Britt Stoudenmire is among the most passionate and concerned fishermen I know, especially when it comes to his home water, the New River.

Stoudenmire, who has built the New River Outdoor Company into one of the river’s premier outfitters, stays up on issues that impact the river. Among his concerns are the surges in water level from Claytor Dam releases.

In an email to a number of river stakeholders early last July, Stoudenmire included a graph of the up-and-down river flow, along with his assessment of the impact:

“This furthers the evidence that AEP is not taking into account river users, boaters, river related business on the New River below Claytor dam by subjecting them to nearly a 6″ increase/decrease during supposedly “run of river”, “levelized”, “recreational” flow during the busiest week of the year.

6″ of unwarned out of the blue inconsistent water jeopardizes safety and boating, ruins fishing, stresses fish, and makes running a recreational business on the New River extremely difficult.”

Stoudenmire has been providing info for my fishing report this season, for which I am really thankful. He and his guides are on the water pretty much daily, so they know what’s going on. Space doesn’t allow me to repeat his full reports verbatim, but you can find them every other week on the DGIF Outdoor Report. The short take is they have been catching some nice smallmouths — such as the big one Stoudenmire is holding here — on the New this year.

I heard from Stoudenmire this morning, in reference to my naming the James the best trophy smallmouth river in the state. As I wrote in the post below, I expected to get some feedback. I hoped for it. Today’s piece — and here’s the link again — was my opinion. But I have to say that it wasn’t like I just was making stuff up, or basing it on my own fishing experiences. I referred to data, and I considered the regular feedback I get from my sources.

Stoudenmire included some really interesting points in his note, and I don’t want to simply paraphrase them. So here it is:

“read your article in the paper today and i’d like to add several comments if that is ok:

1. the james river runs nearly 300 miles in the state of VA, with 200ish being smallmouth water. not counting claytor lake, there is roughly 100ish miles of new river in virginia. big difference there. i’d say there are still even even if you are looking only at citation registrations.

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Actually, this isn’t a poll.

For a feature on today’s Outdoors page in The Roanoke Times, I listed what I believe are some of Virginia’s best fishing spots. I suspect some might argue with a few of my choices.

Is Smith Mountain Lake really the best lake for trophy largemouth bass? What do you think?

I referred to data from the Virginia Angler Recognition Program, info that tells things like that if you want to catch citation yellow perch like the one pictured here, Claytor Lake is a good bet.

But a lot of this is subjective. Also, length restrictions kept me from going into much detail. It would be possible to write a book on Virginia’s best fishing.

Anyway, let’s hear your thoughts.

As a one-time fishing guide, Sam Rorrer has spent plenty of time on the New River.

Using muskie tackle he’s had exactly one muskie. Using bass tackle his encounters have been plentiful. (Granted, he’s spent a lot more time with bass tackle in hand!)

Anyway, here’s his latest muskie-while-bass-fishing catch, pulled from the New on a jig this past weekend. From his expression I think it’s fair to say he didn’t mind the encounter!

Nice catch, Sam!

The Department of Game and Inland Fisheries is participating in the Governor’s Regulatory Reform Initiative.

Here are the basics, from the DGIF website:

“The Governor of Virginia has directed that the Commonwealth’s regulations be reviewed for possible improvements. This site solicits your suggestions pertaining to Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (DGIF)-administered regulations currently governing

-fishing
-wildlife diversity (wildlife species that are not hunted or fished)
-boating

…that would help to achieve the following results:

Repeal regulations that are unnecessary or no longer in use; and
Reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens on individuals, businesses, and other regulated groups.”

Hunting and trapping aren’t  included above because they are already being reviewed as part of the DGIF’s bi-annual regulations review process. So, suggestions are welcome on hunting and trapping, too.

The DGIF website page on the issue includes information on how to submit suggestions.

I’d like to write a column about this process to better get the word out about this. I’d like to include examples of regulations that Virginia’s hunters, anglers, boaters and other outdoors enthusiasts would like to see addressed. (Though Sunday hunting is a legislative issue, I don’t suppose it could hurt to include it in your comments.)

I will be disappointed if frequent contributor Walt doesn’t quickly chime in because I know he’s got at least one beef with the current deer hunting rules!

I’ll start: Current regs don’t allow me to take a “conventional” firearm with me when I am muzzleloader hunting for deer. I’d like someone to explain to me why I shouldn’t be able to take a shotgun with me when the muzzleloader deer and firearms turkey seasons overlap. (It would actually be me taking a muzzleloader with me while turkey hunting, but you get the drift.)  I don’t want to shoot a turkey with a muzzleloader, and it’s not like the shotgun is going to give me some kind of advantage in deer hunting. It seems any concern about using buckshot or a slug shotgun can be addressed by rules regarding shot size, etc.

In addition to Walt I’d like to hear from readers about what regs you’d like to see addressed.

My feature on the Outdoors page in today’s Roanoke Times was a short piece on my recent long weekend trip to Cape Charles, a little town on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.

This was a family trip, but I managed to sneak out for a little fishing. OK, quite a bit of fishing. It helped that the fishing was great around the rocky breakwaters right off the street where our rental cottage was. (It was Monroe Street, but there are breakwaters all along the public town beach.)

I had heard that the Chesapeake Bay is flush with immature red drum, aka puppy drum. For once the reports didn’t exaggerate. Those fish were everywhere. They were small — 12 to 17 inches. But on light bass tackle — actually I was using a G. Loomis “walleye” rod —  they were an absolute hoot. A 17-incher will TEAR YOU UP! My daughters got in on the action, too. They always want to kiss the fish, and they didn’t get that from Jimmy Houston, either. Not sure where they got it.

As I wrote today, the great fishing this year bodes well for next year, when these puppies will be back as 18- to 26-inchers. That the “keeper” slot, but I’m less interested in keeping these fish than just catching them.

Officials in Bristol have announced that Cabela’s will anchor a shopping development in the city.

According to a city press release, construction on the store could start as soon as next summer, with a target opening date of October 2014.

The nearest Cabela’s is a store that just opened in  Charleston, W. Va., about three hours from Roanoke.

There are two Bass Pro Shops super stores within three hours of Roanoke, one near Charlotte and another in Richmond.

Bristol officials are counting on the Cabela’s location to be more than just a big retail store, but for it to be a tourist draw.

That the stores will draw big tourist crowds is often cited by Cabela’s and Bass Pro leaders as they seek store locations, with their decisions often hinging on generous  financial incentive packages. However, some analyses, including one  cited in this recent article,  dispute the idea that  public investment in the large stores is a wise investment.

Here’s the full release from Bristol:

Bristol Virginia Lures Cabela’s To The Falls

BRISTOL, VA – The City of Bristol, Virginia has lured an important anchor store to a new retail tourism site located on 140 acres within the city’s limits. City officials announced today that signed documents are in hand from outdoor outfitter giant, Cabela’s, who will be the first of two anchor stores at The Falls. With 38 retail stores worldwide, the Bristol store will be the first Cabela’s in Virginia.

“Cabela’s has a deep customer base not only in and around Bristol but across the region, people who share our passion for the Great Outdoors,” said Tommy Millner, Cabela’s Chief Executive Officer. “These outdoorsmen and women have supported Cabela’s for a long time, shopped with us via our catalog and online, so it was time to bring them the unique Cabela’s retail experience.”
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This is something you don’t see too often this time of year: a big Smith Mountain Lake striper. Richard Millar of Lake Ridge caught it Thursday.

Here’s his story:

“On 26 July during a morning striper fishing trip with Capt Kenny Short we – my daughter Melanie (of Atlanta) and son Richie (of Richmond) – caught 21 stripers including this 38- inch, 22-pound citation striper (me pictured).

Capt Kenny was so good, several times it seemed liked fishing for tuna – we were just catching them on all lines; but alas his fishermen (us) were not good enough to bring them all into the boat.  It is fun to occasionally watch a boat captain get so frustrated at his crew – then we learned to hook the stripers better.

We were staying at The Virginia Cottage at Smith Mountain Lake and read in their guest book of the great time other guests had had fishing with Captain Kenny’s Striper Guide Service.  So we gave him a call.

Funny thing – to us not Kenny – because on Sunday he hit a submerged log in his boat which put it out of action. He had borrowed a boat so he could take us fishing.  He was not totally accustomed to the smaller boat and different layout.  He did a great job despite the rookie fishermen and the unfamiliar boat.  I can’t image how many fish we would have caught had we been in his primary boat.  We were fishing on the upper Blackwater with live bait (shad) in 30 – 40 feet.”

Who else is out there fishing? Let’s hear some reports.

Lake Champlain is on my short list of places I’d love to fish one day. Lynchburg pro angler David Dudley showed why yesterday.

Competing in an FLW Tour event at the lake, Dudley weighed a five-fish bag weighing 24 pounds to take the tournament lead. So, almost five pounds per fish. Champlain has awesome smallmouth fishing, but a picture of Dudley after the weigh-in showed him with largemouths, including a 6-pounder.

His quote after the weigh-in was classic Dudley: “They were biting. It’s Lake Champlain in June. They bite. … You can go anywhere and do anything you want to do.”

The outdoors world lost one of its legends on Friday.

Homer Circle, known affectionately as Uncle Homer to many, died at 97.

If you are a fisherman over 30, chances are good Uncle Homer touched you in some way over the years.

He was the longtime fishing editor for Sports Afield, and the author of many books and too many magazine articles on fishing to count.

I remember sitting in class in high school with a Sports Afield held between the cover of whatever text book we were supposed to be reading, devouring every word in his stories.

He wasn’t a fancy writer. His style was simple and spare, and that’s part of what made it so appealing to the masses.

I have never consciously tried to come up with a personal style for my writing, but it tends toward simple and conversational, and I suspect part of the credit should go to Circle, who was among the most powerful influences during my formative years.

Fortunately for sportsmen, even though Uncle Homer is gone, much of his great, influential work is still out there for us to enjoy.

We are in the process of overhauling Roanoke.com, and we’ve been reaching out to readers for feedback on what they’d like to see with the new site. We even have a blog, The Refresh RT blog, to keep readers in the loop.

So, let me pose that question to you all: How can we improve the Outdoors content on Roanoke.com? What are we doing well? What can we do better? What else would you like to see? Are there other outdoors sites we should look at for ideas?

Be blunt and honest. Your input will make a difference.

First, some basic background on what we have now.

–Outdoors stories and columns that appear in The Roanoke Times comprise part of our online Outdoors package. I write nearly all of these.  Read more »