Va. Code § 28.2-410
Except as provided in § 28.2-409 or as otherwise provided by regulation, it is unlawful for any person to take or catch with a purse net in the waters of the Commonwealth, or waters within its jurisdiction, menhaden between the Saturday following the third Friday in November and the Sunday preceding the first Monday in May. However, in the waters east of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel within the three-mile limit of the Virginia shoreline such prohibition shall be between the Friday before Christmas and the Sunday preceding the first Monday in May. It is also unlawful for any person to use any purse net or other net having a stretched mesh of less than one and three quarters inches. Any person violating any of the provisions of this section is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.
Va. Code § 28.2-410