Bill Cochran is a Roanoke Times outdoors columnist.

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Some fishermen are going to need to carry a longer ruler with them beginning July 1, while others can leave their measuring stick at home. It is all part of a bevy of new regulations that become law Saturday.

For a complete list of the changes, check the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries’ Web site, or pick up a hard copy where licenses are sold.

This is the first time new regulations have become effective at mid-season rather than the traditional beginning of the year. What you can do on Friday you can’t do on Saturday.

Here’s a rundown of some of the major changes:

MIGHTY MUSKIE: The minimum-size limit for muskie on the New River and Claytor Lake is going from 30 inches to 42 inches on July 1. That’s huge. It is like comparing a junior-high football player to a pro.

Many serious muskie anglers applaud the new standard. Some would like to have seen the minimum go to 50 inches. A 50-inch muskie will weigh close to 40 pounds while a 40-incher weighs about 15 pounds. As for a 30-incher, that won’t get you bragging rights among serious muskie fishermen. The state record weighed 45 pounds and measured 54.5 inches.

Officials settled on the 42-inch size because anything above that would result in a female-only harvest. Few males make it that size. This could put too much pressure on females and perhaps result in a negative impact on reproduction. The daily limit is one fish.

State officials are happy with the growth rate of New River muskie. It is superior to places like Wisconsin, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, West Virginia, Kentucky, even Ontario.

CAP ON CATS: Right now, you can take a limit of 20 catfish, but beginning July 1 only one blue catfish can be kept that is greater than 32 inches. This is to protect the huge catfish that have become a major success story in the James River and Kerr Lake.

DGIF biologists say the population of big cats in the tidal James River is being exploited, even through many of the guides on the river are preaching catch and release. The new cap should provide protection for the larger catfish and hasten the day when some lucky angler will break the 100-pound mark.

SAVING STRIPERS: Anglers like to think that every fish they release will live to fight another day, but that’s not always the case. Studies reveal that during warm weather periods the survival rate for striped bass can be as little as 20 percent.

With this heart-breaking statistic in mind, biologists have taken the bold step of establishing regulations that encourage anglers at Smith Mountain Lake from July 1-Sept. 30 to keep their limit of two fish daily no matter how small. You might call it a “catch, keep and leave” fishery.

During Oct. 1-May 31, when cold-weather release survival is as high as 70 percent, the emphasis will be on protecting larger striped bass through a slot limit. The limit will be two daily, but no fish between 26 and 36 inches may be kept. The old regulations was two fish daily 20 inches or more.

The Smith Mountain Striper Club expressed opposition to the new regulations, but officers said members would comply and evaluate the results.

At Kerr Lake, where biologists say stripers are being over harvested, the catch limit will be four-per-day of any size June 1-Sept. 30, and two per day Oct. 1-May 31 when no striper less than 26 inches may be kept. The new limits are necessary to improve the quality of striped bass fishing in the lake, officials say.

RIVER BASS: Many anglers can recall when a 20-inch smallmouth bass was considered to be a trophy worthy of hanging on the wall. Beginning July 1, such a fish won’t even be a keeper in the James River. The stream, from the 14th Street Bridge in Richmond upstream will have a 14- to 22-inch slot limit, which means fish in that range will have to be released.

The daily bass limit remains five, but only one fish per day may be kept that is longer than 22 inches.

A 14-to 22-inch slot limit has been in place on a stretch of the river above Arcadia since Jan. 2001, and biologists say it has worked. It fits the new image of smallmouth anglers which stresses trophy fishing rather than catch-and-keep.

Biologists say that the extension of the slot limit should double the number of 20-inch fish in the river. The James River bass are pounded hard. Studies show that a typical bass in the river gets caught 1.5 to 3 times per year. When they reach 16 inches or above the trend has been for anglers to keep them.

A similar limit will be put into place on the New River. There will be a 14- to 16-inch slot limit, and only one fish above 20 inches may be kept.

PHILPOTT WALLEYE: Walleye stockings in Virginia aren’t as widespread as they once were. Officials now concentrate on their success stores, and that includes Flannagan, South Holston and Philpott lakes.

Beginning July 1, Philpott will get a new length limit of 18 inches, which is what Flannagan and South Holston have had. The concept is to protect stocked fish so that they can grow to a larger size before then head for the frying pan.

Stocking rates at Philpott have been increased and walleye fishing has gone from casual to popular. Catch rates have improved. Right now, the fishery is dominated by younger-age classes and smaller sizes. The new limit is designed to push these fish into what biologists call “the quality-preferred size range.”

ANNA EXEMPT: So many largemouth bass anglers practice catch-and-release at Lake Anna that the old slot limit is being dropped and there will be no length limit beginning July 1. The same can be said of Beaverdam Creek, Chesdin and Occoquan reservoirs and the Appomattox River.

Surveys on Anna and Occoquan showed that bass anglers release virtually all the bass they catch, so why have a limit?