6th Annual Carlin Chronicles Fishing Picture Competition Announced

It is time once again to put the world on hold, grab a fishing pole and a son, daughter, grandchild or buddy and wet a line. Memorial Day weekend is here, and for the 6th year now it marks the start of the Annual Carlin Chronicles Fishing Picture Competition.

We’ve had some great fun with this little contest and I’m thrilled that it’s become a part of our news here at Newschannel 10 and WSLS.com. I hope it’s become something that you look forward to – either as a viewer or a fellow devotee of long hours on the water doing what a biologist friend of mine once justified as “single line research.”

No matter what you call it, in this technological age, fishing has never been so important. Never has it been so crucial to get away from Blackberry’s, cell phones, computers, video games, cable tv, and instant messaging.

I’m reminded of a public service announcement from about 10 years ago where the camera showed a kid bouncing a basketball in a park, while the announced dead-panned, “It’s like you can actually feel the ball, because it actually is the ball.” The point being that no matter how real the video game experience, it will never be as real as the ball itself, so get off the couch and bounce it.

With the advent of the Wii game system, which I’ll admit is great fun -- we now even have an interactive version of electronic fishing. Please.

It’s a good diversion for 15 minutes or half an hour, but nothing compares to wading a trout stream, or canoeing the New or James River. Ditto for lake enthusiasts who live for morning mist at sunrise. Few other places or pastimes are so relaxing while requiring complete focus. Only with rod in hand can I stand and focus on a single fish or likely spot when my watch beeps to tell me an hour has passed without my realizing it.

Beyond that… No video game can reproduce the anticipation of a top water strike, a jumping fish or the one that gets away at the boat. No amount of graphic improvement will ever equal the true colors of a rainbow or brook trout, or the teeth on a muskie.

And little Bobby and Anna will not grow up one day and talk about the time Meemaw and Papa sat in the living room and pushed buttons on a game controller.

Nope. None of this media stuff is legit compared to a day on the water. If nothing else I hope this contest gives you an excuse or the motivation needed to get out and enjoy something that’s as basic and pure as it’s always been.

The rules are the same as always. You catch a fish between Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend (May 26 to Sept. 5). Send us the picture and we’ll put it on the web, and the better ones’ on TV as well. At the end of the summer, my judges in the newsroom will vote on the 10 best photos in the kids and adult divisions, and then the public will vote on-line for the winner. Either the fish or the fisherman must be from Virginia.

So get out there and enjoy. It’s why we all live here and not New York City or Washington, D.C.. (Ok, that and the traffic).

Grab a rod, and your lures or some bait and wade into the great outdoors. It feels just like a tug on the line, because it is a tug on the line!

Tight lines to ya, I’ll see you on the water.