Thursday, November 12, 2009
Bill Cochran's Field Reports: Blueline tilefish record finally verified
Bill Cochran is a Roanoke Times outdoors columnist.
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Michael Adkins with record blueline tilefish.
On June 28, angling buddies Kenneth Bowe and Michael Adkins were fishing the Norfolk Canyon, well off Virginia Beach, dropping baits 400 feet to blueline tilefish.
This deep-dropping fishing, for species the average angler knows little about, is new to Virginia and is growing in popularity. It wasn’t until 2006 that the Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament made a spot for the blueline tilefish in the citation and record book.
On their late June outing, Bowe, who lives in Chester, hooked and landed a 20-pound, 10-ounce state record blueline tilefish. Adkins netted it.
Six days later, July 4, they were back. This time Adkins, from Sutherland, hooked and landed the big fish of the day and Bowe netted it. This blueline tilefish topped Bowe’s catch, mashing the scales to 23 pound, 5 ounce.
It wasn’t until last week, four months later, that Adkins fish was verified as a state record.
When asked why it had taken so long to acknowledge the record, Lewis Gillingham, director of the state-sponsored tournament, said there never was any question about the legality of the catch. There were a number of glitches in the verification process; however, no little one was the fact that Adkins wasn’t all that excited about filing for a record. Maybe he was reluctant to unseat his friend in the record book, Gillingham said.
In addition, the two anglers appeared to be convinced that they could go out most any time and catch an even bigger one. No big deal.
BILL
GOOD TO HAVE A HUNTER IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
I ran across a Roanoke Times clipping of a story I wrote more than 20 years ago about the Humble Harvest Hunt Club in Craig County.
This was the first club west of the Blue Ridge that bought into the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries’ Deer Management Assistance Program, now a popular tool to help landowners and hunt clubs produce quality deer.
The article features a number of outdoor legends: the late Leonard Muse, who was a wonderful advocate of hunting and sport shooting; Pete Bromley, a wildlife research biologist who know lives in North Carolina; and Lanier Frantz, who owns the property the club hunts and who is an example of how land should be managed for wildlife.
One of the pictures accompanying my article showed Bill Cleaveland in a tree stand watching for a buck in a swath of young forest.
If the name Bill Cleaveland sounds familiar, it should. He is the Roanoke lawyer who earlier this month won a seat in the General Assembly as representative of the 17th District. It was the first run for public office by Cleaveland, a Republican, who won by a commanding margin.
It always is a positive for sportsmen to have a representative with long-time interest in the outdoors, and who is an advocates of gun and hunting rights. Cleaveland should prove to be a welcome advocate of those who enjoy hunting and fishing.
BILL
OUTDOOR BRIEFS:
- Should handicapped anglers be given special status in the Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament? Are those big trout in the Elizabeth River, where so many citations are caught during the winter months, in need of special management measures? These are two major agenda items for the Tournament Committee to discuss during its meeting Nov. 18, 7 p.m. in Newport News (2600 Washington Ave.) The public is welcome.
- The Virginia Outdoor Writers Association has announced its 17th annual High School Writing Contest for 2010. The VOWA invites high school students in public and private schools and home schooled to submit essays on outdoor subjects. Winning entries will be worth prizes and lunch with VOWA members in Charlottesville March 17. There also is a VOWA contest for collegiate undergraduates that a number of universities are promoting. More information from vowa.org.
- Bruce Stanton, a special fried of mine who works for the lure manufacturer Pradco, fished Lake Falcon on the Texas-Mexico border last week and caught a 9-pound 12-ounce largemouth bass. During the final two hours of fishing, he caught two bass more than 9 pounds, two over 8 pounds and one over 7 pounds. His fishing partner, BASS pro Alton Jones, caught one bass over 10 pounds and two over 9. They all were hooked on Fat Free Shads. “It was the best bass fishing I’ve ever done,” said Stanton.
- Spike Knuth, wildlife artist from Richmond, passed along the following clipping from an unidentified newspaper that said: “To all you hunters who kill animals for food, shame on you; you ought to go to the store and buy the meat that was made there, where no animals were harmed.”
BILL
VIRGINIA SALTWATER FISHING TOURNAMENT
A 5-pound, 2-ounce gray triggerfish is a new leader in the Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament. Here are the standings.
BLACK DRUM: 84 pounds, 12 ounces, William Brown, Hampton, Inner Middle Ground; C-13
BLUELINE TILEFISH: 20 pounds, 10 ounces, Kenneth Bowe, Chester, Norfolk Canyon.
COBIA: 105 pounds, 8 ounces, Wes Blow, Newport News, lower Chesapeake Bay.
CROAKER: 5 pounds, 3 ounces, Nathan Clendenin, Richmond, lower York River. .
DOLPHIN: 39 pounds, Robert Manus, Ark, Triple Zero’s.
FLOUNDER: 12 pounds, 12 ounce, Mike Perron, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.
GRAY TRIGGERFISH: 5 pounds, 2 ounce, Ben Shepherd, Chesapeake, Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.
KING MACKEREL: 33 pounds, 1 ounce, Ed Cromwell Jr., Virginia Beach, inshore waters off Virginia Beach.
KINGFISH: 1 pound, 12 ounces, Bill Pope, Norfolk, Sandbridge Pier.
POMPANO: 2 pounds, 6 ounces, Ben Shepherd, Chesapeake, First Island of Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.
SEA BASS: 8 pounds, 4 ounces, Wei Zhohg Zheng, Saranac, N.Y., Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.
SHEEPHEAD: 17 pounds, 14 ounces, Wei Zhong Zhen, Saranac, N.Y., Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.
SPADEFISH: 14 pounds, 14 ounces, state record, Roland Murphy, Fredericksburg, the Cell.
SPANISH MACKEREL: 7 pounds, 2 ounces, Sophia Vella, The Plains, Great Wicomico River.
SPECKLED TROUT: 13 pounds, 14 ounces, Michael Whittaker, Chesapeake, Elizabeth River.
SPOT: 1 pound, 2 ounces, Chris Brooks, Virginia Beach, Elizabeth River.
STRIPED BASS: 66 pounds, 8 ounces, Pete Johnson, Hampton, Smith Island.
TAUTOG: 21 pounds, 13 ounces, Skip Feller, Virginia Beach, wreck off Virginia Beach.
TUNA (BLUEFIN): 168 pounds, Paulette Johnson, Uniontown, Ohio, 100 Fathom off Virginia Beach.
TUNA: 230 pounds, Jeff Creekmore, Chesapeake, Norfolk Canyon.
WAHOO: 72 pounds, 4 ounce, Lonnie Brock, Virginia Beach, 100 Fathom off Virginia Beach.
MEETINGS/EVENTS/SEASONS
Firearm’s deer season November 14.
Youth Deer Hunting Workshop, Nov. 21, sponsored by the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and the Bedford County Economic Development Authority, information from 434-525-7522.
Smith River Trout Unlimited meeting, Dec. 3, 6:30 p.m. at Rania’s Restaurant in Martinsville, program by Scott Smith, Department of Game and Inland Fisheries’ biologist on the Smith River fishery, guests welcome, meals available, information from Al Kittredge or smithrivertu.com.
Youth Rabbit Hunting Workshop, December 5, Bedford County, sponsored by the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries Outdoor Education Program, contact Jimmy Mootz.
Youth Deer Hunting Workshop, Claytor Lake, Dec. 18 and 19, information from Jimmy Mootz.
Youth spring turkey hunt day, April 3, 2010.
Spring gobbler season, April 10-May 15, 2010.
BASS Elite Blue Ridge Brawl, April 15-18, Smith Mountain Lake.
North Carolina State University Sport Fishing School, May 30-June 3, 2010, Hatteras, N.C.
Got an event? Let us know: xtrails@earthlink.net.
