Sunday, October 18, 2009
Most waters stocked as planned
Mark Taylor is outdoors editor at The Roanoke Times.
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Mark Taylor
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The Wild Life blog
Although deer hunting is commanding much of the attention from the region's sportsmen these days, the recently renewed trout stocking program has its share of fans, too.
Stocking resumed Oct. 1, and will continue through May.
In some recent years low water levels have resulted in postponed early fall stockings at some smaller waters.
Even though the weather was relatively dry in the weeks leading up to October, water levels were still plenty robust from wet weather in the spring and early summer so no delays were necessary.
"This year we've had more water and cooler water temps so everything's been stocked as planned," said Brian Beers, the manager at the state's trout hatchery in Paint Bank. "Compared to the last couple of years it's been great."
One popular Roanoke stream will have its stocking protocol tweaked, but it has nothing to do with water levels.
Construction crews are busy removing a low water bridge in the middle of the stocked section of the Roanoke River that runs from Wasena Park along Wiley Drive to Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital.
It will be about six months before the new bridge is completed, and the road from the bridge to Franklin Road will be closed during that time.
Scott Smith, a fisheries biologist with the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, said DGIF staffers are working with the city to figure out a stocking plan.
The regularly stocked section of the river at Wasena Park is still accessible. The lower section, adjacent to Smith Park, is also accessible by foot via the Roanoke River Greenway from Franklin Road upstream to near bridge construction area.
So one possibility would be to arrange with Roanoke officials to get a key to the gate at Franklin Road and drive a stocking truck back upstream.
Even if the stocking truck is able to access the river near the bridge work site, fish won't be stocked in that area for safety reasons, said George Duckwall, the biologist who heads up the DGIF's trout hatchery program.
Smith said that regional fisheries biologist Bud LaRoche hopes to have a plan for stocking the Roanoke River in the city within the next couple of weeks.
Beers said he hopes to be able to stock the section before the end of October, and is just waiting on directions.
Local stocking hot line discontinued
When the DGIF established its statewide trout stocking hot line after moving to a year round season, some trout anglers complained.
The hot line's number is (434) 525-3474, so it's a long-distance call for the 540 and 276 set.
As a service to Roanoke-area anglers, then outdoors writer Bill Cochran set up a local hot line through The Roanoke Times. I've kept it going for the past 11 years.
This season we're discontinuing the hot line because it just isn't getting used.
In the early days the hot line would log thousands of calls a month, Cochran recalled. The last time we did a count, several years ago, there were days when the line didn't get more than a handful of calls.
The shift in use makes sense.
Most anglers have cell phones these days, so they can make that call to the state's hot line at no extra cost.
The stocking information is also available online at the DGIF's Web site (www.huntfishva.com, and also linked through my Wild Life blog on roanoke.com).
The DGIF's hot line is admittedly more reliable than mine. The DGIF updates their information whenever they stock, but there can be delays on my end when I'm not in the office at 4 p.m., when that day's stocking information becomes available.
When I first started here in the late 1990s, I would receive angry voice mail messages when my trout hot line was not immediately updated.
That hasn't happened once this year -- evidence, I believe, that a Roanoke hot line is no longer needed.
For anglers who don't have a computer or cell phone and want stocking information, feel free to call my direct line. If I'm at my desk I'd be happy to provide the latest stocking information.
All quiet on the deer front
If no news is good news, Virginia's 2009 deer season is off to a great start.
"It's been extraordinarily quiet," said Matt Knox, one of the DGIF's two head deer biologists.
Not that hunters haven't been scoring.
As of Wednesday afternoon, hunters had checked in more than 8,000 bow- and crossbow-killed whitetails. It's probable that another 4,000 or so have been checked in person.
Knox didn't have available the tally at this point last season.
However, last year crossbow and bow hunters killed a total of about 28,500 deer. So, it's not unreasonable to assume that by the end of the weekend, just two weeks into the season, they'll be over halfway to last year's total.
