Friday, June 05, 2009
Bait and hook
Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor's Outdoors column and notebook appears regularly in The Roanoke Times.
Recent columns
Free Fishing Weekend is intended to entice newcomers to join Virginia's angling fraternity
When a cable company offers a free HBO weekend, they're not doing it just to make their customers happy for a couple of days.
The hope is some of those customers will like the channel so much they subscribe.
So goes the thinking when fish and game agencies offer free fishing days: Give it a try this weekend and enjoy it. Afterwards, we'd love to have you join us for just $18 a year!
"We want people to go out and go fishing," said Ron Southwick, assistant Fisheries Division director of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. "Hopefully they'll like it enough to go buy a license."
Virginia's annual Free Fishing Weekend starts today and runs through Sunday.
No fishing license is required for freshwater or saltwater anglers, with the exception of anglers on designated stocked trout waters.
Call for anglers
Recruiting and retaining anglers and hunters is a priority for the DGIF.
While hunting license sales numbers in Virginia have been relatively steady recently -- and actually increased slightly the past two years -- fishing license sales have fallen.
Virginia anglers purchased 388,300 resident freshwater fishing licenses in fiscal year 2006. That number dropped to 342,912 the next year, and to 283,739 in 2008.
Resident freshwater fishing license sales for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, stand at 243,338. That number will likely jump over the next few weeks because June is typically a busy month for license sales.
Numbers for all types of fishing licenses combined fell from a total of 806,559 in 2006 to 577,331 in 2008.
Those who do fish are avid. Surveys indicate the average Virginia angler spends 25 days a year on the water. In one survey, a particularly enthusiastic trout angler reported fishing 575 days in one year.
"I didn't include him in the average," reported biologist Larry Mohn, who ran the survey.
The agency has other recruiting initiatives.
One is a program to reconnect with lapsed anglers, who have previously held fishing licenses but currently aren't licensed.
Going into its second year, that program, which is partially funded by a grant from the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation, has resulted in license renewals by about 5,000 anglers, according to the agency.
Southwick said the DGIF doesn't have specific data on how successful free fishing days are at recruiting anglers. Obtaining figures would require specific questions on anglers surveys, something the agency hasn't yet done.
"But based on the number of calls I get, I do know people are using it," he said.
Novices welcome
While some who take advantage of free fishing days are experienced anglers who may have drifted from the sport, the event is ideal for novices.
The key for beginners to enjoying the experience is for them to have some action. Targeting wily wild trout in technical mountain streams or largemouth bass on heavily pressured public lakes is probably not the place to start, but plenty of beginner-friendly options exist on Virginia's hundreds of public lakes and streams.
Timing is excellent for this year's free fishing event.
Sunday brings a full moon, a solunar event that in the springtime and early summer helps trigger the spawning urge of sunfish, which are abundant in just about every lake and pond in Virginia.
Those spawning sunfish -- most of them bluegills -- seek out sandy-bottomed areas in the shallows, fanning out saucer-shaped nests into which deposit their eggs and milt.
That task complete, the fish will aggressively guard these easy-to-spot nests, which means good action for anglers.
Fishermen shouldn't feel guilty about keeping a bunch of the tasty, prolific fish, which easily can overpopulate a lake and become stunted.
Gear need not be fancy. An inexpensive spincasting rod with a small bobber, a small hook and a small piece of worm will work just fine. Even simpler, a cane pole will also get the job done. Just make sure the fishing line is fresh.
For those who would rather be on moving water, most of the region's rivers and creeks hold solid populations of smallmouth bass.
Unlike their largemouth cousins, which can be maddeningly selective, smallmouths, especially smaller ones, are usually aggressive biters.
Small plastic worms, spinners and curly-tailed grubs usually work great for river smallmouths. In smaller sizes, those same lures can also trick the rock bass and redbreast sunfish that often share the same waters.
Again, an inexpensive light-action spincasting rig will be fine for river fish.
Finding a fishing spot is easy, too.
Recreational boaters can just bring fishing gear along when they hit their favorite boating lakes.
For those who don't have a boat, most big lakes also offer some shore or pier fishing spots. At Smith Mountain Lake, for example, there's a nice fishing pier at the state park. Just across the lake, there's also a pier at Franklin County's new waterfront park.
Claytor Lake State Park also offers abundant shoreline fishing access.
Perhaps even more appropriate for beginners are smaller public lakes and ponds.
The DGIF maintains a comprehensive list of those waters, as well as larger lakes, in the Fishing section of its Web site (www.dgif.virginia.gov). The write-ups include directions, basic fishing overviews, facilities and special regulations.
In addition to the list of waters, the agency's Web site also includes a feature it hopes some free fishing days participants return to visit after the weekend -- an online license sales function.
By Mark Taylor
mark.taylor@roanoke.com 981-3395
When a cable company offers a free HBO weekend, they're not doing it just to make their customers happy for a couple of days.
The hope is some of those customers will decide they like the channel so much they subscribe.
So goes the thinking when fish and game agencies offer free fishing days: Give it a try this weekend and enjoy it. Afterwards, we'd love to have you join us for the great price of just $18 a year!
"We want people to go out and go fishing," said Ron Southwick, assistant Fisheries Division director of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. "Hopefully they'll like it enough to go buy a license."
Virginia's annual Free Fishing Weekend starts today and runs through Sunday, coinciding with the National Boating and Fishing Week program of the Recreatioanal Boating and Fishing Foundation.
In Virginia, the free fishing rule applies to most public waters. The exception is designated stocked trout waters, where trout licenses are required.
Call for anglers
Recruiting and retaining anglers -- and hunters -- is a priority for the DGIF.
While hunting license sales numbers in Virginia have been relatively steady recently -- and actually increased slightly the past two years -- fishing license sales have fallen.
Virginia anglers purchased 388,300 resident freshwater fishing licenses in fiscal year 2006. That number dropped to 342,912 the next year, and to 283,739 last year.
Resident freshwater fishing license sales for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, stand at 243,338. That number will likely jump over the next few weeks because June is typically a busy month for license sales.
Numbers for all types of fishing licenses combined fell from a total of 685,373 in 2006 to 495,529 last year.
Free fishing days isn't the only recruiting initiative.
The agency is also participating in a effort to reconnect with lapsed anglers, who have previously held fishing licenses but currently aren't licensed.
Going into its second year, that program, which is partially funded by a grant from the RBFF, has resulted in license renewals by about 5,000 anglers, according to the agency.
Southwick said the DGIF doesn't have specific data on how successful free fishing days are at recruiting anglers. Obtaining figures would require specific questions on anglers surveys, something the agency hasn't yet done.
"But based on the number of calls I get, I do know people are using it," he said.
Novices welcome
While some who take advantage of free fishing days are experienced anglers who may have drifted from the sport, the event is ideal for novices.
The key for beginners to enjoying the experience is for them to have some action. Targeting wily wild trout in technical mountain streams or largemouth bass on heavily pressured public lakes is probably not the place to start, but plenty of beginner-friendly options exist on Virginia's hundreds of public lakes and streams.
Timing is excellent for this year's free fishing event.
Sunday brings a full moon, a solunar event that in the springtime and early summer helps trigger the spawning urge of the sunfish that are abundant in just about every lake and pond in Virginia.
Those spawning sunfish -- most of them bluegills -- seek out sandy-bottomed areas in the shallows, fanning out saucer-shaped nests into which deposit their eggs and milt.
That task complete, the fish will aggressively guard these easy-to-spot nests, which means good action for anglers.
As a bonus, the fish make for tasty tablefare, and anglers need not feel guilty about keeping a bunch of the prolific fish.
Gear need not be fancy. An inexpensive spincasting rod with a small bobber, a small hook and a small piece of worm will work just fine. Even simpler, a cane pole will also work just fine. Just make sure the fishing line is fresh.
For those who would rather be on moving water, most of the region's rivers and creeks hold solid populations of smallmouth bass.
Unlike their lake-dwelling largemouth cousins, which can be maddenling selective, smallmouths are usually aggressive biters.
Small plastic worms, spinners and curly-tailed grubs usually work great for river smallmouths. In smaller sizes, those same lures can also trick the rock bass and red breast sunfish that often share the water with smallmouths.
Again, an inexpensive light-action spincast rig will get the job done on the river fish.
Finding a fishing spot is easy, too.
Regular recreational boaters can just bring fishing gear along when they hit their favorite lakes.
Most big lakes also offer some shore or pier fishing spots. At Smith Mountain Lake, for example, there's a nice fishing pier at the state park, as well as a pier across the lake at the new Franklin County park.
Claytor Lake State Park also offers abundant shoreline fishing access.
Perhaps even more appropriate for beginners are the abundant smaller public lakes and ponds.
The DGIF maintains a comprehensive list of those waters, as well as larger lakes, in the Fishing section of its Web site (www.dgif.virginia.gov). The write-ups include directions, basic fishing overviews, facilities and special regulations.
The agency's Web site also includes a feature it hopes some free fishing days participants return to visit after the weekend -- an online license sales function.
