Currently browsing… virginia
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Finding a balance between teaching and fishing
By Mark Taylor Beck had just made a nice cast, his lure landing in a shady spot next to the James River’s bank, when he did something you don’t expect from a 15-year-old. He admitted he was clueless “When I go to a store and look at all the fishing lures, I have no idea…
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Virginia Trout Slam a surprising, and fun, challenge
The cast was too good. The drift was too good. There was no way this was not going to work. And it did. A trout dimpled the surface as it slurped in the little olive Stimulator. It wasn’t a big trout, but I played it carefully in the fading light of a sultry Virginia May…
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Long-awaited raft a fishing game-changer
By Mark Taylor As we made our way through the final riffle, I dug the oars into the cool, green waters of Virginia’s Jackson River and aimed the stern toward the boat ramp. “Have I told you that I love this thing?” I said to my fishing partner, Sam Dean. My memory isn’t as good…
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Beer boost: Team effort improves habitat on Virginia’s Beaver Creek
By Mark Taylor A team approach is helping improve trout habitat on a popular fishing stream near Harrisonburg, Va. Trout Unlimited’s national staff partnered with the local TU chapter and a property owner to improve a section of Beaver Creek, a spring-fed stream that runs through private land but that is open to public fishing through a unique cooperative program. The…
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It’s OK to have a few secret spots
[et_pb_section admin_label="section"] [et_pb_row admin_label="row"] [et_pb_column type="4_4"][et_pb_text admin_label="Text"] Rabid protection of secret spots can be tricky. I think back to one I protected with a vigor that bordered on irrational paranoia. It was a small stream not far from Roanoke, Va., and I fished it for the first time not long after I moved to the…
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TU, partners release report on pipeline-related sediment regs
The recent and ongoing buildout of pipeline infrastructure in Central Appalachia has brought large-scale construction and earth disturbances to coldwater watersheds throughout the region. TU and our partners at the West Virginia Rivers Coalition have released a new report discussing how sediment pollution is regulated in West Virginia and Virginia, and how turbidity standards could…
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Warm winter days are nice — when they are rare
By Mark Taylor I probably shouldn’t have been surprised. The first truck was parked just past the “Special Regulations Trout Water” sign. A few hundred yards farther up the gravel Forest Service road I met an SUV coming my way. Two friends from my local Trout Unlimited chapter were in it. We rolled down our…