Mark Taylor

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

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Overview

I tagged along Tuesday with biologist Scott Smith and fisheries tech Cory Kovacs during an electroshock session on the James River. The session was part of efforts to monitor the fish kill on the James and its tributaries.

The findings weren't pretty. About a third of the fish collected showed signs of sickness varying from minor sores to extensive lesions. I've posted a number of photos on my blog at blogs.roanoke.com/wildlife/.

At this point it's impossible to predict how this year's kill will shake out. It seems unlikely it will be milder than last year's, when Smith estimated mortality among affected species was about 10 percent.

Friday through Sunday is Virginia's annual Free Fishing Weekend, and normally this weekend would be a busy one on the James. Should those fishermen avoid the river? That's a personal choice. The James and its Jackson and Cowpasture tribs still have healthy and hungry fish, but there's little doubt action won't be as good as it should be.

For more on the Free Fishing Weekend, check out Friday's Outdoors page.

Lakes

Stripers are wrapping up their futile spawning efforts at Smith Mountain Lake, and fishing is improving. Live bait on planer board rigs is taking some decent fish, but trolled umbrella rigs are also working well, reports Mike Snead at the Virginia Outdoorsman. An umbrella rig produced a 22¹₂-pound striper for Penny Wells on Sunday.

Jigs pitched around docks are producing some good crappie catches, while bass anglers fishing docks with finesse presentations are picking up some bass. Topwater lures are productive early and late in the day.

Trout anglers are catching "piles of little ones" at Lake Moomaw, reports Larry Andrews at the Bait Place, but big keepers have been fairly rare. Andrews said an angler who goes by the name "Low Budget" caught a 5.66-pound brown on a live minnow Friday.

Streams

The New River's smallmouths have snapped out of the post spawn doldrums in a big way, reports Steve Phlegar at Tangent Outfitters in Pembroke. Phlegar was on the water with clients Tuesday and said dead-drifted soft plastics were the hot ticket, with darker colors producing the best.

Although trout stocking season is over, larger waters still hold some fish.

Saltwater

Anglers making the effort to wade in the surf to Cape Point (which is currently closed to vehicles) have caught a few big red drum in recent days, reports Red Drum Tackle.