The Middle River Group, LLC

fly fishing, conservation and politics.

VDGIF

For the love of a dog, K9 CPO Justice.

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UPDATED 10May
DGIF announced the heartbreaking news that Justice lost his battle with cancer recently.
“He was truly my best friend, who I fortunately got to take to work with me,” said Senior Officer Billhimer.”

You can still help other DGIF K9s. See the link at the end of this article
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Little did I know…

K9 Justice and CPO Wayne Billhimer (right) greeting DGIF Board members Tom Sadler (center) and Gary Martel at Justice’s retirement ceremony. DGIF photo

It was my second Department of Game and Inland Fisheries board meeting and the first thing on the agenda, after the call to order formalities, was recognition of employees. That’s when the bad news came. Major Scott Naff gave us the word about K9 CPO Justice. Cancer.

If you have lost a dog to illness you know the feeling, the bottom drops out. The look on his handler, CPO Billhimer’s face was sad stoicism and a deep love for his partner. I barely held it together.

The Department has shared their remarkable story here: K9 CPO Justice Retires. Please give it a read.

Most importantly, take a moment and make a donation. Thanks to the Ward Burton Wildlife Foundation, a special fund has been set up for the care of DGIF’s K9 CPOs including Justice. Contributions will help pay for equipment, food, general wellness care, and veterinary care for these canine officers.

Retired K9 Justice and CPO Wayne Billhimer DGIF Photo

Five Great Trout Streams for Tenkara (fini)

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This is the final installment and instead of pointing out just one more great trout stream, here is a way to see all of Virginia’s trout waters courtesy of the GIS folks at the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

They have created Google Earth files for the Commonwealth’s trout waters and when you load the file on Google Earth you can explore to your heart’s content.

So grab a tenkara rod, now you have no excuse not to “ramble out yonder” and find some new water to try.

Enjoy!

A tip of the Kromer to Mike Kelsey of the Appalachian Tenkara Anglers Facebook group for the heads up on this cool tool from VDGIF!

source: http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/gis/google-earth-files.asp

Tom and Lily search for new water

Money Talks

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Now we are talking!

Here in Virginia we have a Lt. Governor, Bill Bolling, who loves to fly fish which is great in and of itself.

More importantly he “gets it” when it comes to the how important fishing, hunting and outdoor recreation is to Virginia’s economy.

Check it out!

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M46moS7YvoA

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