Bill Cochran is a Roanoke Times outdoors columnist.

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Bill Cochran's Outdoors

Recent columns

• Hunters and anglers still in the conservation business
• Drum fishing on Virginia’s Coast comes in two colors
• Elk advocate finally gets his day
• Turkeys are plentiful, so why are hunting regulations so tight fisted?
• Column archive

Bill's Mailbag

• Remembering A. Willis Robertson
• Putting down a bear cub brings complaint
• Mail archive

Bill's Field Reports

• Eagles are up; black rail are down
• A. Willis Robertson great name for new DGIF headquarters
• Field reports archive

Resources

• Trout stocking schedule

BILL: I read your column on tarpon on the Eastern Shore. We would see them out there pounding the flats while flounder fishing. Now that I’ve hooked up with one while on vacation in Belize, I now feel the need to catch one in Virginia. I have put that on my list to accomplish.

Who would be a good person to contact to get the ball rolling on this exploit?

SCOTT: Jack Brady would be your man. Most tarpon fishermen in Virginia will go out of their way to keep secret their fishing spots and techniques. But Brady is a fishing guide, working out of Oyster on the southern end of the Eastern Shore. He is in his 70s and has guided in the region since age 16. He is credited with catching 300 tarpon the past 40 years. That ranks him as one of the top tarpon anglers in Virginia.

Brady is a delight to fish with, and his fee is reasonable at a time when guide fees have gone sky high. He also is an excellent choice for drum, striper, flounder and croaker trips on the seaside of Eastern Shore. He can be reached at (757) 331-2111.

BILL: Illegal fishing is certainly annoying, but I wonder how much of a problem it is today. The few times I fished the upper, special-regulations section of the Smith River this year, I saw no signs of illegal activity as I remember from years back. There were no forked sticks or bait containers on the banks around the big pools.

On one visit more than 20 years ago, I returned home with a nice spinning outfit that I found propped on a stick next to what we called the “Log Pool.” The grip was still warm when I found it!

It is good to hear that the anglers on the Smith are working with biologists Smith and LaRoche. The Smith remains one of my favorite rivers. As we've said for years, the Smith is like an old mistress; you know exactly what to expect when you visit her -- very few surprises.

Don't get me wrong, the river is certainly dynamic, which brings me to the next point. With issues like dealing with the Didymo and implementing the recommendations of the Virginia Tech study, where does poaching fall in the hierarchy?

I really wish I had the time and energy to fight for the Smith, but I don't. Those of us that enjoy the resource have to hand the ball to those like Kittredge, and we truly appreciate their efforts. I raise my glass to those keepers of the Smith; I just hope they don't get burned out on what might be minutia.

Penn Riggs' citation-size shellcrackers.

BILL: Here is a picture of a couple of shellcrackers caught at Lake Prince. The little one was 1 pound, 1 ounce; the big one 1 pound, 15 ounces. I caught them on earthworms 12-feet deep.

I took Monday off work to go fishing on my birthday. First trip this year. The interesting part is that my outboard motor wouldn't start, and I had to fish places that I would have otherwise driven right by.

There's one new place that I won't be riding by next time. The tough part is finding miniature newspapers to exaggerate the size of the fish!