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Thanks to everyone who has sent in trailcam shots. I've got a decent backlog of them and will try to get them up over the next couple of days.

I love this picture. Not only does it show the gobbler really well, but it appears this is just set up on a path, rather than over a bait pile.

I realize that putting out bait can be a great way to get game cam shots. And it's legal (at least until Sept. 1).

A problem I see with bait is that it doesn't offer a fair representation of what's out there because it's causing artificial movement. Once the bait is gone, the deer (or turkeys) will move on.

Another problem is that pre-season feeding could tempt some hunters to push things into the season.

There is a saying that lawbreakers are going to break the law no matter what and honest people will follow the rules. I tend to believe that. But I could just see some pix of big bucks or gobblers over a corn pile proving too tempting to someone who does their best to play by the book.

I know that's not always the case. I have one friend who feeds in the off-season, knows the feeders attract temendous numbers of deer and turkeys, but turns off the switch long before the season. I hope that's the rule rather than the exception, and it probably is.

I don't have any game cams out but if I did I think I'd put them along normal travel corridors. Of course, a normal travel corridor this time of year won't necessarily be a normal travel corridor come October and November.

Julie Ball, the fishing-crazed dentist from Virginia Beach, is probably headed back into the record books.

Acting on a tip from a friend she found a bunch of spadefish in the 7- to 8-pound range hanging around a nearshore wreck near Virginia Beach the other day. She decided to try to catch one on 4-pound test line.

If you've caught a spadefish before you know they are unbelievable fighters because of their shape and because they are all muscle. Ball hooked up with a bunch. She caught a dozen small ones and broke off twice that many. She did get a few into the boat. The biggest tipped the scales at 7 pounds, 6 ounces, which was enough to set a line class record. The application is pending.

Everybody's heard about the Hole in the Horn buck, a massive non-typical trophy found dead in Ohio in 1940.

Well, here's a shot of the Hole in the Ear buck, which is still running around out there after apparently having a near miss with a hunter last season.

A buddy sent me this shot today. Check out the temperature -- a balmy 95.

A good buddy sent this shot taken last month in one of his food plots. It's early in its development, but that buck on the right has potential.

As is usually the case about this time of year I'm starting to get the itch -- although I'm not as bad as Moe and actually counting down the days! I think that would drive me crazy.

I've had my bow out a few times and am pleased that it's shooting well. I do need to put some more shrink tubing on my rest because its worn down and making noise on the draw. It doesn't help that I use arrows made out of this stuff called aluminum. Any of you remember those things? Didn't think so.

I don't have any game cams so I need to live vicariously through everyone else. So, if you've got shots, send them my way. Before posting I'll crop out identifying info and, of course, won't disclose your secret spots.

When I get questions about good spots to take kids fishing, one of my suggestions is the lower Jackson River between Covington and Clifton Forge.

In years past the river has been full of smallmouth bass, rock bass and sunfish.

A recent trip on the river, you can read the whole story here, was somewhat disappointing.

Although it appears the river still has a decent number of smallmouths, they were really tiny. Roanoke Times photographer Sam Dean and I caught maybe 40 to 50 smallmouths between us and not a one topped 8 inches.

Like the James and Cowpasture rivers, the Jackson was hit by the fish kill this spring. Those kills seem to be hitting larger fish harder, and maybe that's what happened on the Jackson, where "larger" fish tend to be 10- to 12-inchers.

It's still a good place to take novice anglers. Just make sure you take ultralight tackle.

We took a quick jaunt to Virginia Beach to see my mother-in-law and brother-in-law over the July 4 weekend.

We got to the beach a couple of days and I was pleasantly surprised to find some decent little waves. Surfing is not allowed from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. so I left my old board at the house and took my brother-in-law's boogie board down. It was perfect because it was big enough to float both me and the girls. We caught a good number of waves and, as you can see from the smile Maddy's face here, the girls had a blast. As for my expression here, we were really close to "going of the falls," which could have been ugly had I smashed

On a couple of smaller waves I sent the girls off on their own and they got crushed. My wife freaked out a bit but the girls were fine with it. They can't wait to go "surfing" again, and neither can I. It probably won't happen until the middle of September when there's a triathlon in Virginia Beach (the Sandman) I hope to do. Although, if the waves are good for surfing that might not bode well for the 1,000-meter ocean swim in the Sandman.

Denny Quaiff of the Virginia Deer Hunters Association (VDHA) just mailed me pair of tickets to this year's Virginia Outdoor Sportsman Show at the Show Place in Mechanicsville. The show, which is sponsored in part by the VDHA, is Aug. 8-10.

I can't make the show so I'll give the passes to the first person who e-mails me their mailing address. The headliner is hunting personality Larry Weishun.

Also on the show front, things are coming together for the Virginia Outdoor Sportsmen's Classic, which will be held at the Salem Civic Center on Aug. 22-24. Featured talent includes John O'Dell, Chris Ward and Eric Hale from Drury Outdoors, coyote guru Tom Bechdel and Fincastle outdoor writer Bruce Ingram. I'm meeting with the show's promotor next week and will have more details after that.

Here's a short video from a June 25 prairie dog hunt near Bowman, N.D.

I don't know that I would go to North Dakota (or Wyoming or Montana) just to hunt prairie dogs -- something plenty of folks do. But I'm glad I got out there on the prairie to check this out.

As I wrote about in a note in my Sunday column, Roanoke has tweaked its rules at Carvins Cove Natural Reserve, the 12,000-plus acre outdoor paradise at the center of which sits a pretty little reservoir.

Starting today the city will charge all users the same fees, and will also allow anyone to bring their personal boat (as long as that boat meets the city's inspection criteria).

The changes open the door for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries to once again take an active role in the lake's management. The DGIF had backed off for years because the previous rules that gave preferential treatment to residents of just a few localities essentially privatized the lake in the DGIF's eyes, and the agency doesn't work with private lakes with restricted access.

Even without DGIF help the lake has been doing pretty well. It's a pretty good bass lake, although it can be tough to fish. It also has some nice sunfish and some great crappies.

Could it be even better? I spoke with DGIF biologist Bud LaRoche on Monday and he thinks so. He says the DGIF would like to get back involved, and would probably stock walleyes and stripers.

If you follow the Virginia Angler Recognition Program you know the lake still has a few stripers from long-ago stockings. Last year it produced a couple of whoppers. When I moved here about 10 years ago I heard the walleye fishing was still decent even though it hadn't been stocked since the early 1990s. I haven't heard of any walleyes in a long time.

Whatever happens, we anglers won't reap the benefits for a while. If the lake is stocked it probably won't happen until next spring, so the fish won't be catchable size for a couple of years. Before putting any fish into the lake biologists will have to get out there and do some sampling to determine the forage. It used to have gizzard shad, LaRoche told me. Without a decent forage base a predator like stripers wouldn't work very well.

The question is, assuming the biologists find sufficient forage for stripers, what would you all like to see stocked out there? Just stripers and walleyes? Something we haven't thought about? Would you support special regs to protect certain fish? Or are you happy just letting the reservoir keep going on its own?