THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 28, 1996 TAG: 9607280230
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C16 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Bob Hutchinson
LENGTH: 129 lines
Good news for the nation's thousands of waterfowl hunters continues to come from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:
If you had a good waterfowling season last year, you should have another one this time. So said Paul Schmidt, chief of the agency's office of migratory bird management.
``We have generally similar conditions in terms of the duck population as we had last year, with some brighter spots,'' Schmidt said in an interview with the Associated Press.
But he stopped short of predicting the fall migration from northern breeding grounds into the lower states would exceed the estimated 80 million of 1995. Last fall saw an increase of 15 percent over 1994's flight and was the largest in almost a decade.
The increase was credited to better nesting and breeding conditions on the northern U.S. plains and in Canada's prairie provinces. An estimated 80 percent of the nation's duck population breeds and spends spring and summer in these areas.
Those conditions include a break in the extended drought which had dried up so many potholes used by breeding ducks. The reclamation of some potholes once converted to farmland also contributed.
Waterfowlers killed an estimated 12.5 million ducks in the U.S. last season, accordin to Schmidt, an increase from 8.5 million the previous year.
The one species which remains in trouble, he said, was the popular pintail. Estimates placed the 1995 population at 2.76 million, up from a low of 1.8 million in 1994 but well under the 10.4 million counted in 1956.
No, they don't count individual ducks. The figures are obtained through aerial surveys. Key factors used by scientists include the number of breeding pairs and the amount of nesting success, the average number of ducklings produced in each nest.
Locally, the duck season could be much better than in 1995 and perhaps one of the best in the last 20 years, based on the tremendous improvement noted on waters of Back Bay in Virginia Beach and North Carolina's bordering Currituck Sound.
``I'm really encouraged by what I see,'' said Johnny Messina of Bells Island, N.C. ``We have more good duck grass than I've seen in a long time. And the water appears to be a lot cleaner.''
Similar evaluations have come from several other Back Bay sportsmen, who said duck-food grass is showing up where it hasn't been for years.
THE SEASONS: Virginia sportsmen will have a chance to comment on 1996-97 waterfowling seasons when the board of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries meets next month.
The open meeting will be Aug. 6 in the agency's board room at 4010 West Broad Street. Unlike most previous daytime sessions, it'll be from 7 to 9 p.m., better accommodating out-of-town sportsmen.
The board will meet again Aug. 22 to select waterfowling dates from within a framework to be announced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
DOVE DATES: Dates for hunting dove, railbirds, resident Canada geese and some other game birds already have been set in Virginia and North Carolina.
Three-part dove seasons will open Sept. 2 in both states. But that's where the similarities end.
Virginia's dates will be Sept. 2 through Sept. 28; Oct. 4-Nov. 2; and Dec. 23-Jan. 4. Hunting will be allowed from noon until sunset for the first session and from a half-hour before sunrise until sunset for the others.
North Carolina's opening session will run through Oct. 5. Other segments will be Nov. 25-30 and Dec. 13-Jan. 11. Hunting will be allowed from noon to sunset only through Sept. 7 and afterwards will be legal from a half-hour before sunrise until sunset.
The bag limit will be 12 birds a day in both states.
Virginia's resident Canada goose season will be Sept. 3-21; railbirds Sept. 16-Oct. 17 and Oct. 24-Nov. 30; snipe Oct. 9-14 and Oct. 21-Jan. 31; and woodcock Oct. 28-Nov. 23 and Dec. 18-Jan. 4.
There will be no resident Canada goose season in North Carolina's Dare and Currituck counties. But it'll run Sept. 3-20 in Bertie, Camden, Chowan, Hyde, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Tyrrell and Washington counties and Sept. 3-30 elsewhere.
ELK TALK: Ever wonder how the Virginia villages of Elk Creek, Elk Garden, Elk Hill, Elk Run and Elkton got their names?
It's because elk, perhaps North America's greatest game animal, once roamed much of the state.
But the last wild elk disappeared long ago, just after the turn of the 19th century.
That could change if a project underway in Tennessee and Kentucky is successful.
Some 29 elk have been trapped in Canada and transported to the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area shared by the two states.
More than 150 years after the last elk disappeared from the Southeastern States, the conservation groups Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Wildlife Forever and the North America Hunting Club are working to bring them back.
If the program is successful, similar stockings could take place in Virginia and North Carolina in the next couple of years. But it could be decades before hunting is again allowed.
Wouldn't it be great to hear the haunting sound of a bugling elk in Virginia and North Carolina? It's a sound they'll be hearing this fall in Kentucky and Tennessee.
FUND RAISER: Along the same lines, the Tidewater Chapter of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation will hold its annual fund-raising dinner and auction Sept. 7 at the Greenbrier Khedive Temple in Chesapeake. Tickets, including a foundation membership, start at $45. Details: Bill Murden, Princess Anne Marine, 340-6269.
FLYING BLUEFINS: Bill Gooch of Virginia Beach just may be the first angler to ever land bluefin tuna on fly-fishing tackle in Virginia waters.
Cooch caught three bluefins on a recent outing on the Sea Bird, skippered out of Rudee Inlet by Steve Richardson. The fish were taken just a little southeast of the 26-Mile Hill. They ranged from 22 to 29 1/2 pounds.
Two bluefins in excess of 100 pounds were landed on fly tackle off Hatteras earlier this year and are pending world records.
SHORT CASTS: William Ernst of Virginia Beach recently earned a citation from the Virginia Salt Water Fishing Tournament with a 15-pound, 6-ounce tautog, caught at Chesapeake Light Tower on the boat Big Time. . . . Jennifer Gonzalez of Virginia Beach scored by releasing a black drum at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. She was aboard the boat Zeeba. . . . The Roanoke River, victim of a massve fish kill last year, is being restocked with thousands of largemouth bass, bluegill bream and redear sunfish by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. . . . The 13th annual Pirate's Cove Marina Billfish Tournament will be Aug. 13-16 out of the Nags Head facility. Fees range from $1,000 to $8,400 with a $13,000 prize for the crew releasing the contest's 13th billfish. It's part of the North Carolina's Governor's Cup competition. Details: Barry Martin, 1-800-537-7245. . . . Deer hunting will be allowed on the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, headquartered in Suffolk, 13 days this year, starting Oct. 3. Details: Lloyd A. Culp Jr., refuge manager, 986-3705. . . . The 3rd annual Virginia Gobbler Classic, a competition for the top turkeys killed in Virginia, will be Aug. 9-11 during the Virginia Outdoor Sportsman Show, 3000 Mechanicsville Turnpike, Richmond. Details: Hugh Crittenden, 1-804-748-7529. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
Virginia Salt water Tournament Leaders
Outdoor Tip
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