www.roanoke.com

Now, this is the kind of drift boat that will turn heads. In fact, owner Keith Andrew says he's had folks pull u-turns to follow him and ask about the boat.

Andrews, who lived in Blacksburg until moving to Owensboro, Ky. in 2004, built the boat with his son Trey. Andrews is a Hokie, and said he was hoping the design draw attention and give him an oppotunity to talk about Virginia Tech and the Blacksburg area. They launched the boat on April 16.

Andrews said he and Trey put more than 700 man hours into the effort and, even in this photo, the craftsmanship is obvious. Andrews said he hopes to haul the boat back here later this summer for some fishing on the New and James, and I hope to get a personal look at it then.

Late last night I got a tip that Sportsman's Warehouse in Roanoke would be closing. The news was just confirmed by the company's corporate headquarters.

The Roanoke store is one of 23 locations Sportsman's Warehouse plans to liquidate.

The store opened in the fall of 2007, and was welcomed by the region's sportmen, who had been clamoring for large outdoor retailer.

Timing was difficult, however. Not only did the store open at the front end of what has become a nasty economic downturn, but just a few months later a large Gander Mountain store opened just a few miles away.

Sportsman's Warehouse had plenty of fans in the region. Many sportsmen were grateful for the company's support of local outdoors conservation groups and efforts. For example, they were key supporters for this past fall's Hunters for the Hungry fundraising banquet.

Stay tuned to this blog and to The Roanoke Times Business section for more on this developing story. 

In the meantime, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the news.

The Department of Game and Inland Fisheries has approved its plan for implementing the mandatory boating education law passed last year by the General Assembly.

There were no surprises at today's board of directors meeting, during which the board unanimously approved the plan, which establishes such details as specifying who is authorized to teach courses and what students must score on tests to qualify.

Here's a summary of the proposals and link to the full text, which received only minor tweaking after the recent public comment period.

There's nothing like teasing folks about an upcoming event and then doing no follow-up. Yet that's what we did with last weekend's Smith Mountain Lake Wakefest contest. I wrote a big feature on brothers Lee and Joel Wagner (you can see a video of them in action HERE), while our Lake supplement had a preview of the contest.

And that was it.

No results story (or even brief) after the contest.

I had another assignment Saturday and couldn't make it, but I could have done a better job of tracking down the results. Sorry.

Lake Gaston rider Adam Fields won the tournament's top Outlaw division. As for the Wagner brothers, 18-year-old Lee got third and 17-year-old Joel didn't place.

The contest drew 90 competitors.