Friday, September 05, 2008
Waterfowl regulations announced
Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor's Outdoors column and notebook appears regularly in The Roanoke Times.
Recent columns
The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries has finalized dates for the upcoming general waterfowl seasons.
Among the few changes are an increase in the daily bag limit for wood ducks and decreases in limits for a couple of species of diving ducks.
As usual, the waterfowl season will be split into three segments. The first segment, during which resident wood ducks and mallards are the primary species, will be Oct. 9-13. The other segments are Nov. 15-29 and Dec. 6-Jan. 24. Youth waterfowl day will be Oct. 25.
The overall bag limit remains five. The daily limit of wood ducks has been increased to three. Other species-specific regulations include a limit of four mallards, of which only two may be hens, and two redheads.
Canvasbacks, a species whose numbers have been in decline, have been added to the list of ducks which no longer may be taken. Harlequin ducks also remain off limits. Black ducks are off limits during the first season. The black duck limit is one during the rest of the season.
The scaup limit has also been reduced. The limit will be one until Jan. 2, after which it becomes two for the remainder of the season.
Dates and limits also have been established for Canada geese.
West of Interstate 95, the season will be in two segments: Nov. 15-29 and Dec. 15 through Feb. 14. The bag limit is three per day through Jan. 14, and five per day from Jan. 15 through the end of the season.
The seasons east of I-95 are Nov. 15-29 and Dec. 19-Jan. 24, with a limit of two.
While shooting hours have been liberalized for the resident Canada goose season in September, shooting hours for the later seasons are from 30 minutes before sunrise to sunset.
The department also set the Tundra Swam dates as Dec. 1 through Jan. 31. The agency will issue no more than 600 swan permits through a lottery. The application deadline is Oct. 3
Another grouper record
The Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament has approved a 68-pound snowy grouper as a state record.
Jere Humphrey of Norfolk caught the fish on Aug. 17 while deep-dropping near the Norfolk Canyon.
Chris Boyce of Hampton had the previous record with a 66-pound fish caught in December 2007.
Boyce's fish is the existing International Game Fish Association all-tackle world record for the species, but Humphrey is filing for his fish to be recognized as the record.
--Mark Taylor
