Bill Cochran is a Roanoke Times outdoors columnist.

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The BASS Elite Series, which is the big leagues of BASS angling, will attract many of the world’s top-name anglers to Smith Mountain Lake for a tournament June 7-10, 2007.

This will be the first Elite event for the lake, and will be called the Blue Ridge Brawl.

Smith Mountain was site of a Northern Open tournament in 2004 and a couple of BASS Federation Championships years ago, but nothing ever as big as an Elite tournament. The series is a major vehicle for qualifying for the BASS Classic.

A second Northern Open tournament has been scheduled for the 20,000-acre lake this fall, Oct. 26-28. The first one received good marks from contestants, BASS officials, spectators and businesses in the region. It wasn’t long ago that BASS was saying Smith Mountain didn’t have the size or facilities for major tournaments.

The 11-event Elite Series will take anglers to Texas, California, Georgia, Alabama, Virginia, Oklahoma, New York, Maryland and Florida and will be covered by ESPN2. It will attract past Bassmaster Classic champs, Angler of the Year winners and other high-profile names in the bass fishing world, people who have earned more than $1 million casting for cash.

The Elite event will hit the post spawn and the beginning of the summer boating season, which could mean challenging fishing. And look for crowds of spectators, which could mean that parking spaces might be as difficult to find as bass.

Those crowds and the publicity mean money to the local economy, and that’s why Bedford and Franklin County each contributed $25,000 to lure the tournament to their shores.

THE GRANDPA OF HUNTING SHOWS

If it has anything to do with deer and deer hunting, chance are you will see it at the Virginia Outdoor Sportsman Show. In its 23 season, this is the granddaddy hunting show in Virginia, the jumpstart of the annual hunting seasons.

It is set for Aug. 11-13 at the Showplace in Richmond. Information can be found on sportsmanshow.com.

Turkeys also will be featured, and so will waterfowl. Sponsored by the Virginia Deer Hunters Association, the show is expected to have more than 280 booths full of hunting supplies, bows, treestands, muzzleloaders, crossbows, calls, clothing, accessories -- you name it. There even will be clowns -- Dimples and Honee-Be -- for the kids.

The Show will highlight the NRA Great American Whitetail Collection and a wall full of trophy Virginia deer that are part of the Virginia Deer Classic.

There will be other contests, including the Virginia State Turkey Calling Championship and the Virginia State Championship Duck Calling Contest.

Seminars will be conducted by David Blanton of the Realtree Monster Bucks video series; Wayne Carlton, who can call everything from elk to alligator, and Jerry “Dad” White, a turkey call maker who invites hunters to bring their box call for him to tune.

Tickets are $9 a day or $15 for the weekend. Children under 15 enter fee with a paying adult.

VIRGINIA YOUTH HAUL HARDWARE HOME

Posting six team wins, including two national championships, Virginia youth dominated the Scholastic Clay Target Program National Skeet and Sporting Clays Championship the past weekend in Rochester, N.Y. That was two more wins than their nearest rivals, Arizona and Georgia.

The competition attracted 217 shooters and revealed some emerging talent from across the country. In skeet, 31 youngsters hit 190 or more targets out of 200. Five shooters posted scores of 197 or better.

The Virginia Timber Ridge Claybusters bested their closest opponent in skeet by 29 targets to win the Junior Novice Division Championship. Corbin Headley of Lively, Jacob Lawson of Skipwith and Daniel Foster of Drake Branch together hit 557 of 600 targets.

“These boys shot awesome,” said their coach, Jeff Atkins. “They worked very hard and came together this weekend. All three of them are very close. They’re like brothers. If one of them gets down, the other two pick him up. They really just have a love for the sport.”

In sporting clays, the Virginia Old Dominion 4-H Shur Shots won the junior novice division title by four targets. Robert Kline of Edinburg, Rooster Watson of Blackstone and Lawson Philpy of Mechanicsville had a team score of 493.

WHEN YOU GOTTA GO

Where does a boater find relief when he or she is aboard a craft that does not have a head? Well, there may soon be a new option.

The Virginia Department of Heath has a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to provide 28 new pump-out stations on the state’s waterways and some of the money will be used for bathrooms on a barge designed for boaters on craft without a head.

Smith Mountain Lake and the Hampton Rhodes area are being eyed as potential barge-bath facilities, but it will take some local matching funds for the get the barges afloat.

OUTDOOR BRIEFS

The Department of Game and Inland Fisheries this week closed its application period in its search for a new executive director. The agency is scheduled to announce its choice of new director in October. Col. Gerald Massengill has been serving as interim director for the agency since May 24, 2005.

>Generating activities at Philpott Dam normally are quiet on weekends, but last weekend and for the next eight, look for some water to roar through the turbines into the Smith River. This is part of a Corps of Engineers test to determine if weekend generation will improve the downstream trout habitat. Releases may vary, so anglers are advised to call 276-629-2432 for the latest update.

>John Crews of Salem is among the 55 anglers who have earned their way into the prestigious Bassmaster American sponsored by Advanced Auto Parts on Lake Wylie in Charlotte, N.C. July 27-30. ESPN2 will offer same-day coverage at 7 p.m. July 30. The event has attracted many of the big names in tournament fishing.

>Mac Grisso loved the outdoors and dedicated much of his time to making it easier and safer for others to do the same. The Roanoke County sportsman taught boat safety as an officer of the Coast Guard Auxiliary and was active in the promotion of snowmobiling in Virginia and West Virginia. You’d seem him at many duck, turkey, elk and NRA fund raisers. He died last week at the age of 77.

>Environmental groups this week field a lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in an effort to stop a proposed water-supply impoundment in King William County. The permit issued last November for the 1,526-acre site on the Mattaponi River violates The Clean Water Act and other environmental acts, the groups said.

>Some 800 waterfowl and an equal number of shorebirds are scheduled to be tested for avian influenza in and along the Eastern Shore, the Chesapeake Bay and the rivers of Eastern Virginia. The initial target will be mute swans in August, a species scientists consider to be the most susceptible should the disease reach Virginia.

>Gov. Tim Kaine has appointed Jack Travelstead of Toano to serve as Deputy Commissioner of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. Travelstead has served as chief of the Fisheries Management Division at VMRC, a position he will retain, and has served as the state’s representative to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council. He has been at VMRC for 25 years.

>The 20th edition of the Western Virginia Sports Show at Augusta Expoland in Fisherville will proceed as it has the past 19 years. Only the Feb. 16-18 event will be bigger and better than ever, promises its promoter, Mark Hanger. Hanger has been dealing with rumors that the show won’t return. He credits them to a couple of disgruntled exhibitors who were asked not to return because they didn’t meet show standards.

>Virginia Game Warden John Cobb has received the inaugural Quality Deer Management Association Wildlife Officer of the Year Award for his consistent enforcement work over the past decade.

>Sometimes birds of a different feather do flock together. The National Wild Turkey Federation has donated $10,000 to help fight the anti-hunting effort in Michigan that has put the state’s dove season up for a vote in November.

>About 2,000 Fred Bear F-Series and Outfitters Compound crossbows have been recalled because of a faulty trigger mechanism. For more information, write safetyinfo@escaladesports.com.

>Ducks Unlimited has signed an agreement with the U.S. Army to help conserve wetlands and associated habitat on the Army’s 16.5 million acres of land.

>Lure maker and professional fisherman Gary Yamamoto and his wife, Beverly, were guests of President Bush at the White House during a welcome ceremony and dinner for Japan’s Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Gary came to the event directly from a FLW tournament in New York.

>Bicyclists can expect to be chased, and even bitten, by dogs. But by a bobcat? That happened along a popular cycling tail in Pennsylvania. Authorities say the cat was suffering the effects of rabies.

SALTWATER FISHING TOURNAMENT

The first king mackerel of the season has been registered in the Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament and there is a new entry in the dolphin category. Here are the standings for non-release catches:

BLACK DRUM: 83 pounds, 13 ounces, Charles Porter, Birdsnest, caught at Oyster Bay.

COBIA: 109 pound pending state record, Joseph Berberich II, Hayes, lower-western Chesapeake Bay.

CROAKER: 4 pounds, David West, Deltaville, upper-eastern Chesapeake Bay.

DOLPHIN: 49 pounds, Tony Birch, Atlanta, Ga., off Virginia Beach.

FLOUNDER: 13 pounds, 4 ounces, Andrea Minio, Newark, De., lower-eastern Chesapeake Bay.

GRAY TRIGGERFISH: 4 pounds, 15 ounces, Phillip Gaskins, Chesapeake, lower-eastern Chesapeake Bay.

GRAY TROUT: 12 pounds, 4 ounces, Marvin Williams III, Virginia Beach off Virginia Beach.

KING MACKEREL: 20 pounds, 8 ounces, Raymond Koelsch, off Eastern Shore.

KINGFISH: 2 pounds, 2 ounces, Any Backowski, Chesapeake, off Virginia Beach.

SEA BASS: 7 pounds, 2 ounces, Steve Harding, Norfolk, off Virginia Beach.

SHEEPSHEAD: 16 pounds, Walter Scott, Smithfield, lower western Chesapeake Bay.

SPADEFISH: 14 pound state record, Austin Edwards, Powhatan, Cell in the Chesapeake Bay.

SPECKLED TROUT: 12 pounds, 1 ounce, Barclay Shepard, Poquoson, Elizabeth River.

SPOT: 1 pound, 4 ounces, Michael Mihalcoe, Gloucester, lower York River. .

STRIPED BASS: 68 pounds, 1 ounce state record, Clay Armstrong, Mechanicsville, off Virginia Beach.

TAUTOG: 18 pounds, 1 ounce, Paul Hurtubise, McGaheysville, off Virginia Beach.

TUNA, BLUEFIN: 158 pounds, 4 ounces, Lee Slagle, Annapolis, Md., off Eastern Shore.

TUNA: 260 pounds, John Travers, Damascus, Md., off Eastern Shore.

WAHOO: 83 pounds, William Cooke II, Virginia Beach, off Virginia Beach.

MEETINGS/EVENTS/SEASONS

NRA Whittingon Adventure Camp for youngsters, July 25, for two weeks, teaches shooting and traditional outdoor sports, information from info@nrawc.org.

Virginia Outdoor Sportsman Show, sponsored by the Virginia Deer Hunters Association, Aug. 11-13, Mechanicsville, information from sportsmanshow.com.

Smith Mountain Lake Classic and Antique Boat Society Show, The Point at Mariners Landing, Aug. 11 & 12, woodenboats.net.

New River Valley Chapter of National Wild Turkey Federation banquet, Aug. 12, 5:30 pm., Custom Catering, Blacksburg, information from Glenn Carroll, 540-552-1580.

Belvoir Bowhunters 3D Tournament to benefit Hunters for the Hungry, Aug. 13, information from Bob Foster, 703-758-5540.

Department of Game and Inland Fisheries board meeting, Aug. 22, 4000 W. Broad St., Richmond.

National Hunting and Fishing Day, Sept. 23.

Department of Game and Inland Fisheries board meeting, Oct. 17, 4000 W. Broad St., Richmond.

Bassmaster Northern Open, Smith Mountain Lake, Oct. 26-28, information on bassmaster.com.

Department of Game and Inland Fisheries board meeting, Dec. 12, 4000 W. Broad St., Richmond.

Western Virginia Sports Show, Augusta Expoland, Fisherville, Feb. 16-18.

BASS Elite Series, June 7-10, 2007, Smith Mountain Lake, information on bassmaster.com.

Got an event? Let us know: xtrails@earthlink.net.