Time at a premium for Va. Beach angler-reporter-coach

Few anglers get to fish as much as they'd like to, but those who go less often seem to cherish the experience all the more.

Take Chris Reckling, for instance.

The Virginia Beach native, a well-known television sports reporter and anchor, now has extra duties on WAVY's "The Hampton Roads Show." Add in coaching his two sons' travel baseball teams, and fishing trips are few and far between.

"It's rare. It's amazing how little time I have to fish," said Reckling, a 1981 graduate of Princess Anne High School and a 1986 graduate of Virginia Tech.

"So when we do, it's very special... whether we catch any fish or not."

But he usually does.

Reckling grew up fishing and crabbing with his family. He now lives on the waters of Lynnhaven Inlet and has a boat on a dock lift in his Kings Forest backyard.

"My dad and uncle would take me on the headboats all the time, and we'd come home with coolers full of spot and croaker," said Reckling, 48. "That and crabbing. We were doing it all the time.

"When we went on vacation there were only two things I had to have - my skateboard and fishing rod."

Baseball was supposed to be Reckling's ticket to stardom. Recruited as a power hitter, he also was pretty good on the football field. But a series of knee injuries and surgeries ended his dream.

"Senior year of high school was the first time," he said with a grimace. "Then spring football my first year at Tech. Then again. It was just injury, surgery, rehab over and over again. After three years, I just gave up.

"I decided to get into sports broadcasting instead of realizing my dream. It was a way for me to stay involved in sports."

Tall and handsome, Reckling is a mainstay on high school sidelines.

"I love it," he said. "But it's tough because we have to try and shoot several games a night and I never get to really enjoy one game."

Something Reckling does enjoy is paddling with friends on a six-man outrigger canoe the group purchased a few years ago. The crew has done overnighters from Sandbridge to Rodanthe, N.C., several times and has a goal to paddle from Sandbridge to the Eastern Shore.

Again, time is at a premium.

"It's hard to get us together as a group," he said. "Everybody's so busy."

Reckling managed to get in a few hours of speckled trout fishing last week by combining a trip with a story he was working on for his "Reck on the Road" feature that appears Tuesdays on "The Hampton Roads Show."

The fish weren't big by anybody's standards, but they were plentiful.

"Getting to go fishing, and getting to do it with good friends is a rare thing for me," he said. "Usually when I can go it's with my boys. They're busy, too, but ask me to go quite a bit.

"So getting to go with a couple of buddies on a beautiful day and catch a few fish... well, that's special."

Lee Tolliver, (757) 222-5844, lee.tolliver@pilotonline.com

Twitter @LeeTolliver