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Despite Rumors, Fish Are Jumpin' at Lake Brittle
Despite Rumors, Fish Are Jumpin' at Lake BrittleBy Bill Walsh
Times-Democrat Staff Writer
Time was, back in the day, way back in the day, before Twitter and Instant Messaging and 24-hour news coverage, rumors occasionally gained traction despite having no basis in reality.
"Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated," Mark Twain famously said of a one such decidedly premature scoop.
So it is with Lake Brittle: Rumors of its demise haven't been exaggerated; they've been flat-out wrong, according to Michael Day, who is lakeside from 7 in the morning to 7 at night, Fridays through Tuesdays, keeping the concession stand open, keeping the minnow tanks humming, keeping the boat rentals churning, keeping the whole operation running like a well-tune outboard.
Not to say that Lake Brittle's status hasn't been jumping around like Twain's jumping frog of Calaveras County.
Long operated by the county, the lake belongs to the state, to whom, with money drying up, Fauquier returned the 77-acre fishing gem near New Baltimore last fall. We can no longer afford to operate the park, county leaders informed their state counterparts. It's all yours.
More's the shame, the state is on brittle financial ground, too, and rumors that the lake would not be open — at least not to the extent that it has been available to anglers for years — began to play out like a trophy small-mouth on two-pound test.
Thank the miserable job market facing new college graduates that Lake Brittle's demise turns out to be a fish tale.
Thank the fact that, yes, credit is available, as the optimists in the business community have been insisting; thank the fact that American entrepreneurship is alive and well.
Thank the fact that where far too often most of us beat our chests and say "alas," there are still those who can see and are willing to seize opportunity amid the waves of economic news, each crest worse than the one that came before.
Day, a January graduate from George Mason University with a degree in psychology, couldn't find a job in his new field of expertise, so he fell back on an old one.
A long-time summer employee of the local Parks and Recreation Department assigned to Lake Brittle during his school holidays, Day was familiar with the operation of the park.
When, through his contacts with state and local officials, especially with state marine biologist John Odenkirk, he learned that the commonwealth was looking for someone to take the recently returned day-to-day operation of the lake off its hands, he jumped at the opportunity, and why not?
The hiring of brand-new psychologists, with just the first of several degrees they will probably ultimately need, is at low tide.
Day presented a plan to the state's Game and Inland Fisheries Department, which liked what they saw, then presented a business plan to The Fauquier Bank, which also liked the scheme enough to lend him the money to buy boats and motors and minnow tanks and refreshments for hungry and thirsty anglers. He was in business.
Under Day's management, Lake Brittle opened on March 27. He intends to keep it open, depending on fall weather, until about Nov. 1, and will be extending the hours of daily operation after Memorial Day.
As a lifelong angler and outdoorsman, management of Lake Brittle's fishing operation is a comfortable match.
As a budding entrepreneur whose first business venture was an eBay project completed for a local company, it was a good fit, too.
As a recent college graduate facing a job market that has dried up like a shallow pool in a drought, this is also a comfortable match.
Things are different than when he worked summers here for the county, Day has noticed. "Instead of renting a boat with motor (six hours for $30), people will do it with oars ($12 for 6 hours)," he said last week. "Business is still here; people come in and buy bait and sodas and so forth, but I think the economy has slowed it a little."
The silver lining is that Lake Brittle offers such attractive "staycation" opportunities.
"You keep seeing on the news that people are not taking vacations and tours and things," Day said. "For $30 to $40, you can come out for six hours and have fun. And you can catch fish. There's not a whole lot you can do for $40," he added.
Lake Brittle, which features bass, catfish, blue gill, perch, crappie and walleye, is a gem too often ignored by local anglers. Day collataralizes drivers' licenses when he rents equipment and has noticed that most of the permits come from Northern Virginia. There are some from Fredericksburg, a few from other parts of Stafford and even Spotsylvania County and parts south. There aren't very many bearing local zip codes.
Day can be reached at the lake at (540) 351-0007.
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