Shad Planking

In modern times, would-be candidates, reporters, campaign workers, and locals gather to eat shad, drink beer, smoke tobacco, and kick off the state's electoral season with lighthearted speeches by politicians in attendance.

The unique shad cooking technique that is enjoyed today traces its roots to Mr. Paul Cox, of Surry County, Virginia.

Nettles and Mr. Richard Savedge, invited twenty-five of their friends to historic Wrenn's Mill in Isle of Wight County, Virginia for their first Shad Planking.

Having attended similar functions in the deep South, Mr. Cox introduced the group to the intriguing process of cooking 15 shad they had caught earlier in the day from the James River on hardwood planks over an open fire.

With Dr. Nettles' suggestion and help, the Wakefield Ruritan Club later adopted this time honored tradition as an annual community and fund raising function in 1949.

The event has been held on the third Wednesday in April each year ever since to herald the arrival of spring, with attendance increasing in size from the original 300 guests to over 2000 today.

The site is the wooded property of a sportsmen's club near U.S. Route 460 near the incorporated town of Wakefield in Sussex County, about an hour southeast of the Virginia State Capitol at Richmond.

Originally a purely social affair, it soon gained a political function, a development credited to State Senator Garland Gray, a local lumberman.

In his 1977 novel, "The Shad Treatment," legal scholar, novelist, and journalist Garrett Epps called the event "a yearly gathering of the white men in Southside [Virginia] -- no blacks, no women allowed -- where the shirt-sleeve politicians .

Marshall, who was facing Gilmore for the Republican Party nomination, emphasized his conservative voting record and strong stance against abortion and gay marriage.

[5][6] An April 20 editorial in The Roanoke Times noted the event's lack of Democrats, but said that didn't mean it was dead: "The only debate possible is over exactly which year the Shad Planking went too far.