Riverkeeper report: Leaving limb lines could lose you fish, gain a ticket

Published 2:34 pm Thursday, July 24, 2014

Riverkeeper Jeff Turner took a group from the Village at Woods Edge out before doing his three-day patrol. From left, Jeff Turner, Barbara Prince, Bill Earley, Kay Meditz, Lessie Whitley, John Meditz, Harry Mewborn, Frances Marks, Louisa Coker and Shirley Howel (gray shirt). -- SUBMITTED

Riverkeeper Jeff Turner took a group from the Village at Woods Edge out before doing his three-day patrol. From left, Jeff Turner, Barbara Prince, Bill Earley, Kay Meditz, Lessie Whitley, John Meditz, Harry Mewborn, Frances Marks, Louisa Coker and Shirley Howel (gray shirt). — SUBMITTED

Spirit of Moonpie and I spent the 17-19 on the Nottoway below Hercules. The water was clear, normal and 82 degrees. Air temps ranged from 57 to 88 degrees. Trash was light, though I did find an electric cooler (I think) that was so heavy I could not get it in the boat. I dragged it to shore at Monroe in hopes those folks there will pull it on out of the river.

The only other trash I found was a bunch of limb lines down by the Bronco Club. They had tags, but no information was on the cards. That’s why it’s just better to not be so trifling and take the lines down when you leave.

Here is another one of many reasons to take them down. If you leave your lines on the river, even if you hang the hooks up in the tree, somebody could come along and fish them. You’re the one that has already done all the work to hang the lines; all they got to do is bait’em. Then they get the fish off your lines and leave the lines in the water.

Guess who is going to get the ticket when Fish & Game comes along and sees those lines in the water not being checked daily? YOU WILL.

Speaking of fishing it was just so-so this trip. I caught 10 largemouth. Most of them were small, but one was really nice at 5.2 pounds. All were caught on topwater.

I did not do good either night catfishing with only two cats and three blackfish being caught. I hung a couple of big gars but could not land them. Oh, before I forget I want to say thank you to the fisherman that came up to me at the Duck Thru in Hunterdale and thanked me for what I do. That was very nice and something I don’t get that often from the very people that mostly utilize the river.

Well, I got to tell ya’ll this story cause it really freaked me out. The first night we were just upriver from Monroe Bridge anchored out in the middle catfishing. It was about 10 o’clock and all of a sudden there was this big flash of light. At first I thought somebody was coming up the river and hit me up with a spotlight. Nope, no boat, so I figured it was heat lightning which I’m told by the people at NOAA does not exist. However, there was not a cloud in the sky that night. Moonpie said I was just having a flashback.

Anyway, then when I got home Saturday I was telling Freezing Deer about it and she then told me there was a meteor fireball Thursday night that landed in Surry County. Just another one of those wild things that happens to us out on the two rivers we call the Nottoway and Blackwater.