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Ralph Barton sent in this great shot from a fishing trip he took with his daughter, Ashley Barton Weeks, and son Justin last night.

This trip was extra special, Ralph said, because 26-year-old Ashley was out of commission for a while battling -- and beating! -- some health issues and this was her first time back on the water.

Barton has been focusing on the night bite at Smith Mountain Lake and this trip was no different. Ashley's striper hit a slowly waked surface plug.

This wasn't the only "catch" of the night. Barton sent in another picture that I will post soon.

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.

Sorry the blog has been pretty quiet the past week or so. I just returned from a trip to Grand Rapids, Mich. for the Outdoor Writers Association of America conference.

Attendance wasn't great, which wasn't unexpected given that we media types have really been hammered by this tough economy. But it was still a really productive, educational and fun conference.

The main mission of the conference is to help communicators, be they writers, photographers, video producers or radio hosts, do their jobs better. To that end the conference features a lot of workshops, panel discussions and seminars. Conference planners also bring in "newsmakers" -- important and relevant figures in the outdoors industry and community. It's a great place for writers to meet editors, and there are also folks from the industry there to show off their new products in the hopes we will give them some publicity.

One of the key draws for me has been getting the chance to just hang out with some of the legends of outdoors communication, many of whom I grew up reading.

When I was a teenager growing up in Oregon, I read everything Bill Monroe of the Portland Oregonian wrote. Two years ago, when the conference was in Roanoke, Bill was hanging out at my house for a cookout. He even brought a big piece of smoked salmon.

In Michigan I spent a lot of time talking about hunter recruitment and retention -- and OWAA recruitment and retention -- with Wade Bourne, a well known writer, TV and radio personality from Tennessee.

The last night of the conference Jim Zumbo was one of the guys sitting at our table in the hotel's sports bar. Yes, Zumbo ticked a lot of people off a couple years ago (and has since been working hard to recover from backlash), but there's no disputing his stature as one of the most visible, influential, appreciated outdoors writers of the past 30 years.

Then there are all the guys (and a few gals) in my generation, some of whom are on their way to becoming icons. We talk a lot, and not about our outdoors adventures. We talk about writing, photography, video, blogs, business strategies and the like. We talk shop because we're all so into this.

My one regret is that I didn't build in an extra day before or after the conference to go fishing. The smallmouth fishing up there is unreal. One of my buddies, Brent Frazee of the Kansas City Star, went to a lake about two hours north of Grand Rapids and just crushed the smallmouths. I think he said they had at least a dozen fish over 4 pounds. And that's just an average day on those lakes up there.

If the water drops a little more in some of our rivers I may try to get out this weekend for a little smallmouth action around here.

Cindy Turlington won the big fish category at this past weekend's Smith Mountain Striper Club tournament with this nice 13.1-pound striper. She was fishing with Frank Skillman and Danita Stokes, and they finished second with a two-fish total of 20.04 pounds.

Butch and Jeff Shaffer teamed up to win with a total of21.02 pounds.

The tournament drew 21 teams and a total of 49 anglers. The teams weighed in 17 fish weighing a total of 129.44 pounds.

Regular poster Static Lines, aka Terry Barber, has gotten in on the fun distraction muskies are providing for many New River smallmouth bass anglers.

Well, I guess it's not fun for everybody as I've actually heard that some anglers who are focused on smallmouths have found these toothy critters bothersome because they're tearing up or tearing loose some pricy lures.

Barber's fish, which was 30 inches long, hit a Diawa jerkbait (which it ruined, according to Barber).

After a couple of relatively quiet years, the committee that reviews applications for state record freshwater fish has had a busy couple of weeks.

Not only are they considering the 102-pound blue catfish caught by Tim Wilson of Natural Bridge Station (with help from his bubby Danny Ayers), but they also have an application from Christiansburg angler Robby Rakes, who pulled this awesome hybrid striped bass from the New River below Claytor Dam on May 13.

I actually wrote a story about Rakes' fish that I hoped to package with my story in today's Roanoke Times on the big catfish. But we had room on the outdoors page for just one tale, so the catfish got the spot and the story behind this catch will run in my column Sunday.

This fish was 28 inches long and had a girth of a whopping 20 inches. Rakes was using a Rapala Super Shad Rap on a spinning gear.

Anyone who carefully examines data compiled for the Virginia Trophy Angler recognition program will notice inconsistencies.

For example, the smallmouth bass Angler of the Year had a 6-pound, 8-ounce fish. Yet in the general listings there’s a 7-pound, 2-ounce smallmouth listed. What’s up with that.

And what about the year’s largest yellow perch, which is an ounce heavier than the existing state record? Why isn’t it a new state record?

Same goes for that 15-pound brown trout, another fish that exceeds the state record.

Then there are those confusing length measurements, some of which clearly don’t collate to the fish’s weight.

The inconsistencies stem from the basic structure of the program, for which the application process is, shall we say, flexible.

An angler can take a trophy fish to a tackle shop or other location with a certified scale, and have an objective witness verify the weight and measurements. But an angler also can print off an application from the Internet, have a buddy sign as a witness and also be awarded a citation.

Having to process more than 6,000 of those applications per year, the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries simply can’t verify inconsistent or confusing information. As long as the $4 fee is included with the application, the catch will go in the database.

But there are certain standards.

That weight of that 7-pound, 2-ounce smallmouth bass may very well be accurate. But it wasn’t a certified weight, so the fisherman isn’t eligble for an Angler of the Year award.

The yellow perch weight apparently was certified — although the fish’s listed length of 14 inches is strangely short. But angler Spencer Musick of Speedwell, whom I could not reach for comment regarding the catch, didn’t pursue the necessary steps to apply for a state record, a process that requires, among other things, that a Department of Game and Inland Fisheries biologist personally verify the fish. Does that mean Musick simply didn't realize the fish was a state record? (And that has happened.) Or was that weight not accurate? (And that has happened, too.)

The answer is simpler for Will Helmick’s 15-pound brown trout.

The fish, like 126 other trout Helmick has registered for citation awards over the past three years, came from a fee fishery. And while the DGIF will happily send an angler a certificate for a big fish caught at a commercial operation, those fish are not eligible for record consideration.

What it comes down to is that while the awards go on a public list, a citation is really just a piece of paper. The true measure of the trophy is something the angler knows best.

I'm working on an update on the status of the Beat the Elites tournament, the event some Roanoke-area bass anglers planned as a four-day event to coincide wit the Bassmaster Elite Series Blue Ridge Brawl that will be at Smith Mountain Lake on April 23-26.

Organizers of the Beat the Elites said they would not hold the event if they didn't get 50 boats. Registration has closed. On the Web site there's now mention of a new option, which seems to be something like a big fish tourney over those four days. But I can't figure out if that's a replacement for the Beat the Elites tournament (it kind of seems like that) or if it's in addition to it.

The tournament organizer should be able to clarify this, right? Unfortuntely, I can't get the guy to return my phone calls or e-mail. I would have an easier time understanding this apparent blow-off if I had, like 17,543 other people, slammed this controversial concept. But I haven't.

I'm just hoping maybe someone out there entered the Beat the Elites, or knows someone who has, or at least can give me some idea what's going on.

If you've got some info, please feel free to post a comment here or send me a personal e-mail at mark.taylor@roanoke.com. Thanks in advance.

A reader - aka "Concerned" -- posted this comment on a different, unrelated topic. I didn't want it to get buried because it's an interesting, important topic. As the reader suggested, it's one that would be worth my looking into if I could make it happen.

"Mr. Taylor,

As a fellow paddler I am sure you have heard of the "King's Grant" laws in VA as they pertain to public use of rivers, streams, and creeks. As a fellow fisherman I am sure you know of the headaches this has caused in the past below Lake Moomaw.

In 2008 there was hope as the commonwealth was close to appointing a committee to research, review, and update the out of date law. But as far as budgets are concerned there was no way to fund this committee (and all the others) and the issue was dropped. Little hope remains for this issue to be looked at in 2009.

I challenge you to delve into the politics of this law and why exactly we would want to protect and endorse this law that effectivly grants the actual water rights and water beds to individual land owners.

I will agree that the law has validity for landowners that need to use streams and creeks for drinking water or for watersheds that are simply too small to fish or boat on. But other creeks and even rivers are currently 'off limits' due to the threat of tresspassing charges, etc.

These watersheds are not just your simple trickle of water past a landowners house, but navigatble in fact waterflows that run at flows favorable for boating or fishing nearly year round. When the gov't deems a wateshed navigatable it looks at the past usage of the watershed and if it was ever used as a 'mode of transportation' for people or goods.

 Well fast forward to now. We are in a technological revolution. Alot of gear is used regularly now that did not exist even 10 years ago. Many enthusiasts regularly push the limit on what can be tried, done, accomplished, etc.

If we are deeming a waterway navigatable by how many logs were floated down it 200 years ago, how can that compare to what is being done now with current boats and technology? How can we sit back and pay taxes to build reservoirs, dams, & levees to control floodwater and protect the public and then simply be content with that same waterflow being completely granted over to a private landowner downstream?

Why do we help fund gov't programs to farm raise trout and release them into natural streams only to let them wash downstream into 'private' 'kings grant' 'no access' areas? As a lover of our mtn waterways i think it is time that we fought back agaist the 'commonwealth crux' that has hurt the paddling and fishing community in VA."

Well, no one took Static Lines up on his offer of a float tube fishing adventure on Pandapas Pond over the weekend. But that didn't stop him. He went out and had a good day.

This nice bass hit a  Rapala Super Shad Rap.

This picture kind of cracks me up, but when you're in a float tube and going to release the fish, this is the best you're going to do.

Static said he saw quite a few bass, as well as some big pickerel. He also saw lots of trout anglers, plenty of whom were giving funny looks to the guy in the float tube!

I actually pulled one of my float tubes out yesterday in hopes I can use it at for some pond fishing this spring. Unfortunately I think it has a slow leak but it should be fixable.