Tuesday, October 25, 2005
DGIF might change striper fishing rules at SML
Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor's Outdoors column and notebook appears regularly in The Roanoke Times.
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A handful of issues promise to get a good bit of the attention Thursday when the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries board of directors votes on proposed changes to fishing, hunting, wildlife and boating regulations.
For sportsmen in the Roanoke region, two issues are getting most of the attention. One would impose major changes to the striper fishing rules at Smith Mountain Lake. Another would ban deer feeding from the beginning of September through the end of the deer-hunting season.
The department's fisheries division wants to take radical steps at Smith Mountain Lake, saying the changes might help the lake regain its stature as Virginia's best inland fishery for trophy stripers. The lake's population of big stripers was almost completely wiped out in 2003 by a double whammy of a forage shortage and a massive infestation of copepod parasites.
One change would impose a protected slot limit for 26- to 36-inch stripers from October through May. Recycling stripers that are not quite trophies but are on their way could help keep more large fish in the lake, biologists say.
The other change would eliminate the 20-inch minimum size and expand the daily bag limit from two to four stripers during the summer months.
Small fish dominate the summertime catch, biologists say, and removing a good number of those fish should help the remaining fish by reducing competition for forage. Additionally, summertime release mortality is thought to be high.
Reducing the number of smallish stripers could also help the fisheries for smallmouth and largemouth bass, which have also suffered because of competition with stripers.
Biologist Dan Wilson, who oversees the Smith Mountain Lake fishery, pored over mountains of data to help come up with the plan. He also got help from the Smith Mountain Striper Club's preservation committee.
Wilson said his research clearly shows that the lake has an overabundance of smaller stripers.
Club president Ron Curtis and other prominent members of the club, however, disagree with Wilson's rationale and his plans.
Citing increased catch rates of nice fish, they say the lake's striper population is recovering nicely under current regulations.
Wilson has been treading carefully. Obviously, he believes in his proposals, yet he doesn't want to fight with the club, which has played an active role in the striper management program at the lake.
The question is, will the department's board side with the vocal fishermen? Or with the scientists?
I wouldn't be surprised to see some sort of compromise on the proposals, such as setting the summertime limit at three fish, and maybe implementing a slot limit of 28-36 inches.
Of course, even if the board decides to take the wait-and-see approach the striper club leaders seek, the fisheries division isn't cut out of the management scheme. After all, it controls how many striper fingerlings are stocked in the lake each year. One sure, long-term way to reduce the stripers' impact on the lake's forage is to put fewer baby stripers into the lake.
The staff hasn't played that card yet, or even threatened to. But it certainly could.
On the wildlife front, department biologists admit that science is only part of the rationale behind the deer-feeding-ban proposal.
Food piles can concentrate deer, biologists say, and that can enhance the spread of disease. With the recent discovery of chronic wasting disease in West Virginia, just 10 miles from the Virginia border, concern over disease transmission is greater than ever.
A feeding ban is also a matter of ethics, biologists say. Even though hunting over bait is illegal, biologists say that even conditioning deer to artificial feed piles violates the basic principles of fair chase. They also point out that landowners who undertake intensive feeding programs can unfairly draw deer from neighboring landowners.
Fans of feeding have come up with varying arguments, including saying they believe their handouts help keep deer healthier. Clearly, though, most feeding programs center on giving hunters an advantage.
Because of the disease issue, the department's board will probably not have any qualms about approving the seasonal feeding ban.
A proposal to extend Virginia's grouse season a couple of weeks may also get some extra attention Thursday.
Some grouse hunters have asked for the extension, saying it will give them more time to enjoy their passion after other hunters have left the woods. The extension doesn't sit well with all grouse hunters, some of whom say with grouse populations declining by about 30 percent over the past few decades, the birds don't need any added hunting pressure.
The meeting gets underway at 9 a.m. at the department's headquarters at 4000 W. Broad St. Public comments will be accepted.
The majority of the approved changes won't be put in place until July 1, 2006.
Bass fishing
A couple of Virginia bass series held their season-ending championships recently.
Sixty-eight teams competed in last weekend's Shelor Outdoors Motor Mile Classic at Smith Mountain Lake. Top honors went to the father-son team of Terry Jones of Dublin and Ralph Jones of Pulaski. Using jigs and spinnerbaits to fish main lake channels, the pair had an 18.84-pound catch Sunday to win the top prize of a Ranger/Johnson boat and motor rig valued at $25,000.
The Dublin-based team of Marvin Arrington and Max Snell Jr. won the recent championship for the Virginia Bass Fishing teams circuit. Their two-day catch at Kerr Reservoir was 28.58 pounds. They pulled their fish from shallow water on the main channel using Shad Raps and Splash-it lures, and took home a top prize of $2,000.
