Sunday, July 12, 2009
Tucked-away treasures: Ponds produce nice fishing spot
The Bath County Recreation Ponds have the reputation of being a good place for families.
Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor's Outdoors column and notebook appears regularly in The Roanoke Times.
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BACOVA -- In his bright orange rain suit, Harry Helton looked like he could have been part of a road crew.
But he was part of a fishing crew.
On a damp early July afternoon, he and pals Richard Jones and Danny Tyson were standing on the banks of one of the Bath County Recreation Ponds, casting their baits for "anything that bites," as Helton put it.
"It's a nice place to fish," he said, casting a worm-baited hook far out into the pond.
We'd heard that, which is why Roanoke Times photographer Sam Dean and I had decided to visit the ponds for our summertime series on some of Virginia's small public fishing lakes.
The two ponds are part of a Dominion Power pumped storage power generation facility, which uses two larger reservoirs (which are not open to the public) just north in this valley through which Back Creek flows.
Helton and his friends were fishing the lower pond, which covers 27 acres and is open only for bank fishing.
The retirees from Covington had started about 1 p.m., and when we met them an hour or so later, they still had just a couple of fish to show for their efforts.
Helton had one nice bluegill on his stringer, while Tyson had a 2-pound channel catfish on his.
The relatively slow action left Helton reminiscing about the spring.
"In April and May, it was really good," he said. "We caught big bluegills, crappies and some nice catfish."
Mark Taylor | The Roanoke Times
Using a bass popper, Roanoke Times photographer Sam Dean tries to coax a largemouth bass to the surface of the upper Bath County Recreation Pond. After an hour or so without success, he tied on a smaller popper and quickly got into some regular sunfish action.
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- Where: Bath County Recreation Ponds
- Facilities: Two fishing ponds, developed campground, swimming beach at lower pond. Shore fishing is allowed around the entire upper pond and most of the lower pond. Mowed paths provide easy access.
- Fees: $2 per vehicle; $2 per night for primitive camping; $10 for developed campsite.
- Hours: 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
- Special regulations: Protected 12- to 15-inch slot limit for largemouth bass; no gasoline motors.
- More information: Dominion Power 540-279-3289
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Previous stories in this series
Fishing in warmwater ponds always tends to slow down in the summer as the water heats up and fish tend to retreat into shady hiding spots during the day, particularly in ponds such as these with ultra clear water.
So this day's dreary weather was probably a good thing for afternoon fishing.
And, really, the fishing hadn't been that slow. At least not for 15-year-old Chasten and 11-year-old Tresten Taylor, and their cousin, Jacob Workman, 12.
The kids, who had been fishing with their proud grandfather, Ralph Hamilton, were leaving with stringers filled with at least 25 nice bluegills and redear sunfish.
"I'll skin them and fillet them and we'll have a big fish fry," said Hamilton, who lives in Pocahontas County, W.Va. "I've fished all over, and this is the best place to take kids."
Because we had arrived with a small, borrowed johnboat in the bed of my truck, Sam and I decided to head to the upper pond, where boats are allowed.
Once on the water we spent the first 30 minutes cruising around scouting the pond, which is 45 acres and on which only electric motors are allowed.
We found that the water was fairly deep on the lower end, and pretty shallow and weedy on the upper end. Even in some deeper areas, some large weed mats reached the surface.
Our approach was to motor to the upper reaches of the deep water, then fish as the wind blew us back south.
With the stiff breeze whipping the surface into a good chop, it seemed reasonable to start casting topwater lures for bass. I went with my trusty buzz frog, while Sam was tossing a good-sized popper on his fly rod.
Biologist sampling of the pond has found an excellent population of small bass -- in fact, small bass are so abundant, a 12- to 15-inch protected slot limit has been established to encourage harvest of smaller fish -- so it seemed likely we would have some action.
That didn't happen.
After 30 minutes of fishless flailing I switched gears and started using a piece of nightcrawler below a bobber to keep the bait out of the weeds. Soon I was connecting with a few bluegills.
Biologists also say the pond has some good bluegills -- which is normal in waters where an abundance of bass keeps bluegill numbers in check -- so it was time to go deeper to find them.
Because of the heavy weeds on the bottom, a drop-shot rig with the hook above the weight seemed a good idea.
It was.
The approach started producing some better bluegills, as well as some bass in the 8- to 10-inch range.
A 3-inch Berkley Gulp Minnow also attracted a couple of bass, as well as some nice bluegills. A Roboworm drew some taps but no hook-ups.
Sam eventually gave up trying to entice a bass with big poppers and streamers and went with a small bluegill popper.
That worked. In fact, as evening approached, the wind dropped and the surface calmed, the popper was drawing at least as much attention as live bait.
In three hours we had plenty of action, boating probably two dozen bluegills and a half-dozen bass. A few of the bluegills were really nice, in the half-pound range. The bass were all small, with nothing topping 10 inches.
Our gear loaded up, we returned to the lower pond to check on Helton and his crew.
Fishing had picked up for them.
Tyson, whom Helton had started calling Bill Dance, had caught two more nice catfish, although he was chagrined to admit that the first one had slipped off the stringer and regained its freedom.
Helton and Jones had stringers filled with about 15 panfish each. One of Helton's fish was a beautiful crappie of well over a pound.
"You don't see many crappie like that," he said.
He cast a small jig into the shallows and reeled slowly.
"There's another one," he said, hoisting a nice bluegill out of the water. "Looks big enough to keep."
Helton added it to his stringer, his smile showing that he was no longer thinking about the good fishing in the spring, but enjoying the good fishing on this day.
Fishing in warmwater ponds always tends to slow down in the summer as the water heats up and fish tend to retreat into shady hiding spots during the day, particularly in ponds such as these with ultra clear water.
