Thursday, December 27, 2007
Hunting and fishing is big business in Virginia
Bill Cochran
Recent field reports
Hunting and fishing is one of the bright stars of Virginia’s economy, according to a new report by the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation. Virginia’s 857,000 hunters and anglers spend more than $1.3-billion annually on their sport, ranking them among the most prominent and influential of all demographic groups, the report said.
Spending by hunters and anglers in Virginia directly supports 24,000 jobs, which puts $683 million worth of paychecks into the pockets of the state’s working residents, the report said. Hunting and fishing activities also generate $128 million in state and local taxes.
“Because sportsmen enjoy hunting and fishing alone or in small groups, they are overlooked as a constituency and as a substantial economic force,” said Jeff Crane, president of the foundation.
Crane made some comparisons:
>Sportsmen support more jobs in Virginia than Northrop Grumman in Newport News and Virginia Tech combined.
>Sportsmen spend more in Virginia than the combined cash receipts from broilers, cattle and dairy products, the state’s top three agriculture commodities.
>Annual spending by Virginia sportsmen is more than the combined revenues of Southside Oil, Uppy’s Convenience Stores, Apex Systems and Lumber Liquidators, the state’s four fastest growing companies.
>Virginia sportsmen could fill both the Richmond International Raceway and Martinsville Speedway nearly five times.
All this should be a wake-up call to the state government to welcome and encourage hunting and fishing, Crane said.
BILL
SMITH MOUNTAIN STRIPER REPORT
Reduced stocking rates and a slot limit appear to be benefiting the striped bass fishery at Smith Mountain Lake. That is the report Dan Wilson, a Department of Game and Inland Fisheries biologist, has given the Smith Mountain Striper Club.
“We are seeing major improvements in growth again,” said Wilson, who blamed a slowdown on increased stockings in the late 1990s. Poor growth rates provide scant chance of the lake producing really big 30-pound fish, or even many 20-pounders, he said.
Wilson reported he is happy with the current slot limit, and doesn’t plan to tamper with it anytime soon. It appears the fishery is benefiting from it even through the regulation hasn’t been in place long enough to produce the kind of improvements biologists hope for.
Good growth rates are dependent on an adequate baitfish supply, and the 20,000-acre lake appears to have that. Mike Snead reported to club members that baitfish are healthy and abundant in the upper sections of the Roanoke and Blackwater rivers and their tributaries. Fish caught are full of shad, said Snead, who operates the Virginia Outdoorsman tackle shop on the lake.
“Both threadfin and gizzard shad are being found in the backs of creeks early and late and stripers are feeding on small peanut-size threadfin in huge schools near the surface,” Snead told club members. Alewives are another forage available stripers, he said.
BILL
CHANGES FOR SALTWATER TOURNAMNET
It will be easier to catch a citation swordfish or tarpon during the 2008 Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament. The minimum qualifying weight for swordfish will be lowered from 200 to 100 pounds and the minimum release length for a tarpon citation will be shortened from 48 to 36 inches.
These were deemed “minor” adjustments by Lewis Gillingham, tournament director. They are the only changes for 2008.
Only one swordfish has been weighed in the tournament this year (there were 13 releases) and only four tarpon releases were reported.
BILL
OUTDOOR BRIEFS
>>Three former top officials of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries have requested that they be tried together on charges of misusing state funds. Circuit Judge Richard D. Taylor Jr. of Richmond has scheduled a Jan. 3 hearing to consider the requests of former DGIF director William Woodfin and two former senior game wardens, Michael Caison and Terry Bradbery.
>>The NRA is calling its November-launched Web site, www.nrahuntersrights.org, a “new weapon in the battle for hunters’ rights.” The site is designed to keep hunters informed about threats to their sport. Currently the site has a complaint about Virginia’s ban on Sunday hunting and refers to an e-card by PETA that shows Vice President Dick Cheney hunting outside Santa’s workshop. Cheney shoots his companions, complete with blood spatter, not to mention some of Santa’s reindeer.
>>Dan Hoffler, former board chairman of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, has put his 130-acre Eastern Shore waterfront farm and 16,000-square-foot home on the market for $42 million. The Chesapeake Bay property is located near Eastville and the asking price is said to be the highest for any single piece of private property in the history of Northampton County. Hoffler heads Armada Hoffler, a development firm located in Virginia Beach.
BILL
VIRGINIA SALTWATER TOURNAMENT
A 67-pound, 6-ounce striped bass landed from the lower Chesapeake Bay is the new leader for that category in the Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament. It was caught by Donald Riesgraf of Cross Junction.
The December catch knocks on the door of the state record, a 68-pound, 1-ounce giant landed March 4, 2006 by Clay Armstrong of Mechanicsville.
As a rule, the biggest saltwater stripers of the year are landed January through early March along the Atlantic Ocean. Riesgraf’s Bay catch is exceptional.
Here are the tournament standings:
BLACK DRUM: 95 pounds caught by James Tran of Virginia Beach in Lynnhaven Bay.
BLUEFISH: 21 pounds, 5 ounces, Julie Ball, Virginia Beach, off Virginia Beach.
BLUELINE TILEFISH: 20 pound, 7 ounce, Robert Holtz, Virginia Beach, ocean off Virginia Beach.
COBIA: 99 pounds, 8 ounces, Richard Norman, Virginia Beach, off Virginia Coast.
CROAKER: 8 pounds, 11 ounces, Norman Jenkins, Portsmouth, off New Port Light.
DOLPHIN: 53 pounds, 9 ounces, Greg Welch, Charlotte, N.C., ocean off Virginia Beach.
FLOUNDER: 13 pounds, 7 ounces, Dennis Curcio, Philadelphia, Pa., lower eastern Chesapeake Bay.
GRAY TRIGGERFISH: 4 pounds, 10 ounces, Geoffrey Filer, Chesapeake, ocean off Virginia Beach.
GRAY TROUT: 9 pounds, 9 ounces, Claude Shifflett III, Chesapeake, off Virginia Beach.
KING MACKEREL: 63 pounds, 1 ounce, state record, Susan Smith, Virginia Beach, off Virginia Beach.
KINGFISH: 2 pound, 2 ounces, Ben Justis, Parsley, Bradford Bay.
POMPANO: 3 pounds, 5 ounces, Shane Walker, Virginia Beach, lower western Chesapeake Bay.
SEA BASS: 7 pounds, 7 ounces, David Howard, Leesburg, ocean off Virginia Beach.
SHEEPSHEAD: 14 pounds, 8 ounces, Harry Garrett, Newport News, lower-eastern Chesapeake Bay.
SPADEFISH: 14 pounds, Mark Ottarson, North, lower-western Chesapeake Bay.
SPANISH MACKEREL: 6 pounds, 13 ounces, Emmett Boyd, Jr., Charles Town, W.VA. upper-western Chesapeake Bay.
SPECKLED TROUT: 14 pounds, 2 ounces, Michael Whittaker, Chesapeake, Elizabeth River.
SPOT: 1 pound, 14 ounce, Lawrence Tanksley, Chesapeake, off Virginia Beach.
STRIPED BASS: 67 pounds, 6 ounce, Donald Riesgraf, Cross Junction, lower-eastern Chesapeake Bay.
SWORDFISH; 233 pounds, Walter Clark, Virginia Beach, off Virginia Beach.
TAUTOG: 22 pounds, 2 ounce, Lester Johnson, Newport News, off Virginia Beach.
TRUE ALBACORE: 53 pounds, George Wilkinson, Edgewater, Md., off Virginia Beach.
BLUEFIN TUNA: 573 pound state record, Bo Haycox, Virginia Beach, off Virginia Beach.
TUNA: 241 pounds, Eric Kuester, Ashland, off Virginia Beach.
WAHOO: 96 pounds, Robert Manus, off Virginia Beach.
MEETINGS/EVENTS/SEASONS
American Striper Association Pirate’s Cove Marine Striper Tournament, Dec. 27-29, Manteo, N.C. www.fishASA.com.
Smith Mountain Striper Club meeting, Jan. 4, 7 p.m., Moneta Community Center, program on fish finders by Gregg Brown of Sportsman’s Warehouse.
Mid-Atlantic Rockfish Shootout, Jan. 10-12, Virginia Beach, entry fee $499 per team, $100,000 guaranteed payout based on 175 teams, www.MidAtlanticRockfishShootout.com.
Mac Events Boat Show, Jan. 11-13, Greater Richmond Convention Center, information from www.MacEvents.com.
Reopening of western zone Canada goose season, Jan. 15-Feb. 15.
Virginia Boat Show, Jan. 18-20, The Showplace, Richmond, information from www.agievents.com.
Board meeting of Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, 9 a.m., Jan. 22, 4000 W. Broad Street, Richmond.
Richmond Fishing Expo, Jan. 25-27, Richmond Raceway Complex, www.RICHMONDFISHINGEXPO.com.
Meeting of Smith Mountain Striper Club, Feb. 1, 7 p.m., Moneta Community Center, speaker Stu Tinney on the art of the jig.
Fredericksburg Outdoor Show, Fredericksburg Expo Center, Feb. 8-10 Info@woodsandwatersmagazine.com.
Richmond Boat Show, Feb. 14-17, Richmond Raceway Complex, information from www.agievents.com.
Western Virginia Sport Show, Feb. 15-17, Augusta Expoland, Fisherville, www.westernvasportshow.com
The Greater Virginia Sports and Big Game Show, Rockingham County Fairgrounds, Harrisonburg, Feb. 15-17, www.vasportsshow.com
The Virginia Outdoor Sportsmen’s Classic, Feb. 22-24, Roanoke Civic Center, www.vaoutdoorsportsmensclassic.com
Dixie Deer Classic, Feb. 28-March 2, North Carolina State Fairgrounds, Raleigh, www.dixiedeerclassic.org.
National Capital Boat Show, March 7-9, Dulles Expo Center, information from www.agievents.com.
Smith Mountain Striper Club meeting, April 4, 7 p.m., Moneta Community Center, program by Dan Wilson, Department of Game and Inland Fisheries biologist.
Youth spring gobbler day, April 5
Spring gobbler season, April 12-May 17.
Seventh Annual David H. Horne Memorial Hunters for the Hungry Golf Tournament, May 7, Birkdale Golf Course, Richmond, contact Braxton Bell, 804-739-3010.
Twenty-fifth annual Bluefish Derby, June 13 & 14, Reedville, information from Jett’s Hardware, 804-453-5325.
Roanoke Valley Friends of NRA banquet, Oct. 18.
Got an event? Let us know: xtrails@earthlink.net.
