July 31, 2007Year after a pukefest, a bay trip turns out much better
This year flounder season was temporarily closed so we decided to try for cobia. And, much to our surprise, we actually caught one -- this 38-pounder. I'm writing about the trip for Friday's Outdoors page in the Roanoke Times so I'm not going to go into too many details here. But I will say we were chumming and chunking at the Inner Middle Ground Shoals near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. After this cobia we managed two more big fish -- that weren't cobia. Again, details will have to wait. Even though it was kind of rough and I was the chief bait chunker (and cutting up menhaden isn't for the queasy) I didn't feel a hint of seasickness. The credit goes to the scopolamine patch I wore. Those things work. I did have one incident over the weekend that made me sick. On the way down to Virginia Beach I got pulled over for speeding near the I-95/U.S. 460 interchange in Prince George County. At the interchange the speed limit on 460 drops to 45. I was doing 57, and there were at least three officers working a special "enforcement" effort in response to a string of fatal accidents this year. So, even though I haven't gotten a speeding ticket in years, I didn't get a warning. And since there's no hoping that the "B" sample is going to come back negative, I'll just pre-pay the $121 and be done with it. July 26, 2007I look like Levi Leipheimer, and I'm not talking about my legsI shaved my head this morning in protest of the Tour de Farce. Actually, that's only partly true. I did shave my head. But not in protest. I cut my own hair. It's an advantage of having not much. I use a cheap pair of Wahl clippers and use the No. 1 attachment. Zip. Takes about five minutes. I remove the No. 1 to go extra tight on my neck. So, this morning I grab the clippers and take two quick swipes at the right side of my head. And I was almost blinded by the reflected glare from my stark white skull. I'd forgotten to put the No. 1 on. If I actually had any hair on the top of my head I could have gone for the high-and-tight Marine look. You know, shaved sides and back with a little more on top. But that's not physically possible. So I just ripped it all off. Truth is, I'm probably only a few days from where I would have been with the No. 1 cut. It really doesn't look much different, except for that stark white skull thing. And that is hard to miss. I walked downstairs and one my girls looked at me, while shielding her eyes, and asked, "Daddy, did you shave your head?" She didn't really shield her eyes, but she did ask that. And then she said, "You look like Donnie," my head-shaving neighbor. As for the Tour de France, the past couple of days have been a bummer. Not that the ejection of Vino and removal of Rasmussen were surprising. In fact, Vino's popping positive for blood doping was about as shocking as that day's other big news -- that Lindsey Lohan was allegedly driving drunk and had cocaine in her pocket. A couple of pro riders have had some really interesting things to say in their Internet diaries the past couple of days. Check out this column by Bobby Julich and this one by Christian Vande Velde. July 20, 2007Lee Wagner is third in Smith Mountain Lake WakefestThere'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. July 18, 2007Game Department meeting holds a few surprisesI was in Richmond for a meeting of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries' board of directors. These can be long days because I usually head down in the morning and come back after the meeting, so that's six hours on the road plus the meeting. Fortunately, my friend Bill Cochran and I usually make the trip together and that makes the time on the road pass pretty quickly because we always have plenty to talk about. (He retired from this job in 1998, but still writes a weekly outdoor report on our Roanoke.com Web site. You can see his stuff HERE.) Yesterday's meeting was a marathon. A bunch of hunters who run deer with hounds in Central and Eastern Virginia thought the DGIF was planning to try to sneak some restriction on their sport past them. Their concern was fueled by a postcard from the Eastern Virginia Deer Hunting with Dogs Hunters Club of Eastern Virginia (or something nearly as unwieldy) that exclaimed in part that "this is an anti-Hunting meeting!" Somewhere around 300 of these folks showed up, and they were ready to fight for their right (some guy actually used that phrase in his remarks to the board, and I was really wanting him to finish with... "to paaarrrrttty.") Continue reading "Game Department meeting holds a few surprises" » July 16, 2007Legendary bass writer Tim Tucker killed in car crashI just got the sad news that bass fishing writer Tim Tucker was killed earlier today in auto accident near Gainsville, Fla. Full details haven't been released, but the Gainsville Sun carried this breaking report on its Web site this afternoon. Tim isn't identified in the story but BASS, for which Tim was a senior writer, has confirmed HERE that he was killed. I saw Tim maybe once a year, but he always treated me like an old friend. It wasn't because we were both fathers of twins (although that gave us something other than bass fishing to talk about) or that we were both fascinated by the world of bass fishing (although I didn't get to cover it near as much or as well as he did). As far as I could tell, he treated about everybody that way. Not that he always went easy on me. If I screwed something up -- or he thought I did -- he'd send me an e-mail and tell me as much. Of course, he'd do the same thing with compliments. Tim didn't pull punches with his coverage of bass fishing and that didn't always sit well with some anglers and others in the sport who thought stories had to focus only on good news and ignore the not-so-good details. But Tim did it his way -- the right way. This is a profound loss for Tim's family and friends, and for everyone in the bass fishing community.
July 13, 2007Summer sight-fishing for big smallmouth: not easyI was in the Bristol area Wednesday and Thursday and got to spend some time on the North Fork of the Holston River, a stream I've been wanting to check out for a while. The NF is supposed to be a pretty good smallmouth river. One reason: the bag limit is one fish over 20 inches per day. That rule allows someone to keep a trophy, but discourages people from keeping fish to eat, which makes sense considering the river is under a consumption ban because of mercury. Wednesday evening we got to the river late with a guy I'm doing a story on for Sunday's paper. (He had a treestand accident last fall, and fishing is one of his forms of therapy.) Even though it was late I could see how low the river is. Brutal. I didn't think we'd have any luck but our host actually caught a nice smallmouth about 30 minutes after dark. Photographer Sam Dean and I went back on our own the next morning to get stuff for a story on the river. Around Bristol it was kind of murky, but as we got upstream toward Saltville it cleared up. We fished one nice hole near Bristol but didn't do anything. Later, we stopped and fished for about an hour at the DGIF ramp near Saltville. Again, it was shallow, but there were a few pockets and we could see some fish. Some nice fish, actually. I saw a few that would push 3 pounds. But, man, were they were spooky. I had a little soft plastic crayfish in front of one and when I twitched it he bolted the other direction. I didn't get a strike. Sam caught a small on his fly rod with a streamer. I'd like to get back there and try some of the stuff my brother and dad use on the ultra clear rivers they fish in Oregon. Not sure if it will happen this year, though. That's a pretty good haul. July 10, 2007Good samaritans help injured cyclistAs I wrote about in my column today, which you can read HERE, my Sunday morning bike ride was interrupted early when I happened upon another cyclist who had just crashed on the Roanoke River Greenway. I wasn't the first person to stop to offer assistance to Sam Butler, a 52-year-old physician from Roanoke. Melissa Ivy and her boyfriend, Ismael, were already there. They stayed the whole time, and even took Sam and his wife, Helen's, bikes so Helen could ride in the ambulance with Sam. They returned the bikes the Butlers later that evening. I've started carrying my cell phone when I ride, in case of emergencies. This is the first time I've needed it. I called 911. A number of other folks stopped and asked if we needed help or to borrow a phone. One guy didn't ask. He just stopped his van, got out and approached Sam. "My name is Steve and I'm a paramedic in Roanoke County," he said, then added that he was going to help Sam out while he waited for the on-duty squad. When the ambulance got there, Steve briefed them and then was on his way before I could get his last name. (Full disclosure: I didn't get Melissa's last name either, but Helen had it.) Today I found out his full name was Steve Simon, a division chief with Roanoke County Fire and Rescue. He and his 5-year-old son had just finished a bike ride. In an e-mail, Steve thanked me for the column -- which focused on the importance of bike helmets. He wrote that the Butlers had tracked him down to thank him for his help. He was glad to hear from them. "It made my day," he wrote. Seeing how a bunch of strangers can come together to help somebody in trouble made my day Sunday. July 6, 2007Two handsome fellows on a Georgia dock
As flatheads go, this was a little guy -- 9 pounds. But that's perfect eating size, and it's hard to beat deep-fried flathead catfish nuggets. I can't claim that catching this thing was any major fishing feat. Quite the opposite, actually. Here's the technique. Each evening I try to catch a small bluegill for bait. That's usually pretty easy but this trip it wasn't. Nearly every bluegill I caught was hand-sized. That's great if you're going to eat them (which we did) but I prefer 3- to 4-inch sunfish for flathead bait. I had one of those prime baits only one night. Something ate it but didn't get hooked. This guy hit a pretty good bluegill. The catfish rig is an older surf rod with no reel. I ran 130-pound cord (which is designed for trotlines, actually) through the guides and tied it off on the handle. I left about 8 feet hanging out of the end of the rod, to which I tied a heavy ball bearing swivel, then a 3-foot leader of the same 130-pound cord. The hook is a Gamakatsu Octopus Circle, size 9/0. I hook the sunfish behind the dorsal fin, toss it out, put the rod in a holder that keeps the rod tip about 4 feet off the water, then tie it to the dock. Most nights I'd hang out and fish worms on a couple other rods for channel cats for an hour or two, but I never did any good. As much as I'd like to pull all-nighters and fish a bunch of rod-and-reel rigs, that's not really possible with all the stuff we have going on during the day (when I'd be catching up on sleep). So I'd check the big rod first thing in the morning. Chick's dock is pretty good for catfish because the channel sweeps in nearby and the catfish come out of the deep water after dark to prowl the shallows. I'm pretty sure I could really crush them if I bothered setting up more than one rod. With one bait in the water, it's a little tougher. Although something got my bluegill three of the four nights, this was the only fish I got. (I did get a 4-pound channel cat one night on a cane pole baited with nightcrawlers.) Again, it's hardly fishing, but it's still fun. It's great walking down to the dock with my cup of coffee and seeing that rod bent over. You don't know if you've got a 4-pound or a 40-pounder. Who's got the better expression? The flounder or Steve Wray?
Here's charter captain Steve Wray with one of them, an 11.5-pound monster caught July 4 on live bait near that big structure you can see in the background -- the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. This shot comes courtesy of Julie Ball, who also included a shot of her with a big flounder, a 7.5 pounder. Some of you may be disappointed that I chose to post this shot and not the shot of Julie, as I know she's got some fans out there. It doesn't look like that shot is up yet on her Web site, but plenty of others are. Plus you can read her detailed reports there, too. I just got back to Virginia after a trip to South Georgia for my wife's family reunion. I managed to get some fishing in and plan to file a more detailed report -- and possibly a picture not unlike the one above -- later today. |
About this blog
While growing up in rural Southern Oregon, Mark Taylor developed a passion for the outdoors while he and his younger brother tagged along with their father on fishing, hunting and camping adventures. Graduating from Northwestern University in 1988, Taylor spent four years as an officer in the U.S. Navy based in Norfolk before moving into journalism. After five years writing about the military for a Norfolk-based publishing company, he became the outdoors editor at The Roanoke Times in 1998. He lives in Roanoke with his wife and twin daughters. .....Advertisement.....
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