Tammy Stanley of Salem and Moneta guide Todd Keith with a nice slot striper caught from Smith Mountain Lake. Photo by Bruce Ingram.

I have to admit that I very much wanted to experience the action that the other members of the guided trip were enjoying. I was aboard Moneta guide Todd Keith's boat, and already his two clients, Kevin and Tammy Stanley of Salem, had caught three Smith Mountain striped bass between them. For Tammy, her two stripers had been the first ones of her angling career, and she was overjoyed with her success.

It wasn't as if I hadn't experienced plenty of opportunities. By now on three separate occasions, fish had smashed the shad dancing beneath my planer board. And three times, I had managed to either miss the fish on the initial hookset or lose it shortly thereafter.

Finally, a fourth strike occurred and this time I drove the hook solidly home. For several minutes, the striper displayed the aggressiveness that made the species become known as the "fish that made Smith Mountain famous." After I landed the 28-incher, which Keith estimated weighed about 9 pounds, the guide told me that fish that size are becoming increasingly common on the 20,000-acre impoundment. Indeed, one of Tammy Stanley's fish weighed between 12 and 13 pounds.

Smith Mountain Lake has not yet returned to its glory days when 20- to 30-pound stripers were a possibility on any given trip. However, Dan Wilson, the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (VDGIF) biologist for the lake, believes the fishery is improving.

To see why, first we need to review some history.

The VDGIF initially stocked stripers at the lake in 1963. The fish do not reproduce naturally in the lake because of limited spawning habitat. Throughout the last 30 years, the body of water received acclaim not only as the best striper destination in Virginia but also as one of the premier ones in the country. Not many fisheries could, as was the case with the Roanoke-area impoundment, account for annual catches of fish in the 40-pound class (and sometimes bigger). In the lake's prime, an angler hauling a 15-pounder back to the dock would receive only a knowing nod.

Indeed, the fishery was so good that a series of state records came from the impoundment. During the 1980s and 1990s, anglers progressively caught bigger and bigger trophies, finally topping the 50-pound barrier. Although the current state record (a 53-pound, 7-ounce brute) was caught from Leesville Lake by James Davis in 2000, Smith Mountain remained the place for dedicated trophy seekers to congregate until 2003.

Wilson related that striper numbers had been improving since 1999 as a result of increased stockings and better survival of young fish. But in late 2002, two factors combined to severely harm the fishery: A parasitic copepod infestation struck the striped bass, and the shad population plummeted by more than 60 percent for several months due to winterkill. During the spring of 2003, a major striped bass kill took place for two months. Keith believes that an E. coli infection from waterfowl -- Canada geese exist in large flocks and receive insufficient hunting pressure -- did not help matters.

The biologist said that the die-off eliminated most stripers that weighed over 10 pounds. However, gill net data indicated that fish up to 3 years of age remained good.

Now, those fish are forming the basis of a comeback that is definitely underway.

"The number of bigger striped bass has been improving, but most of the larger fish are still limited to 10 to 15 pounds," Wilson said. "However, there are a few striped bass available up to 20 pounds with the biggest fish in 2006 weighing in at 38 pounds. The VDGIF is continuing to monitor and research the parasite infestation. It is unknown at this time what the long-term impacts of this parasite will have on the health of the striped bass population."

Wilson said that to accelerate the recovery, the VDGIF instituted new regulations in 2006. The limit remains two per day all year; but from Oct. 1 through May 31, no striped bass can be kept between 26 and 36 inches. From June 1 through Sept. 30, there is no length limit.