Fishing is as simple or as complicated as you want to make it. A boat, while nice to have, also isn’t a requirement. Some of the best anglers that I know have never owned one. Some boats have motors and electronics that cost more than most cars, yet an angler in a kayak without electronics can catch them just the same, and sometimes better.

The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR) opened its 2026 regulatory public comment period on July 7, giving hunters, anglers, trappers, boaters, and other stakeholders until August 5, 2026, to weigh in on proposed rule changes and fee increases. Among the topics open for comment are freshwater fishing, license and permit fee increases, game and nongame species, watercraft regulations, and more.

Virginia’s Earn-A-Buck program has been around for more than a decade, but this season was my first time hunting under it, and my home county’s first year participating in the program. I’ve hunted enough to know every regulation has a purpose, but I didn’t expect this one to reshape my entire season. Coming home to Virginia to hunt land that I know more intimately than anywhere else in the world should have felt familiar