By Mark Taylor

Archives Reprint

    Virginia's most coveted saltwater fishing record has fallen.

    Virginia Beach angler Carolyn Brown landed the state's largest ever striped bass in late January. The 63-pound fish was certified as a record last week.

    Brown's gigantic bass was 50 inches long and had a girth of 33.25 inches. It topped a 61-pound, 12-ounce fish boated by James Muse in 1996.

    The catch bore out predictions from many saltwater fishing experts that a new striper record was inevitable. A couple of booming spawning years in the early 1980s put a lot of stripers into the Atlantic system, and experts have said those record fish are reaching record size - it was just a matter of a fisherman finally hooking into one.

    Brown is no rookie. She's a fishing fanatic who annually is one of the state's top saltwater trophy anglers.

    On Jan.30, she was fishing with charter captain Larry Mattocks aboard the Fishateer. They were trolling double-lure rigs off Currituck, N.C., when the big fish hit.

    After a fight of about 15 minutes, Brown found that she was battling two fish. The smaller of the two was a 25-pounder that hit the rig's Mojo lure; the record-breaker had nailed the 9-inch Storm plastic bait trailer.

    Not armed with a landing net, Mattocks brought the larger striper aboard by sliding it through the boat's stern door.

    Even though the fish was caught off the North Carolina coast, it was deemed a Virginia record because that's where the trip originated and ended.

    Sunday hunting

   efforts fail

    Proposed legislation to overturn Virginia's ban on Sunday hunting is dead, and it wasn't even close.

    To varying extents three separate bills sought to overturn the ban. All were crushed in recent days.

    Virginia legislators obviously remain cautious about going up against religious leaders, and against nonhunting recreationists who appreciate hunter-free woods for half of every weekend.

    House Bill 338, which would have made a Sunday hunting exception for young hunters during the federally designated youth waterfowl weekend, was the first to go, unanimously killed in committee.

    House Bill 442, which would have completely overturned the ban, was also killed in committee, by a vote of 22-1.

    A Senate committee unanimously voted to carry over until 2005 Senate Bill 175, which would have allowed hunting after noon on Sundays.

    The continued failure of Sunday hunting-related legislation has led some critics of the ban to theorize that the best chance to overturn the ban is to pursue the issue in the courts.

    To track the status of hunting-, fishing- and boating-related bills, see dgif.state.va.us/info/2004Legislation.html. The site isn't updated very often but provides easy links to the legislature's site, which is updated regularly.

    Weyer takes

   Bassmaster win

    Californian Charlie Weyer won this past weekends CITGO Bassmaster Tour stop at Alabama's Smith Lake. The victory earned Weyer $101,000 - the $100,000 first-prize money and a bonus grand for catching the big bass on the tournament's final day.

    Rick Morris of Virginia Beach was the final qualifier for the six-man finals but caught only one bass on the final day and didn't move up any places. He won $14,000.

    Alex Sowell of Altavista was eighth in the tournament's amateur division, winning $1,900.

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