Published: July 02, 2009 08:49 pm      

Fewer branch biggies around?

A popular feature of the Outdoors page for the past 30 years has been the one in which we tell you which of your friends and neighbors have caught trophy sized fish in West Virginia.

Each month, the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources sends us by snail mail a list of trophy fish awards distributed across the state.

I simply look through the list, extracting the names of those anglers who live within the circulation area of the Cumberland Times-News.

During the early portion of my three-decade run as outdoor editor, it was common for that monthly list, expecially in the summer and fall, to contain names of people who had caught big smallmouth bass from the South Branch of the Potomac River.

The DNR has assigned minimum weights to the various fish species, using that minimum as the entry level for trophy status.

For example, a brook trout must be 1.5 pounds to qualify, a rainbow trout 4 pounds, a channel catfish 6 pounds and a fallfish 2 pounds.

Take a look at the photo of Floyd Benson elsewhere on this page and you will see that his South Branch carp of 39 inches far surpasses the minimum of 31 inches for that species.

In the case of smallmouth bass, a fish that is either at least 4 pounds or 20 inches is good enough and will bring the angler recognition in the form of a certificate.

All the rules are on the Web site www.wvdnr.gov.

So, back to the South Branch. The South Branch has long been known as a good or even great fishery for smallmouth bass.

After all, the state record smallie of 9.75 pounds came from that river and still stands after 38 years. In 1971, Cumberland resident David Lindsay caught the monster bronzeback that measured 24.25 inches. West Virginia recognizes both weight and length records.

The 25.5-inch smallmouth from the New River in 1976 was longer than Lindsay’s fish, but not as heavy.

Anyway, although it was common in the 1980s and even 1990s to see trophy smallmouth showing up from the South Branch, these days it is rare.

Usually, the trophy smallies listed in the report in recent years have come from the New River.

But, not to worry, according to Jim Hedrick, the DNR fishery biologist in Romney. The problem is about money, not about fish.

“The most significant reason you are seeing fewer big bass reported from the South Branch is because two or three years ago the agency started charging $5 to register a fish,” Hedrick said.

“In fact, we are seeing more large smallmouth in our surveys than in recent years. By large I mean fish 16 to 18 inches. Also, there are a lot of young fish, which means there is good reproduction.”

Reproduction continues to take place in spite of the well publicized intersex problem in which male smallmouth also have internalized eggs.

In addition, fish kills in recent years seem to have had more impact upon big smallmouth, though Hedrick believes whatever mortality took place is not significant.

Contact Michael A. Sawyers at msawyers@times-news.com.