The last time my son Jimmie was in town, he helped us clean up our downstairs storage room and removed a lot of clutter. He saw a pair of his old fishing waders in the storage room, hip boots, so he took them back to Atlanta. Last week, my grandson James talked Jimmie into an early morning duck hunt in a swamp somewhere in Fulton County. Jimmie remembered his waders, and tossed them in the truck. … [Read more...]

The good old days of checking in a deer or a bear at a Game Checking Station are over. From now on, Virginia will go exclusively to electronic checking, and that’s a shame. Says the Wildlife Division: “Since 2004, DWR has offered some form of electronic harvest reporting, and beginning in 2019, electronic harvest reporting options were available for all game species for which reporting is … [Read more...]

The glory days are over. No more will there be the numbers of deer killed as there were about 10 years ago. That’s when the Game Department declared war of the doe population in order to keep the overall deer herd numbers under control. Also, about that time, coyotes moved into Virginia in force. They did a number on birthing deer as did bears. Both animals have acute senses of smell and can … [Read more...]

On Wednesday, October 16, Bo Bundrick of Louisa shot this deer with his bow. It was most unusual for two reasons. First, the antlers were still in velvet – even in mid-October - and secondly, it was not a buck. It was a doe, a deer, a female deer – with antlers! A little background on antlers. Antlers differ from horns in that they are shed each year while horns are there forever. Deer drop … [Read more...]

  On June 29, Lindy Rowles drew back his bow and sent an arrow towards a submerged target – a 52 ½ pound blue catfish and he managed to pull it in. The Game Department just certified the big cat as a state record for bow fishing. But this cat was just a baby as far as blue catfish are concerned. The overall record weighed an astonishing 143 pounds, boated by Nick Anderson in Buggs Island … [Read more...]

The Department of Game and Inland Fisheries announced a harvest of 17,929 turkeys during the 2019 spring gobbler season. The 2019 harvest was 11% higher than last year’s harvest. DGIF Turkey Biologist Gary Norman said the harvest was encouraging because reproduction was low in recent years, which would have predicted fewer 2- and 3-year old birds. These age classes typically comprise the … [Read more...]

  Spring gobbler season opens April 13 in Virginia and according to VDGIF, it’s an important tool for future conservation efforts. Participating in spring turkey hunting prospers the species because of the funding procedure that enables the work of DGIF. Money from license and permit sales, and spring turkey hunting gear, are the primary financial components of research and … [Read more...]

Lots of water is good for ducks and waterfowl, right? Yes, but too much of a good thing is bad for duck hunters. My water-fowling friends have been having poor luck this season because the birds aren’t flying in to their usual ponds. They have lots of new places that are wet, further back in the woods and that’s where they are going. It’s no better on the rivers and stream. Again, too much … [Read more...]