I just got a note from W. Watson Martin, whose canoe got pinched from his backyard on Roanoke Ave., just upstream from the Memorial Bridge on the Roanoke River.

No, the kids weren’t in it!

Watson is ticked, and I don’t blame him. He’s offering a $200 reward for information that gets his boat back. Here’s his description:

“This Old Town Canoe was STOLEN on 5/16/13 from 1601 Roanoke Ave SW near Memorial Bridge along with two black and grey paddles. It’s missing the seat backs because they’re in my house; seats have notches to accommodate them. It also has a white, after-market drink holder screwed to the left of the rear cross bar. It’s a 2011 Guide 158. I live just upstream from Memorial Bridge and think the thief floated down to Wasena with it or took it upstream to Bridge Street in the Norwich neighborhood. Chain was cut. It’s under investigation. Contact me with any tips. Thanks! I hate a thief.”

Someone knows who stole this boat. If you have info, send it to me and I’ll forward to Watson.

As has been widely reported, not quite two weeks ago the defendants in a trespassing case on the Jackson River gave up their fight.

Some streamside landowners, joined by the developers from whom they purchased their lots, had sued the men saying that they were trespassing by wading the river. The plaintiffs claimed that centuries-old grants from the King of England proved they owned the river bottom (on which they are still taxed).

The anglers claimed that they were simply following the maps published by the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. (They hoped the state would join them in their fight, a hope that was in vain.)

The plaintiffs won and the defendants eventually opted to withdraw from the fight rather than to pursue appeals and keep racking up massive legal bills. (And you better believe the plaintiffs racked up massive legal bills, too.)

Although the judge’s order prohibiting the defendants from trespassing on the river pertains to those anglers, it sets a precedent. Will anyone else care to challenge the landowners now? Would you?

But plenty of questions remain. For example, what will happen with those DGIF maps? Will the agency alter them by marking as off limits the section that was in dispute in this latest case?

Also, this case was about anglers stepping on the river bottom, not about fishing. Can we still float through and fish? Even though signs erected by the above-mentioned developers state that public fishing is not allowed. Do those crown grants support that (as they were legally found to on sections upriver)? Does the right to “privatize” the water extend to areas where the developers don’t own the shoreline, but rather lease it?

Looking beyond the section claimed by the Rivers Edge on the Jackson River developers, what will happen on the rest of the river? Most riverside landowners have been fine with public fishing. Will they be emboldened to now claim the river as theirs? Or will the public still be welcome to float and fish most of the river between Gathright Dam and Covington?

And what about other rivers where streamside landowners can trace ownership back to those crown grants?

A thread on the Jackson that I started this summer has featured some interesting discussion. Some folks are clearly passionate about this, which is understandable. Take two of the most vocal: King George III and Patriot Paddler. Some interesting back and forth between those two!

Much of the discussion on that thread has focused on what has happened. We need to think now about what will happen.

Anyone care to make predictions?

I’ll start: I predict I will be spending some time in the coming on a story about the potential future implications of this case.

For those who didn’t see my column in Sunday’s Roanoke Times, I wrote about Dargan Coggeshall’s mission to gain support — including financial support — to help his defense against a lawsuit.

Coggeshall is being sued for trespassing on the Jackson River while he was fishing a section of the river that, according to maps produced by the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, is open to fishing.

Because of space consideration I couldn’t get too deep into the background. But I covered the basics of the case in depth for this Roanoke Times story, which ran a year ago.

Does anyone care to predict how this will turn out?

Last night was the annual Catfish Campout at Smith Mountain Lake with my buddies Erich Faber and Rich Dorsett.

Normally we do this on Erich’s dock far back in a shallow cove. He has a tent set up on  his dock and we just cast out in all directions. The cats typically keep us pretty busy all night, which means very little sleep.

So, this year I proposed that I would bring my little camper down the road on the adjoining property, stay in it later in the night and then fish that part of the bank. I made this proposal earlier in the week when it looked like there might be some thunderstorms Wednesday night. But, while staying out potentially bad weather was one reason, another is that I really like getting at least a few hours of sleep every night!

Long story short, we moved the whole operation to a neighbor’s nearby dock. It’s a much bigger dock. It’s covered. And fishing can be good.

It was good: for the sunfish we planned to use for bait. In no time we had plenty of bluegills and green sunfish in our bait basket. So then it was time to get the baits in the water and wait. Read more »

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 »

While most of us have been afflicted with Whitetailitis, Karl Uotinen and Tom Spitnale recent spent some time fishing on North Carolina’s Outer Banks and were richly rewarded.

Check out these bull red drum Karl (top) and Tom pulled from the Ocracoke surf! Wow! They had several other great drum.

Fall is the time to be there. But you can’t be there and here. Argh! It’s just not fair that we have only one October and one November every year.

Some of you may know that the Jackson River tailwater is again the center of controversy.

In short, a property developer and some landowners who purchased a lot and built a home on the river are suing three anglers for trespassing. (Clarification added 4:10 p.m. Friday — The anglers got out of kayaks and waded. They never set foot on shore.) The plaintiffs are claiming that, among other things, deeds dating back to the 1700s from the King of England (including the above-pictured King George II) prove they own the river bottom. (I’m not getting into background here, but previous crown grant issues have been controversial, hence the term “again the center of controversy.”)

The anglers claim that DGIF signage and information about the river does not list the property in question as one of those where so-called Crown Grants have been established and, hence, stopping and fishing has been deemed to be illegal.

I’m working on a story on this, so yesterday afternoon photographer Sam Dean and I headed up there to float through the section in question. Read more »

Roanoke Times staff shooter Sam Dean is hosting an outdoor photography workshop at the paper’s offices on Thursday, Oct. 21. The workshop, from 7:30-9 p.m., is free and open to the public. An RSVP is required and the deadline is today. You can RSVP by phone at 981-3393 or by e-mailing photo@roanoke.com.

Those of you who pay attention to photo credits probably know that Sam is by my side on a lot of outdoors adventures, such as for several of my Fun in the Sun series stories this summer. He is not my personal shooter, and all of our staff shooters do a good job with outdoors content. But it just kind of works out that Sam is out there a bunch. He loves the outdoors as much as I do, and is up for anything. We’ve had some fun days out and about. And we’ve also some pretty epic — i.e. challenging — days out there. He never complains. And he always gets good art.

Those of you have any interest in outdoor photography should try to get to this workshop. Again, it’s free. And I think they may even be serving refreshments.

Despite the heavy rain we’ve gotten, the Saturday Roanoke River float planned by the Float Fishermen of Virginia is still on. Ken Ingram, the float’s organizer, sent below note earlier today. I’m just posting it now because I’ve been out on an assignment (getting soaked) all day. The event starts at 9:30 a.m. at Rotary Park in Salem, just downstream from the intersection of Apperson and Electric Road.

The article today was great. I’ve gotten quite a few calls today so the word is getting out.If you have time to get something in the paper, please remind people to bring safety gear.”

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.”