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Bill Cochran

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Walt Hampton with last-day buck.

BILL: Jack Atcheson once told me that the last day (of the deer season) was the best day, and to not give up until the last hour was over. He was right.

On the last day of the muzzleloading season I was lucky enough to encounter a nice buck in Grayson County. I used a Savage M10 smokeless powder muzzleloader to take him at about 125 yards through timber.

Not bad for an old fat man, eh?

WALT: The last day did not treat me as kindly. I could blame it on not being old and fat enough, but I would lie.

BILL: I particularly enjoyed your latest article on the joy of the hunting experience itself. I couldn't agree more. I just posted my annual deer season recap and thought you might enjoy it: virginia-outdoors.com/articles/2008hunting.html.

BILL: I know the striped bass season has closed (Dec. 31) in the Chesapeake Bay, but there still are plenty of fish along the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. Is it legal to fish for them if you turn them back? And if I were to catch a release citation, could I enter it in the Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament?

D.L.: I ran your question by Lewis Gillingham, director of the tournament. He said that catch-and-release fishing is not encouraged during the Bay’s closed season, because of concern over hooking and handling mortality; however, it is not illegal.

“Striped bass caught and released during the closed period in the Bay are eligible for release citations,” he said.

Be aware that it is illegal to target striped bass in federal water, 3 to 200 miles offshore. Striped bass from that closed area, known as the EEZ, are not eligible for release citations.

Most of the citation catches currently are being taken along the Virginia coast, where the season is open to fishing from the shoreline out to 3 miles. Take care not to catch stripers here then go to the Bay to fish or you will be ticketed for illegal possession of stripers, Gillingham said.

Jim Duffy with kayak catch.

BILL: Here is my end of the season report on my Chesapeake Bay striped bass kayak fishing:

I arrived at the concrete ships at Kiptopeke State Park on the Eastern Shore on the afternoon of Dec. 29 and I was ready to get on the water at sunset. Well, I am about to drag my “Ride 135” kayak down to the beach and Jim Duffy from Lynchburg comes running up saying that he had a big striper and needed some pictures taken. I go down to the beach to measure the fish and it went 44 inches in length and had a 29-inch girth.

So I finally get into the water after a whole bunch of back slapping and hand shaking over what was Duffy’s first Kiptopeke stripers and the biggest fish he had ever taken while fishing off his kayak.

He told me that he had been at Kiptopeke for three or four days and the water was almost glass smooth and the tide was just bout to start coming back.

I am joined by a young man named Kemarin Kim, a student at Old Dominion University who is a resident of Newport News. We took off and drifted our eels along the ships, just barely gliding along, pausing in the alley ways between the ships in hopes of a hook up.

We made it down to the end of the southern group of ships and we split up, Kim going to fish the nearby pound-net poles and I went back up the other side of the ships with the tide providing propulsion so I only had to steer.

About 30 minutes later here comes Kim. He wanted some pictures taken of the 43-inch striper he had caught around the net poles. He was very excited. Not only was this his first striper, it was the biggest fish he had ever caught.

I was not as lucky. The wind started blowing and gusting pretty hard in the same direction as the incoming tide, which made for a really rough time. I tried to get on a fish along the net poles, but it was just too rough, so I went in like all the other kayakers.

I took my stuff over to my truck and got prepared to stay the night in the “Silverado Motel.” I was hoping that the blow would pass by overnight and I would fish the ships again in the morning. No such luck. At 5 a.m. the wind was still blowing pretty good and for me it was onto Plan B. I would fish the Hampton Rhodes Bridge Tunnel on the way back to Roanoke.

I got over to Wiloughby Ramp and hit the water at sundown and paddle around to the bridge. The wind was calm and there were no other kayakers to be found. There were no birds, either and I felt that to be a bad sign. I fished my way out to the island and not one strike.

Well, about 7:45 p.m. the birds started coming and my confidence spiked. I stared looking for diving/feeding birds which would indicate schools of feeding fish, but the birds mainly were gathering on the water just hanging out. I did manage two hookups, one came off; the other was a 19-inch fish. This finished my first Chesapeake Bay striper season.