John McCoy ready to stop writing and start fishing By
July 5, 2021 - 12:02 am
John McCoy, Outdoors Editor at the Charleston Gazette-Mail works on his final feature story for the paper on a DNR patrol boat on the Kanawha River.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. The man who has chronicled every development in West Virginia’s outdoors for more than four decades is ready to put down the pen, pad, and camera and pick up his fishing rod. John McCoy, the longtime outdoors editor for Charleston’s newspapers, posted his last column and story over the weekend.
“It’s been 42 years since I started as a freelancer with the Daily Mail. I went full time with the Daily Mail in 1988 then to the Gazette and then to the Gazette-Mail. Forty-two years is long enough, it’s time to go fishing,” McCoy said in a recent conversation on West Virginia Outdoors.
bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com
Dominick McClung, 18, along with his attorney Matthew DeVore, were in Wood County Circuit Court Thursday where McClung was sentenced to life in prison for the September 2019 murder of Karen Yeager. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)
PARKERSBURG A Parkersburg man was sentenced to life in prison Thursday for the September 2019 murder of Karen Yeager.
Dominick McClung, 18, was sentenced before Wood County Circuit Judge Jason Wharton in Wood County Circuit Court for the first-degree murder of Yeager, 68, whose body was found under the Fifth Street Bridge a day after being reported missing.
He was also sentenced to one to five years for the concealment of a deceased human body. Both sentences are to run consecutively.
Angler catches record freshwater drum
SOUTH CHARLESTON, WV A West Virginia angler caught a state record freshwater drum on April 24 in Mason County. John Gibson of Poca, WV, caught a 27.88-pound, 35.59-inch freshwater drum on the Kanawha River, breaking the previous record for weight (27 pounds) held by Charles Mickel Lott since 1989. Bill Dawkins maintains the record for length with a 37-inch freshwater drum caught in the Little Kanawha River in 1954.
Anglers who believe they may have caught a state record fish should check the current records in the fishing regulations at wvdnr.gov. Procedures for reporting a record catch also are included in the regulations.
bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com
Mark Lewis, president and CEO of the Greater Parkersburg Convention and Visitors Bureau, appeared before the Wood County Commission on Thursday to discuss the decline in the hotel/motel tax over the last year as a result of the pandemic and plans on how to market the area as people will begin traveling again soon. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)
PARKERSBURG Wood County has seen fewer tourism dollars coming in over the last year as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic which has impacted local attractions who receive a portion of the hotel/motel tax.
Mark Lewis, president and CEO of the Greater Parkersburg Convention and Visitors Bureau, appeared before the Wood County Commission on Thursday to discuss the decline in the hotel/motel tax over the last year as a result of the pandemic.
PARKERSBURG The Wood County Commission has approved the documentation to make offers on eight structures in the Happy Valley area. Fred Rader, with the Mid