Thursday, November 13, 2008
Venison safe to eat
Bill Cochran
Recent field reports
A study in North Dakota by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention showed that deer taken with traditional ammunition poses no health risk to people who consume it. The report discounts recent claims that deer killed with firearms aren’t safe to eat because of unacceptable high levels of lead from the ammunition used.
The recent outcry that venison is tainted with lead, including that distributed by groups like Virginia’s Hunters for the Hungry, was nothing more than a scare tactic being pushed by anti-hunting groups, said CDC.
The CDC study revealed that the hunters tested had lower lead levels than non-hunters who were tested.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation said it was pleased to be able to tell hunters and others that they now can comfortably consume game harvested by traditional ammunition.
“Yet we remain unsettled that for so many months good and safe food was taken out of the mouths of the hungry as nothing more than a political gambit by special interest groups,” said a foundation spokesman.
BILL
BASS RETURNS TO SMITH MOUNTAIN
BASS will be returning its Blue Ridge Brawl to Smith Mountain Lake in 2009 and again in 2010, but with a different twist. It is inviting members of BASS to ride along with the pros during competition in its Bassmaster Elite Series events, not as co-anglers, but as marshals.
The marshals won’t just be getting an up-close look at how the pros fish, but they are there to help ensure the integrity of the tournament, even to report rules violations.
One thing they won’t do is fish. Under the old co-angler system, amateurs fished behind the pros in competition with other amateurs. When they got in the way, it could be a disadvantage to a pro.
Under the new system, each day, marshals will be randomly paired with Elite pros.
Bass members are invited to register to become a marshal online at Bassmaster.com. There is a $100 enrollment fee.
The 2009 Elite Series stop at Smith Mountain Lake is set for April 23-26. The Elite Series has been happy with previous Blue Ridge Brawl events. In 2010, the Smith Mountain event is scheduled for Aug. 12-15, which will be the final Elite tournament of that year, and will occur on the lake at a time when bass fishing can be tough.
BILL
NEW REGULATION FOR SALTWATER STRIPERS
Beginning December 21, the striped bass limit in Virginia’s saltwater will drop from two fish to one daily. That fish must be on either side of the 28-to-34 inch no-take slot limit.
The 11-day, one-fish restricted period is shorter than last December, when it lasted for 22 days. Even so, the Coastal Conservation Association of Virginia isn’t all that happy with the regulation passed by the Virginia Marine Resources Commission.
“CCA VA would have preferred a two-fish limit throughout the month of December,” the organization said in a release. The association gave two reasons:
>The 2007 striper harvest was 1 million pounds below target.
>Fishing pressure has lessened due to increased fuel prices and an uncertain economy.
The striper limit in the ocean remains the same, two fish per person with a minimum 28-inch size limit.
The current daily Bay limit, through Dec. 20, allows either two striped bass per person with a minimum length of 18 inches and a maximum length of 28 inches or one fish 18 to 28 inches and one fish over 34 inches. No fish may be kept between 28 and 34 inches.
BILL
OUTDOOR BRIEFS
>>Michael Clark has been promoted to the rank of major in the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries law enforcement division. He joined DGIF as a game warden (now called conservation police officer) in 1978 and his previous assignment was supervisor of law enforcement in an 11-county region of the Shenandoah Valley.
>>The Coastal Conservation Association has expressed concern over two applications received by the Virginia Marine Resources Commission for additional pound nets in the Lynnhaven-Cape Henry area of Virginia Beach. There are five existing nets in the area, and additional ones could have a negative impact on the public use of the water, CCA said in a statement.
>>A 52-inch landlocked striped bass, believed to be the largest every caught in California, could not be certified as a California record or IGFA world record because it was weighed on an uncertifiable spring scale. Those scales showed the fish to weigh just over 70 pounds. The existing California record is 67 pounds, 8 ounces. IGFA is using the incident to underscore the importance of making sure catches are weighed on certified scales.
>>Fall striped bass anglers fishing chum lines in the Chesapeake Bay have been dealing with tons of bluefish which outrace the stripers to grab baits. “One day we had over 100 blues and no stripers,” said charter boat skipper Capt. Ferrell McLain. Cooler water has meant less competition from the blues and improved striper catches.
BILL
SALTWATER FISHING TOURNAMENT
The Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament has posted new leaders in the bluefish, kingfish and speckled trout categories. Here are the standings:
BLACK DRUM: 87 pounds, 3 ounces, Paul Elliott, Surry, Latimer Shoals (C-2 Buoy).
BLUEFISH: 20 pounds, 5 ounces, Mark Sebastian, Rising Sun, Md., Triangle Wrecks.
BLUEFIN TILEFISH: 19 pounds, 9 ounces, Sidney Long, Jr., Branchville, Norfolk Canyon.
COBIA: 94 pounds, 6 ounces, Wesley Smith, Virginia Beach, Bluefish Rock.
CROAKER: 4 pounds, 14 ounces, B.W. Wild, Virginia Beach, Lynnhaven Inlet.
DOLPHIN: 66 pounds, Todd Conner, Midlothian, Norfolk Canyon.
FLOUNDER: 13 pounds, 9 ounces, Christopher Mounie, Suffolk, Third Island of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.
GRAY TRIGERFISH: 5 pounds, 8 ounces, Nick Wright, Virginia Beach, inshore waters of Virginia Beach.
GRAY TROUT: 9 pounds, 8 ounces, Joseph Hudgins, Jr., Chesapeake, Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel (4th island).
KING MACKEREL, 62 pounds, 3 ounces, James McDonald, Virginia Beach, Sandbridge Pier.
KINGFISH: 2 pounds, 10 ounces, Kenneth Godsey, Norfolk, Sandbridge Pier.
POMPANO: 2 pounds, 8 ounces, Ron Pennington, Annandale, Kiptopeak Pier.
SEA BASS: 7 pounds, 8 ounces, Reggie Myrick, Portsmouth, wreck off Virginia Beach.
SHEEPSHEAD: 14 pounds, 5 ounces, Kay Alley, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. .
SPADEFISH: 14 pounds, 1 ounce, Josh Durvin, Dunnsville, The Cell.
SPANISH MACKEREL: 6 pounds, Alfred Simpson, Virginia Beach, Sandbridge Pier.
SPECKLED TROUT: 10 pounds, F.H. Ashberry, Poquoson, Fort Monroe.
SPOT: 1 pound, 8 ounces, Michael Whittaker, Chesapeake, 664 Bridge-Tunnel.
STRIPED BASS: 73 pounds, state record, Frederick Barnes, Chesapeake, off Virginia Beach.
SWORDFISH: 190 pounds, Aaron Peckham, Virginia Beach, Norfolk Canyon.
TAUTOG: 20 pounds, 6 ounces, Michael Shreve, Glen Burnie, Md., Monroe Wreck.
TUNA, BLUEFIN: 226 pounds, Kim Schwallenberg, Edgewater, Md., off Wachapreague.
TUNA: 305 pounds, Rick Wyatt, Norfolk, Norfolk Canyon.
YAHOO: 69 pounds, Brian Davis, Virginia Beach, Norfolk Canyon.
MEETINGS/EVENTS/SEASONS
George Washington National Forest workshop on vegetation management, Nov. 13, 6:30-9 p.m., Augusta County Government Center, Verona.
General firearm’s deer season opens Nov. 15.
George Washington National Forest workshop on vegetation management, Dec. 3, 6:30-9 p.m., Rockbridge High School, Lexington, wildlife habitat improvement, timber harvest, prescribed fire will be discussed.
Fifteenth annual Benefit Rockfish Tournament, Dec. 6. sponsored by Coastal Conservation Association, Norview Marine, Deltaville, $225 per boat entry fee, top prize $5,000, tournament forms and rules from ccavirginia.org.
Virginia Outdoor Sportsmen’s Classic, Roanoke Civic Center, Jan. 30-Feb. 1, 2009, vaoutdoorsportsmensclassic.com.
Youth spring turkey hunting day, April 4, 2009.
2009 spring gobbler season, April 11-May 16.
Got an event? Let us know: xtrails@earthlink.net.
