THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 9, 1997 TAG: 9702090194
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C17 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Bob Hutchinson
LENGTH: 122 lines
Virginia's 1996-97 deer kill was down about 5 percent from the previous season, but the total still topped 200,000 for the fifth consecutive year.
The Department of Game and Inland Fisheries' unofficial figures, which could be revised slightly, show a kill of 207,560, compared with a record 218,476 for 1995-96.
The fall turkey kill dropped about 6 percent, from 11,859 to 11,229, while the bear kill remained unchanged at 206, according to Bob Duncan, head of the agency's wildlife division.
Bedford County, which surrounds Lynchburg, was the best place to bag a deer, recording 6,142 success stories. Loudoun County, northwest of Washington, D.C., followed with 6,000 and perennial contender Southampton County with 5,916.
The other top 10 whitetail counties were: 4. Grayson, 4,885; 5. Pittsylvania, 4,882; 6. Fauquier, 4,836; 7. Albemarle, 4,622; 8. Bath, 4,436; 9. Botetourt, 4,418; 10. Caroline, 4,176.
The top 10 turkey counties: 1. Bedford, 465; 2. Botetourt, 386; 3. Buckingham, 358; 4. Pittsylvania, 336; 5. Scott, 308; 6. Cumberland, 296; 7. Fluvanna, 293; 8. Halifax, 285; 9. Goochland, 285; 10. Amelia, 259.
Details for other counties were not available.
DOUBLE TROUBLE: Claude Bain, director of the Virginia Salt Water Fishing Tournament, is a man with a problem. Actually, he's a man with two problems.
One, he busted his knee while learning to ski over the Christmas holidays and is hobbling around on one leg following surgery. But that's his personal dilemma.
His other problem is different. Bain has to decide where to draw a line out in the ocean, where lines are quickly washed away by the sea. Let me explain.
Rules of the state-sponsored contest, which offers citation awards to anglers registering big fish, say that to qualify, a fish must be caught in Virginia waters, or caught from a boat that leaves from and returns to a Virginia port without stopping in another state.
So if a boat leaves from Virginia Beach, catches a white marlin southeast of the Cigar seamount, clearly east of North Carolina, and returns to Virginia Beach, is that fish eligible? Certainly.
OK, suppose the boat goes farther south, lands a bluefin tuna off Hatteras and returns to Virginia Beach? Certainly, you say.
Take it a step farther. Suppose a long-range cruiser does the same, except the fish is boated off the coast of Mexico. No, you say. Too far.
Not according to the rules.
So Bain thinks a line should be drawn. He just doesn't know where or how.
The tuna scenario happened the other day when David Fields of Newport News boated a 212-pound, 10-ounce bluefin off Hatteras. He sailed from and returned to Virginia Beach, never touching a North Carolina port. The fish is the leader in the annual Virginia contest, which runs Jan. 1 through Dec. 31.
Bain had no choice but to honor the catch. After all, the angler played by the rules.
The topic has been discussed more than once by Bain and other tournament officials, selected from the angling public.
``We just can't reach any kind of conclusion,'' Bain said. ``We're not completely satisfied with the way the rules are now, but how do you change them? How do you draw a line in the ocean?''
For the moment, it seems like a moot point. The 1997 contest has been under way more than a month.
But for the future, the answer may be adding another rule that the area involved must be regularly fished by Virginia-based boats.
Admittedly, that would make the matter subjective. Someone would have to decide when an area is ``regularly fished.''
But it would keep that hypothetical long-range cruiser from entering a 100-pound sailfish boated off the Yucatan Peninsula.
In the meantime, if someone sets a Virginia bluefin record with a tuna caught off Hatteras, it's something the contest will have to live with.
BLUES BLUES: If you're an admirer of the fighting qualities of big bluefish, and few anglers aren't, the National Marine Fisheries Service has more bad news.
Existing constraints on giant choppers aren't enough to produce a population upswing, according to federal researchers. Currently, anglers are limited to 10 blues per day.
The East Coast bluefish population is estimated at 40 percent of levels of the early 1980s, scientists say. They are even more concerned about the small number of young blues surviving to enter the fishery.
Anglers and commercial fishermen currently are allowed to remove 29 percent of the stock during a year. That figure needs to be lowered to 8 percent, scientists say. Only then will the decline in spawning-size fish be halted.
In ham-and-egg language, this means that the recreational bag limit needs to be lowered to two or three fish a day, with similar reductions for the commercial catch.
CAMPERS NEXT: When the 44th annual Mid-Atlantic Sports and Boat Show moves out of the Pavilion next Sunday, it'll be almost time for recreational vehicles to move in.
The 16th annual Tidewater Recreational Vehicle and Sports Show will stage a three-day stand at the facility Feb. 21-23.
More than 100 units are expected. They'll range from small fold-down campers to posh motor homes. Displays will also feature conventional travel trailers, fifth-wheel trailers, mini-motor homes, conversion vans and off-road vehicles.
Show hours will be 1-9 p.m. Friday, Feb. 21; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 22, and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 23. Admission will be $5 for adults, $2 for those under age 12.
FLY-RODDERS: About 40 folks turned out for the recent inaugural meeting of the as-yet-unnamed group devoted to saltwater fly fishing.
That was in Hampton. Even more are expected when the group gathers again Feb. 27 at Angler's Lab Outfitters in the Hilltop East shopping center in Virginia Beach.
Guest speaker for the 7 p.m. meeting, open to anyone, will be Brian Horsley, a 16-year veteran fly-fishing guide on the North Carolina Outer Banks.
Details are available by calling Angler's Lab Outfitters at 491-2988.
SHORT CASTS: The Tidewater Appalachian Trail Club, a federation of hikers, will celebrate its 25th anniversary March 15 with a banquet at Grand Affairs on Pleasure House Road in Virginia Beach. An affiliate of the Appalachian Trail Conference, the club maintains a lengthy stretch in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains south of Waynesboro. . . . Several local fishing-lure manufacturers will present a free seminar at E&B Marine, 5616 Virginia Beach Blvd., Norfolk, on using their products. It'll be at 7 p.m. Feb. 18. A seminar on the use of downriggers, presented by Richard Martin, will be offered there at 7 p.m. Feb. 25. . . . George Cooper of Portsmouth, one of the area's top tautog fishermen, will talk on that subject at Tuesday's 7 p.m. meeting of the Tidewater Anglers Club. Open to anyone, the meeting will be at the Marina at Marina Shores off Great Neck Road in Virginia Beach.