes is on its way to becoming a huge mountain meadow.

Faced with an expensive dam repair it can't afford, the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries is draining Laurel Bed Lake, a 330-acre reservoir nestled in the mountains of Russell County northwest of Saltville.

The dam that forms the lake is leaking and the DGIF hasn't been able to come up with the money to fix the problem.

"It could cost up to $2 million," said Gary Martel, chief of the agency's Fisheries Division.

Martel wasn't able to offer a timetable, but said he's confident the dam will eventually be repaired.

"We'll get it fixed," he said.

The amount of water flowing though the leaks in the dam is insignificant, Martel said.

"And the dam is not in imminent danger of failure," he added.

But the agency is concerned that the damage could grow worse -- and repairs become even more costly -- if water is allowed to continue running through the fissures.

Laurel Bed Lake is on the Clinch Mountain wildlife management area, which is owned and managed by the DGIF.

Surrounded by a second-growth forest that mixes hardwoods with high-elevation evergreens such as spruce, the lake is among the most picturesque in the state.

Its fishery is also unique, with the lake boasting a good population of trout as well as strong numbers of trophy smallmouth bass.

Until recently the lake was managed primarily as a trout fishery. When illegally introduced rock bass began to compete with the trout, biologists decided to stock predatory smallmouth bass in an effort to control the rock bass.

The bass have been protected by catch-and-release-only regulations and the lake has become a good trophy bass fishery, producing plenty of 3-pound-plus bass and occasional fish topping 5 pounds.

The catch and release regulations for bass have been lifted and general bass regulations are now in place.

Under the new regulations, anglers will be allowed to keep up to five bass per day with no minimum size limit.

Trout regulations will not change, with anglers allowed to keep up to six fish per day with a minimum size of 7 inches.

Few trout carry over from year to year, so trophy trout are rare.

This isn't the first challenge for the lake.

Acidification has necessitated regular treatments with lime to lower pH levels suitable for fish.

Martel said the lake has been drained at least twice. In 1996, it was drained for repairs and in an effort to eradicate rock bass.

The lake should be completely drained by July.

In the final days the DGIF may try to collect some remaining fish and stock them elsewhere.

Martel said some fish will wash through the drainage pipe into Tumbling Creek, a tributary of the North Fork of the Holston River.

Tumbling Creek is a state-operated trout fee fishery, and water from Laurel Bed Lake is sometimes used to augment water flows in late summer.

Martel said the agency will monitor the water conditions in the creek and discontinue the fee fishery if necessary during dry months.

After the dam is repaired it could take several years to establish a new fishery. But because new lake tend to be fertile, that newly established fishery should be outstanding.

"We hope to bring it back better than it is now," Martel said.