Tidal Potomac bass on feeding spree Gene Mueller Thursday, October 2, 2008 The Washington Times   After the weekend rain and wind, you might have expected the Potomac River to become murky and the fish to get lockjaw, but nothing could be further from the truth. The largemouth bass of the tidal Potomac have tied on the feed bag, so to speak. If you can't get a bite, you're using the wrong lures or you're fishing in the wrong area.

Chesapeake Sportsman: Fall’s fishing frenzy is here  Kent Island/Chester  Brooklyn ParkBy Capt. CD DOLLAR, For HometownAnnapolis Published October 01, 2008  Yes, I realize the hunting season is here – doves, waterfowl and deer – and here I go rambling on about fishing. No doubt many Chesapeake sportsmen have had their attention diverted, to varying degrees, away from work and family so they can get afield.

Local angler joins Lindner on Potomac  Thursday, October 2, 2008 The Washington Times  Last week, a member of the Potomac River Smallmouth Club had an opportunity that most freshwater anglers would give a fair amount of money to experience.      In a Web site-driven national contest, Bob Forbes, of Vienna, Va., won an outing on the upper Potomac with one of North America's most famous fishermen, Al Lindner, of Brainerd, Minn.

County works on making James River a blueway trail   By: Anita Firebaugh  Posted: Tuesday, September 30, 2008 3:46 pm  Imagine you’re in a canoe paddling down crystal waters looking at historic remnants of times long ago.        A fish jumps out in front of you and you look up. Ahead you see small rapids and you prepare yourself for the exhilaration.

   Fishing Tourney Held For Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan   Sep 27, 2008  Reporter: Mark Tenia  It all started with a question from the chaplain of the Wounded Warriors program      "He approached me and said hey I would like to take a couple of my guys fishing. So I asked him how many, and I do run a guide service here on the lake so I figured it was just a couple, and he said 50," said event director Ken Kirk.

 GENE MUELLER: Out of state, in the way  Sunday, September 28, 2008 The Washington Times    After recently observing the conduct and attitudes of certain out-of-state bass tournament fishermen who come in droves to test their skills on the tidal Potomac's bass-rich waters, local angler Wayne Coates writes, "It looks like access to the parks that we paid for and are still paying for is coming to an end."

 Outdoors: Winds complicate forecast for fishing on Chesapeake  AnnapolisBy BILL BURTON For The Capital  Published September 25, 2008   When summer bid us farewell the other day, stiff breezes began to brew for those who fish the Chesapeake - and we're told more winds are coming, which complicates angling predictions for the weekend. The official arrival of fall is virtually a sure-fire reminder the best is yet to come though planning fishing trips by the calendar alone guarantees no accuracy.

 While the water's gone  Lee Tolliver 24  Sep 08 The Virginian-Pilot  The nor'easter that has been blowing for a couple of days strengthened Wednesday off the coast of North Carolina and continued to push water out of inland streams and rivers.      Riding home to Camden Wednesday afternoon, the Intracoastal Waterway, Northwest River and a pair of small creeks that drain into the Pasquatank River all were lower than I'd seen them in a long time.

 Presidential candidates as sportsmen  Gene Mueller The Washington Times  Wednesday, September 24, 2008  Right from the start, let me say that whoever it is you pick in the voting booth this November is your business and no one else's.       With that out of the way, did you know that 76 percent of sportsmen say it matters that their president hunts or fishes.

Fishing in the nick of time  By Mark Sampson • Outdoor Report  DELMARVANOW.com September 23, 2008  On Monday the summer of 2008 officially came to an end. Now that it's fall, factors such as cooler weather, shorter days, school and work schedules will certainly deny a lot of anglers the opportunity to spend long days out on the water chasing fish as they did throughout most of the summer.

 Outdoors: Anglers feel blues from hit, miss on bay  ANNAPOLIS  SEVERNA PARK  By BILL BURTON, For The Capital  September 21, 2008  When chumming, the sensible game plan is for the chum to attract the fish, not feed them. In live-lining your spot or white perch baits are to hook fish, not feed 'em - but sometimes it isn't that easy.

Amid the Mayhem of Breaking Fish, Best Keep a Calm Hand  By Angus Phillips The Washington Post  Sunday, September 21, 2008; Page D02  We've been buzzing around the mid-Chesapeake Bay for a month or so looking for telltale signs of surface-feeding schools of rockfish and blues, which make for some of the most exciting fishing in this region. It's been a hard slog with little success so far, but that makes it all the more satisfying when things finally fall into place.

Young anglers earn honors in 'wish-a-fish'  By Lee Tolliver  The Virginian-Pilot  © September 21, 2008  Captains and boat owners from around South Hampton Roads took 23 families on half-day fishing trips during this year's Wish-A-Fish campaign last weekend out of Portsmouth City Park.       A combined 94 parents and children participated.        The families were chosen by representatives of the Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters and the Tidewater Chapter of the Autism Society of America.

 The largemouth bass is the No. 1 game fish  By Jim Brewer For the News & Messenger InsideNoVa.com Published: September 19, 2008  Maybe because they are spectacular leapers; maybe because they are the first big fish we ever catch; maybe because their mouths are as expansive as the Luray Caverns; whatever the reason, the largemouth bass is the undisputed favorite game fish in Virginia, and throughout North America.

Va. issues advisory on eating caught fish  Wednesday, Sep 17, 2008   Richmond Times-Dispatch The Virginia Department of Health has issued modified and new warnings about eating fish caught from various rivers and reservoirs around the state.

 ON THE WATER  Baitfish have been slow to the show  By Jack Rodgers • September 17, 2008  Buzz up! In the classic "The Grinch That Stole Christmas" the Who's, all of them, short and tall, get together and sing on Christmas morning, despite the fact that the dastardly Grinch has swiped all of their presents and trappings. In some ways, the fall fishing along the surf line has resembled that story.      In spite of the fact that the mullet run has been slow to get underway, there are a fair amount of snapper blues in the wash ranging from Fenwick Island north to the mouth of the Delaware Bay.

Fishing friends hook ‘a dinosaur’ in Shenandoah Wednesday, September 17, 2008  By Laura Oleniacz  The Winchester Star  Berryville — Bobby McGrath III of Berryville (left) and Chris Stout, who lives in Boyce, have been doing a lot of fishing on the Shenandoah River since graduating from college earlier this year.  The two are job-searching — McGrath is looking for something in graphic design close to home, and Stout is hoping for work in marketing.

Trophy Gallery from Roanoke Times

Deer: where and when to find 'em  Bill Cochran's Mail Bag The Roanoke Times

 As days get short, hunters long for woods  Ken Perrotte's outdoors column Free Lance-Star  Date published: 10/2/2008  DEER SEASON must be just around the corner. The bucks I saw sporting velvet on their antlers have scattered or gone more nocturnal; the bean fields are turning yellow; and the orb weaver spiders are cranking out their masterpiece webs.

 Best of times for deer hunters  By Mark Taylor The Roanoke Times  A long wait of nine months will finally be over for about 60,000 Virginians on Saturday.      That's the opening day for the state's early archery deer season, and the first of a string of openers for the seasons that draw by far the most attention from Virginia hunters.

Another blockbuster?  By Mark Taylor  The Roanoke Times  What will Virginia deer hunters do for an encore after last year's record kill of nearly a quarter million whitetails?      Don't be surprised if they come close to that benchmark again, or even top it.      When the primary deer seasons get going on Oct. 4 with the archery opener, longer seasons and ever more liberal bag limits combined with a robust whitetail population across most of the state should set the tone for another banner year for hunters.

  New leader at Game Department  By Jim Brewer For the News & Messenger  Published: September 25, 2008 InsideNoVa.com Bob Duncan has an idea. “Our first obligation is to the resource,” said Duncan, Director of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. “The role of Fish and Game is to always look ahead.”       Wow! What a refreshing approach to game management as displayed by the new Director of VDGIF, Bob Duncan.

 Tough to track trophy-buck trends Tuesday, September 23, 200 The Roanoke Times  By Mark Taylor  Last autumn, hunters killed more deer in Virginia than ever before.      So it stands to reason more of those deer should have been trophies worthy of a spot on the wall, right?      It's hard to say.      It would seem the best way to track trophies is through the annual Virginia Big Game Contest.

GENE MUELLER: Deer can be found all over  Sunday, September 21, 2008  The Washington Times Recreational hunters in Maryland and Virginia should have a fine 2008-2009 season for most game species. The coming months promise to bring rewarding experiences if your patience endures and your aim is true.

You need a lawyer to go hunting  Bill Cochran's Mail Bag The Roanoke Times   Bill Cochran  Recent mail  BILL: Read your post today (on the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries’ hound study). I've heard the constitutionality perspective on the right-to-retrieve law from several other sources as well.      If you don't like the way that DGIF is handling the issue, just wait until it blows up and let some chest-thumping representative in the General Assembly handle it. You've seen what happens when the General Assembly gets involved and tries to regulate hunting issues.

A few tricks to the trade of deer hunting on public land  Friday, Sep 19, 2008 By ANDY THOMPSON  Richmond Times-Dispatch COLUMNIST  Let's start with a caveat: Private land generally is a better place to look for big bucks than public land in the state of Virginia.

Real hunters earn their buck  By Mark Taylor  The Roanoke Times  A saying goes that real hunters earn their bucks.      That adage will take on a literal meaning this fall in a number of Virginia counties when deer seasons start in about two weeks.      A new rule in those counties -- including Bedford, Franklin, Patrick and Roanoke -- will require hunters to kill an antlerless deer on private land in those counties before they may take a second buck on private land in one of the counties.

 OUTDOORS: Three rules to stopping 'incidents'  Sunday, Sep 14, 2008 Richmond Times-Dispatch  By ANDY THOMPSON  TIMES-DISPATCH COLUMNIST  The victim was crossing a barbed wire fence and his coat became entangled. While attempting to free himself, the gun discharged, striking him in the lower right leg, resulting in amputation. Hunting accidents such as the one above, which occurred last year in southwestern Virginia, make Capt. Bobby Mawyer shake his head.

Gene Mueller: Questions about deer feeding abound  Wednesday, September 17, 2008 The Washington Times  When the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries decided to declare the feeding of deer illegal, a number of local hunters began to ask questions regarding the kind of feeding the state is prohibiting.

Other Articles/News

Hunt Smart - Fish Hard  By Leon Mettler  Wednesday, September 24, 2008  One Big Headache  It had been a few days since I last went fishing. I told Eric Johnson of Appomattox that I would pick him up after he got off work at 4:30pm. I load the boat with everything that I could think of and head into town. Going up North Creek Hill something felt funny but I just thought the truck was dragging some.

Ah, the wonderful dogs I've known   September 18 2008 The Washington Times  Over a lifetime of living in rural areas, much of it spent among self-sustaining "can-do" farmers, wood cutters, and hunting or fishing guides, some of my best memories concern dogs.

Complaining meaningless without action  By Mark Taylor The Roanoke Times Sunday, September 07, 08 Easing stealthily up to the hole, pro angler John Crews put his plan into action.      Crews had his eyes on a couple of two- to three-pound bass that he'd spotted in the area.       The bass had proven tough. So Crews had to get tougher.       "I figured out that they cruised in the same general pattern," said Crews, a full-time professional angler on the Bassmaster Elite Series.

  Virginia Catfish Fishing  [Part of the Game & Fish Network] Catfish  Virginia Game & Fish brings you state fishing coverage of catfish. Below, find related articles from our magazine, sign up for our free newsletter, or browse through state-specific resources from around the web.