DATE: Sunday, March 30, 1997                TAG: 9703300174

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C14  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BOB HUTCHINSON

                                            LENGTH:  148 lines

BEACH ANGLER IS CLOSE TO HOOKING THE BIG ONE

Rick Morris of Virginia Beach is one step away from reaching a plateau never climbed by a Hampton Roads resident.

He is one step from earning a slot in the Bassmaster Classic, considered the World Series of professional bass fishing.

Morris, who has won ``about $10,000'' in bass tournaments since the 1996 Classic ended the tournament year, will have a chance to take that step May 15-17 in the Bassmaster Top 100 contest on Neely Henry Lake near Gadsden, Ala.

Right now, he is 23rd on the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society points list, with the top 25 advancing to the Classic, set for Lake Logan Martin, near Birmingham, Ala., in August.

Morris has 361 points and figures that he will need 400 or a little better to qualify for the Classic, which offers $100,000 to the winner. Some previous winners have said a Classic win is worth $1 million in sponsorships, product endorsements and public appearances.

The top 100 finishers in qualifying contests receive points, with 100 points for first place, 99 for second, right down to one for 100th.

``I figure I should get in if I finish in the top 50 at Neely Henry,'' said Morris, 35, a four-year veteran of professional bass fishing.

Three years ago, Morris gave himself five years to qualify for the Classic.

``I've sort of refigured that,'' he said. ``I'll probably give it four more years. I'm getting closer all the time.''

The Classic pits 25 pros from the Bassmaster Top 100 field, five pros each from the circuit's Eastern and Central Regions, and five divisional winners from BASS's grass-roots membership. The 41st spot goes to the defending champ, in this case George Cochran of Arkansas.

One Virginian, Woo Daves of Spring Grove, already has a lock on a Classic spot. Daves, a veteran of nine Classics, stands ninth with 421 points. He moved up after last weekend's 10th-place finish in BASS's MegaBucks contest near Dallas. Daves won $10,000.

IN MEMORIAM: Hampton Roads lost one of its biggest boosters and true gentlemen Friday with the death of Eddie Edgar at the age of 86.

In addition to being an executive with a financial institution, Eddie wrote a fishing and hunting column for the old Ledger-Star for almost 40 years.

He and I were friendly competitors for about 25 years, until the papers merged. He never liked the idea of a single, two-name paper because it removed the competition. He thrived on that while authoring the column ``Fins, Furs and Feathers.''

Eddie liked to write about local fishing, which he considered some of the best in the country.

As for being a gentleman, I never heard him say an unkind word about anyone. I'm not sure he ever had an unkind thought. Although born in Massachusetts, he epitomized the ``Southern Gentleman.''

His loss leaves a void.

REGATTA REBIRTH: What once was the nation's oldest high school sailing regatta is about to become the nation's newest high school sailing regatta.

After an absence of more than a decade, the Maury Regatta will be sailed again May 10th. It will be headquartered at the Norfolk Yacht & Country Club on the Lafayette River and will be open only to high school students.

The regatta was sailed uninterrupted from 1933 through 1984. But it was dropped when no contestants showed up for the 1985 contest.

It is being reincarnated through the joint efforts of the Key Club of Maury High School, the Downtown Kiwanis Club of Norfolk and Nautical Adventures, a waterfront promotion organization.

Classes will include Flying Junior, Laser Radial, Optimist and Hampton One-Design. For details, contact Gurley Ritter, race committee chairman, at 587-7195.

GAME CHANGES: Local outdoor enthusiasts will have an opportunity to comment locally on some 77 proposed changes in Virginia hunting and trapping laws.

A public hearing on the proposed changes will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday by the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries at the City Recreation Center at 4500 First Court Road in Virginia Beach.

Another will be at 7 p.m. Monday at the 4-H Education Center at Airfield Park on State Route 620 south of Wakefield.

While many changes are minor, a few major alterations have been proposed, including:

Eliminating the first week of the early muzzle-loading season for deer west of the Blue Ridge Mountains, including all national forest lands in Amherst, Bedford and Nelson counties.

Reducing the bag limit for holders of special muzzle-loading licenses to one per year.

Expanding the black bear season in Chesapeake and Suffolk by three weeks, opening the first Monday in November instead of the fourth Monday.

Reducing the daily bag limit on deer from two to one per day in areas west of the Blue Ridge.

Limiting hunters to buying one bonus tag for whitetail deer. There currently is no limit.

FISH CHANGES: Proposals to restrict rod-and-reel catches of sharks and tautog have been given initial approval by the Virginia Marine Resources Commission.

The public will have an opportunity to comment on the proposals when the commission holds public hearings on the plans at its April 28 meeting.

The tautog plan would limit all fishermen to possessing fish at least 13 inches long, measured from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail.

As for sharks, it would be illegal for anyone to possess sharks less than 58 inches, measured from the tip of the nose to where the tail begins to fork.

Recreational fishermen already are limited to keeping one shark per day, while commercial fishermen must abide by a trip limit. Under the proposal, commercial possession of sharks would be banned whenever the government outlaws the activity in federal waters, which begin 3 miles offshore and extend seaward to 200 miles.

In other action, the commission has approved emergency appropriations totaling $283,735.40 from the Saltwater Recreational Fishing Development Fund, better known as the fishing license fund. The projects:

A second $100,000 grant for the $1 million project to provide a fish passage over Boshers Dam near Richmond.

$118,864 to the Virginia Institute of Marine Science for a sea-grass restoration project aimed at improving stocks of speckled trout.

$64,871.40 for augmentation of the recreational fisheries statistical survey conducted by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

BETTER BASSIN': When Bill Schieman of Virginia Beach talks about largemouth bass, many folks listen, and those who don't probably should. Schieman has caught more than 500 8-pounds-and-up largemouth bass, including two of more than 9 pounds this year.

He is convinced that some big bass are showing up in the city lakes because of prolonged drought conditions a few years ago.

``The city couldn't get its big herbicide boats into some sections of the lakes,'' he said, ``and the bass were able to live and reproduce. I'm convinced that's why you're seeing some big ones, just as I'm sure the use of herbicides, plus development and accompanying pollution, is why our bass fishing declined from what it was 20 years ago.''

SHORT CASTS: Although no one keeps records, Steve Jurnigan of Suffolk has landed what could be the biggest largemouth bass ever from the Nottoway River. It weighed 10 pounds, 2 ounces. . . . North Carolina hunters should kill a record number of wild turkeys during the April 12-May 10 spring season. This from a man who should know, Mike Seamster, turkey restoration expert with the Wildlife Resources Commission. ``I'm calling for a record of 3,500,'' he said. That would be more than 500 above the record, set in 1996. . . . The beaches of Cape Hatteras National Seashore will get their annual spring clean-up April 19, with a helping hand from the North Carolina Beach Buggy Association. Starting at 7:30 a.m., the organization will have volunteers handing out big plastic trash bags at all beach-access ramps. It's part of ``The Great Trash Bash,'' sponsored by the state Department of Transportation. . . . If hunters want to know whom their enemies are, they need look no further than the Humane Society of the United States. The society spent more than $545,000 on anti-hunting campaigns in 1996, according to the Wildlife Legislative Fund. That makes the society the largest single anti-hunting spender. . . . ``Gar Wood and His Contemporaries,'' an antique motorboating symposium, will be held at the Mariner's Museum in Newport News Friday through Sunday. For details, contact Teresa Fremaux at 591-7731. . . . North Carolina is stocking its eastern rivers with hundreds of thousands of fish to replace victims of several massive fish kills in recent years. Species include bream, redear sunfish and redbreast sunfish.

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