As bad as February and early March were for Mountain State trout anglers, the past couple of weeks have been terrific.
Division of Natural Resources hatchery trucks have been flying around the state in an all-out attempt to make up for the many stockings missed due to February’s snows. Mike Shingleton, the DNR’s head of trout fisheries, said some waters missed as many as five to six stockings when the weather was at its worst.
Shingleton added, though, that all of those waters would receive their full annual allotments of trout. “With some, we’ll make extra stocking runs; with others, we’ll just increase the number of pounds of trout in regularly scheduled runs,” he said.
The recent warming spell has opened up several streams that until recently had been inaccessible — upper Shavers Fork, the Williams River, the Cranberry River and the West Fork of the Greenbrier.
With water temperatures finally in the 50- to 55-degree range, trout should be eager to feed. I’m sure the state’s anglers won’t mind at all.
For the past several years, outdoors writers — me included — have written stories about an apparent increase in the number of women involved in hunting and fishing.
It will be an entertaining glimpse into the world of saltwater fishing, or it will be the most boring stretch of television ever attempted.
For the past several years, a pair of bald eagles has made its nest at the National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, W.Va.
Today’s grim economic outlook doesn’t seem to be affecting fishermen. If anything, people are fishing more than ever, as a recent Associated Press story pointed out.
Want to read something that will make you feel good? Check out Gazette colleague Rick Steelhammer’s 
On the drive in to work this morning, I saw four wild turkeys — three near the Interstate 64 rest stop in Putnam County and one on Goff Mountain in Kanawha County.
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