Mark Taylor

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

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Mark Jennelle loves fishing at Carvins Cove, but as he cruised around in his bass boat for several hours on Tuesday, he didn't even pick up a rod.

He was too busy observing a team of state fisheries biologists who were on the lake conducting a fish population sample.

"This is my home water and I live just 3 miles from here," said Jennelle, who lives in the Hollins section of Roanoke County. "I fish here a lot and I'm very concerned with what goes on out here.

"This is just fascinating to me."

It has been years since the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries has had an official concern with what was going on at the 600-acre lake that is a primary water supply for the Roanoke Valley.

The DGIF stopped helping manage the lake's fishery more than a decade ago when strict residency restrictions were put in place regarding boat use. The rules made the lake a private fishery for all intents and purposes, according to the agency.

Last summer, after the Western Virginia Water Authority modified the rules to treat all users equally, regardless of where they lived, that opened the door for the DGIF to get back involved.

Tuesday's sampling was the first step in the agency's evaluation of the lake as it works toward making possible recommendations about what could be done to improve the fishing.

One possibility includes stocking game fish species that don't naturally occur in the lake, such as striped bass or walleyes, two species that have been stocked in the lake previously.

Other options include implementing different size and catch limits, improving in-water fish habitat, or doing nothing.

Gary Robertson, the executive director for water operations for the Western Virginia Water Authority, said he is happy the game department is taking an interest in the fishery at Carvins Cove.

"I think everyone realizes Carvins Cove is a wonderful resource," said Robertson, adding that he believes the area can serve a dual role as a source for recreation and water. "We just want to make sure we make the cove accessible, but we don't overwhelm it."

Improved fishing and resulting publicity could attract more users, but several strict usage rules could help counter some of that impact.

Those rules include a 10-horsepower limit on gas motors and, to safeguard against the introduction of destructive zebra mussels, a ban on aquatic bait and a required 21-day waiting period for boats that have been in other waters.

Any changes to managing the lake's fishery will come in part through recommendations from Dan Wilson, a DGIF biologist whose responsibilities in the region also include Smith Mountain Lake.

Tuesday was his first look at Carvins Cove.

Wilson said he had heard that the lake was clear, which could indicate a general lack of fertility and limitations as a fishery. He was pleased to see the lake had a green color, an indication of good levels of nutrients.

"It's actually got a lot more fish that I thought it would," said Wilson, whose biologist teammate on Tuesday was Bud LaRoche, who supervises the fisheries program in this region. "I'm pleasantly surprised."

Also along for the ride was 14-year-old Levi Grove, who lives at Smith Mountain Lake and who is interested in fisheries management.

The team was in big aluminum johnboat -- that had just been thoroughly disinfected with bleach -- rigged with generator-charged electric probes that dangle off two booms on the boat's bow.

As Wilson idled the boat along, LaRoche and Grove scooped up stunned fish and deposited them into a large water tank in the boat.

Over the course of four hours, they made five separate sampling runs, measuring and then releasing the revived fish after each.

The first trip through a small cove took about 10 minutes, and netted about 50 fish, mostly largemouth bass and tiny bluegills.

Most of the bass were in the 2- to 3-pound range.

"They seem a little skinny, don't they?" LaRoche said to Wilson as he examined a lanky, 16-inch-long largemouth.

The next four trips produced many more largemouth bass, along with some nice crappies, a few redbreast and redear sunfish, a couple of yellow perch, several gizzard shad, and three channel catfish. Many carp were seen, but not collected.

No smallmouth bass were collected.

The lake has a well-established smallmouth population, but they tend to favor deeper water out of the range of the electric current.

Of the 205 largemouth bass picked up, nearly all were in the 2- to 3-pound neighborhood. There were just a few small bass, and even fewer larger bass.

The largest was 21 inches long and weighed perhaps 6 pounds, a smaller maximum size than the samplers see on many other waters.

"Bass numbers are as good as we've got in any of our larger reservoirs," Wilson said.

The biologists said they their initial impression is that mid-sized bass are so numerous they cannibalize many young bass and also will be limited in growth.

"What I'm seeing, you won't have a lot of 5- to 8-pound bass in here, because there are too many of them," Wilson said.

LaRoche agreed.

"It looks like they've been crowding," he said, "and running out of food."

The lake's dynamics could contribute to the situation.

When the reservoir is well below full pond, as it has been for a couple of years until just recently, the lake has limited protective cover for smaller fish, which become easy pickings for predators.

One possible remedy would be to implement a slot limit for bass, requiring the release of larger fish but encouraging the harvest of smaller bass to thin the population.

But, the biologists pointed out, a positive with the current situation is that anglers will catch more fish.

Jennelle said he doesn't mind the status quo.

"I'm plenty happy catching bass like this," he said, holding his hands 16 inches apart.

Wilson said he'd like to do some more sampling at the lake, primarily to get a better handle on the population of shad, an important forage fish.

Does the lake have enough shad to support the addition of more predators, such as stripers, hybrid stripers or walleyes, without hurting the bass?

Avid bass angler Steve Grubb of Roanoke, a regular at Carvins Cove, said he's concerned about the forage base.

"There just aren't many shad in there," said Grubb, who said he'd rather not see stripers stocked.

Wilson and LaRoche don't have to rush to develop their recommendations.

"We wouldn't be able to put any fish in there until next year anyway," LaRoche said. "Everything we have is already committed for this year."

Even if the biologists do recommend stocking, they could face another challenge. Because of the aquatic bait ban, water authority officials would have to be comfortable with bringing in fish from a foreign water source.