We have two new arrivals to our waters. Both cobia and Spanish mackerel have been caught. It is a bit early for both. It will probably be a couple more weeks before the bite becomes more consistent but more anglers will be out looking for them now that first ones have been caught. When conditions have been right, sight fishing for cobia has been good out of the Outer Banks. Both red and black drum continue to be caught. Red drum are being caught in the surf of Virginia’s barrier islands and on the shoals at the mouth of the bay. Black drum are being caught in the “Cabbage Patch” area. Groups of boats fishing for them can be found near buoys 16, 13 and 10. Some nice sea mullet are being caught in these same areas. That is good if you want to catch some sea mullet. It is not so good if you are trying to keep clam on the hook for a black drum. A couple of other fisheries are opening up due to regulations. Sea bass is open as of the 19^th of May which opens up our wreck fishery that has been shut down due to both the sea bass and tautog seasons being closed. Striped bass has opened up some more with the start of Virginia’s Bay Spring Season. May 16 through June 15, you are allowed to keep two striped bass per person from 18 to 28 inches long. One of your fish may be 32 inches or larger. Striped bass can be found at all of the areas bridges and small striped bass can be found up on the flats around the grass beds. Some nice croaker are being caught up in the rivers. Big speckled trout continue to be caught in the rivers of the Mobjack Bay. Flounder action picked up a bit this past week with some nice catches coming from the western side of the bay. Offshore fishing was very good this past week with boats from Virginia Beach and Oregon Inlet meeting around the 41700-800 and making some great catches of yellowfin tuna. Some boats limited out. There were also a few bigeyes caught by the fleets. The inpressive run of gaffer dolphin continues out of Hatteras.

On May 21, I will be at the meeting of the Bull Island Anglers Club. There, we will be talking about wreck fishing.

If you missed the Virginia Striped Bass episode of George Poveromo’s World of Saltwater Fishing, you will have another chance to see it. Note the date change (originally scheduled to air in May) Encore Performances: Saturday, June 2 – 11:00 a.m. (Eastern Standard Time).  www.georgepoveromo.com

The very popular Flounder Bowl will be held on June 30. It will be headquartered at Dare Marina again this year. www.pswsfa.com/FlounderBowl_12.htm

A couple of weeks after the Flounder Bowl, there will be another flounder tournament that many of our club members fish each year. The Gloucester Boys & Girls Club Flounder Tournament will be held on July 14. www.secureonlinegiving.com/events/site/index.asp?eventID=866  

May 12, David Brabrand fished out of Hatteras. They came in with a load of dolphin up to 26 pounds.

May 12, Ric Burnley fished out of Oregon Inlet. They limited out on yellowfin tuna.

May 12, I went drum fishing in the evening with Charles Southall. Slow except for a quadruple bite. There were 4 anglers...perfect, almost. I was the only one that did not stay tight so I got to be net man and photographer. Larry Horne and Charles Southall each caught blacks. Hunter Southall caught a red. That was it for us. Quit about 11 pm.

May 12, Steve Martin fished the mouth of Back River for flounder for a bit. They caught a half-dozen flatfish. They then ran over to buoy 10 where the caught 2 black drum and called it a day.

May 12, Wes Blow fished the buoy 10 area for drum. He caught 2 black drum and 3 red drum plus he missed a couple of other drum bites.

May 11, Capt. Rick Wineman fished close to Fisherman’s Island. They caught 4 black drum to 46.5 inches long.

May 11, Bill Pettigrew fished out of Oregon Inlet. They caught 21 yellowfin tuna.

VIMS' Marine Science Day is the perfect event for both young and old.  Adults will appreciate the chance to speak with scientists about current issues of concern, enjoy  touring the teaching marsh and seagrass greenhouse, and savor tasty tips at the seafood cooking demonstration.  Younger children will have tons of fun learning about flounder by making flip books and flounder Frisbees in the Kids' Marine Science Pavilion.  All but the youngest of visitors will enjoy stopping by exhibits hosted by researchers, touring the oyster hatchery, learning about fish in the museum collection, and attending 10-minute fast talks on flounder, shark by-catch, and VIMS' O preyCam. The artistic creations in The Parade of Marine Life grab the attention and smiles of every generation.  

For a complete listing of events, check out the on-line Marine Science Day 2012 program.     

Marine Science Day will take place Saturday, May 19th from 10AM - 3PM at VIMS' Gloucester Point campus (just north of the Coleman Bridge).  There  is no charge, and there will be tons to see and do, rain or shine.

I look forward to seeing you there!    

Susan Maples-Luellen

VIMS Outreach Coordinator  

P.S. Tell all your friends about this fun event by clicking the Facebook or other social share buttons at the top of the page. You can also share this email with others by clicking "Forward email" at the bottom of the page.  This will keep all the words and pictures where they belong.  Thanks for sharing!      

VIMS' Marine Science Day is the perfect event for both young and old.  Adults will appreciate the chance to speak with scientists about current issues of concern, enjoy  touring the teaching marsh and seagrass greenhouse, and savor tasty tips at the seafood cooking demonstration.  Younger children will have tons of fun learning about flounder by making flip books and flounder Frisbees in the Kids' Marine Science Pavilion.  All but the youngest of visitors will enjoy stopping by exhibits hosted by researchers, touring the oyster hatchery, learning about fish in the museum collection, and attending 10-minute fast talks on flounder, shark by-catch, and VIMS' O preyCam. The artistic creations in The Parade of Marine Life grab the attention and smiles of every generation.  

For a complete listing of events, check out the on-line Marine Science Day 2012 program.     

Marine Science Day will take place Saturday, May 19th from 10AM - 3PM at VIMS' Gloucester Point campus (just north of the Coleman Bridge).  There  is no charge, and there will be tons to see and do, rain or shine.

I look forward to seeing you there!    

Susan Maples-Luellen

VIMS Outreach Coordinator  

P.S. Tell all your friends about this fun event by clicking the Facebook or other social share buttons at the top of the page. You can also share this email with others by clicking "Forward email" at the bottom of the page.  This will keep all the words and pictures where they belong.  Thanks for sharing!      

What a weekend.  Headed to Oregon Inlet to fish with my good buddies Jimmy and Jason on Dream Girl.  Saturday we headed to the 680 and 100 fathoms and busted up the yellowfin tuna.  Fish were in the 68 degree dirty water. Lots of whales and dolphins.  Got hit by a couple packs then got covered up.  Tuna blowing up on every bait.  Whammy!  Big bite was on SeaWitches but Jimmy is running SeaStars in all three flatlines.  “I know we’re going to get whacked by big eye,” he said.  While the fleet was catching yellowfin, Fin on Qualifier ran south and blasted 50 gaffers.  Back at the dock, Captain Herb Gordon told us that he loaded the boat with gaffers out of Hatteras this weekend.  Captain Creature on Sea Creature had the same news.  Captain Kenny Koci also whacked gaffers all weekend.  Driving around town, we saw good action on blues on all the north beach piers.  GotCha plugs were the ticket for a limit of nice tailors.  At the Little Bridge, guys were lined up catching speckled trout on scented soft plastics and ½ to 1/8 ounce jigheads. 

Back home, sounds like the drum bite is going off.  The FishCrazy Fleet had Buoy 10 surrounded catching both black and red drum.  We heard of a good bite of flounder at Back River Reef.  We also had rumors of a few cobia caught off Hampton on cut bait and live eels.  Captain Stan Gold on Blind Date sent reports of a fantastic catch of wreckfish, rosies, and monster golden tiles out in the deep. 

Ken Neill sent this week's Fish News:

Susanna Musick will be the speaker at the May 15^th meeting of the PSWSFA. She will be discussing the Virginia Game Fish Tagging Program and what we have learned from it so far. www.pswsfa.com/meetings.htm

While they have been here for more than a month, this past week the drum bite really turned on. Red drum were caught in the surf of Fisherman’s and Smith Islands, on Nautilus and 9-Foot Shoals and in the buoy 10 area. Black drum were caught at buoys 16, 13, and 10. The striped bass trophy season is open. You are allowed to keep one “trophy” fish, 32 inches or longer. Large striped bass can be found at the CBBT and around the barrier islands of the Eastern Shore. Check the regulations. These trophy fish must be reported and the regulations will change again on May 16. Sea bass will re-open on May 19. This will get us back out on the ocean wrecks where the sea bass are waiting. Interest in offshore bottom fishing will also pick up then as the big sea bass caught out there will no longer have to be released as by-kill while fishing for tilefish and grouper. The grouper and tilefish action has been good. The golden tile bite has been particularly good. Remember that you have to have a Tilefish/Grouper Permit and must report each tilefish and grouper that you catch. Flounder are being caught but the action has not been great. There have been some good catches inside the seaside inlets. This is the prime month for speckled trout fishing in the Mobjack Bay area and the rivers there have been producing some nice speckled trout. Offshore fishing has been pretty good out of the Outer Banks with yellowfin tuna, dolphin, wahoo, and a decent number of billfish all being caught. There have been a few tuna caught out of Virginia but not many boats have been making the run. Small bluefish are biting well inside the inlets and up in the lower bay. Spadefish, sheepshead and cobia are all fish we will start to hear about over the next few weeks. Like our drum fishery, cobia showed over a month ago at Hatteras but did not develop into much until now. The sight fishery from Cape Hatteras to Cape Lookout has really taken off. We should be seeing some fish in the bay in a couple of weeks.

I visited with the Great Bridge Fisherman’s Association this week. We talked about big tautog and other things. On May 21, I will be at the meeting of the Bull Island Anglers Club. There, we will be talking about wreck fishing.

If you missed the Virginia Striped Bass episode of George Poveromo’s World of Saltwater Fishing, you will have another chance to see it. Note the date change (originally scheduled to air in May) Encore Performances: Saturday, June 2 – 11:00 a.m. (Eastern Standard Time).  www.georgepoveromo.com

The very popular Flounder Bowl will be held on June 30. It will be headquartered at Dare Marina again this year. www.pswsfa.com/FlounderBowl_12.htm

A couple of weeks after the Flounder Bowl, there will be another flounder tournament that many of our club members fish each year. The Gloucester Boys & Girls Club Flounder Tournament will be held on July 14. www.secureonlinegiving.com/events/site/index.asp?eventID=866  

May 8, Wes Blow went back out and spent most of the night fishing for drum. They caught 3 big reds to 47 inches long.

May 6, Wes Blow fished the buoy 10 area in some rough conditions. He caught two red drum, both 45 inches long. He moved over to buoy 13 and did not have a bite there.

May 6, Capt. Rick Wineman fished Fisherman’s Island in some very rough surf. They caught 3 big red drum to 53 inches long.

May 5, we spent the night at Fisherman’s Island. We caught 7 red drum to 48.5 inches long. Three of the fish were long enough for citations.

May 5, Danny Forehand spent the night at Fisherman’s Island. They caught 4 big red drum.

May 5, Phillip Neill fished 9-Foot-Shoal. The last I spoke to him, they had caught two red drum and one black drum.

May 5, George Wojcik has not had luck on the flats with speckled trout. He went to the HRBT with Eric Wynings where they released striped bass to 27 inches. They also caught plenty of small bluefish. They then fished for flounder, tagging and releasing 18 flounder. They brought the 19^th home with them.

May 5, Michael Hurst caught some pretty speckled trout in one of the rivers of the Mobjack Bay.

May 4, Capt. Rick Wineman fished Fisherman’s Island. They caught 10 big red drum to 51 inches long.

May 4, Steve Martin fished for flounder out of Oyster. They did not catch a single flatfish.

May 3, Hunter Southall fished Poquoson Flats. They did not find any speckled trout or puppy drum. They did find small striped bass in the 18 to 20 inch range.

Ken posted this week's PSWSFA Fish News:

Jack Travelstead has been appointed as the new Commissioner of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. The Peninsula Salt Water Sport Fisherman’s Association supported his appointment. We felt that he was the most qualified person for the job and we have a good working relationship with Commissioner Travelstead.

 www.mrc.virginia.gov/Notices/2012/Travelstead_Appointment-4-30-2012.pdf

A great place to view this weekend’s “Supermoon” will be out around the shoals and Fisherman’s Island while fishing for big red and black drum. Saturday night’s full moon coincides with the closest the moon will be to the earth all year. It is also coinciding with the red and black drum bite. There should be a lot of big drum caught this week. The striped bass season is open again. Right now, you are allowed to keep one “trophy” fish, 32 inches or longer. Large striped bass can be found at the CBBT and around the barrier islands of the Eastern Shore. Check the regulations. These trophy fish must be reported and the regulations will change again on May 16. Another regulation that is due to change in the near future is sea bass. With both sea bass and tautog closed at the same time, wreck fishing has been shut down. Sea bass will re-open on May 19. This will get us back out on the ocean wrecks where the sea bass are waiting. Interest in offshore bottom fishing will also pick up then as the big sea bass caught out there will no longer have to be released as by-kill while fishing for tilefish and grouper. Flounder are being caught but the action has not been great for most. There have been some good catches inside the seaside inlets. Overall, flounder fishing should pick up this month. This is the prime month for speckled trout fishing in the Mobjack Bay area. Speckled trout are also available from Back River to the York River. Offshore fishing has been pretty good out of the Outer Banks with yellowfin tuna, dolphin, wahoo, and a decent number of billfish all being caught. There have been some bluefin tuna and big bluefish caught to the north of us. It is time to start looking for these fish on the sea mounts off of Virginia. Small bluefish are biting well inside the inlets and up in the lower bay. Spadefish, sheepshead and cobia are all fish we will start to hear about over the next few weeks.

I will be visiting a couple of the other fishing clubs during the month of May. On May 7, I will be at the meeting of the Great Bridge Fisherman’s Association. They want to hear about the big tautog catches. On May 21, I will be at the meeting of the Bull Island Anglers Club. There, we will be talking about wreck fishing.

If you missed the Virginia Striped Bass episode of George Poveromo’s World of Saltwater Fishing, you will have another chance to see it. Note the date change (originally scheduled to air in May) Encore Performances: Saturday, June 2 – 11:00 a.m. (Eastern Standard Time).  www.georgepoveromo.com

The very popular Flounder Bowl will be held on June 30. It will be headquartered at Dare Marina again this year. www.pswsfa.com/FlounderBowl_12.htm

A couple of weeks after the Flounder Bowl, there will be another flounder tournament that many of our club members fish each year. The Gloucester Boys & Girls Club Flounder Tournament will be held on July 14. www.secureonlinegiving.com/events/site/index.asp?eventID=866  

April 28, the Peninsula Salt Water Sport Fisherman's Association chartered the Miss Hatteras. It rained on and off all day, it was rough, the fishing was not good, and some of our best catches had to be released due to regulations. We had fun anyway. We are a fishing club. We have our own boats and mostly fish with our own regular crews within the club. We have social functions on land but none of us have a boat large enough to get a big group of us out on the water together. Chartering the Miss Hatteras lets us have a club meeting while fishing with some people we don't normally fish with. Capt. Spurgeon Stowe is a great guy to fish with and his hard-working mates do everything they can to make sure you have a good trip. We never got on a really hot spot but we did manage to catch some fish. Charles Southall brought a high-speed trolling set up for use when running between spots. It got hit a few times and he had something substantial (we think wahoo) on for a bit before the hook pulled. The largest fish of the day was caught by Bill Tice. He got a big sandtiger up the boat. Impressive looking beast. We caught some nice red snapper and sea bass that had to be released due to closed seasons. Probably the best fish brought back to the dock was a gag grouper caught by Martin Freed. Some pretty triggerfish were caught. The big fish pot was won by a jack of some sort.

April 27, Capt. Rick Wineman fished Fisherman’s Island. They caught and released a 50.5 inch red drum.

April 21, I ran over to Fisherman’s Island for a few hours to fish for red drum. The closest I got was a crab bitten in half. Ric and Roger Burnley fished there earlier in the day and caught a big red drum.

April 20, Charles Southall, Danny Forehand, and Brandon Bartlett all fished Fisherman’s Island in different boats. Danny and Brandon each caught a large red drum. Charles did not have any bites.

April 20, Lee Williams fished Fisherman’s Island in his kayak. They ran into large striped bass catching fish up to 43 inches long.

Drum season is sputtering to a start on the Eastern Shore.  Luck anglers are scoring big reds in the shoals and on the flats from Fisherman’s Island to Smith Island.  Right now, water temperature is the key.  With the water dancing around the magical 60 degree mark, anglers who find the warm water find the fish.  Look for the best shot at a drum to come late in the afternoon as warmer water rushes out of the shallows.  My brother Roger and I hit the shoals on Saturday and managed to pull one near 46 inches out of the breakers as the tide started to flood.  We caught our fish on a whole blue crab fished on a 8/0 circle hook on a fishfinder rig.  We anchored the boat off Fisherman’s Island on the uptide of the waves breaking on the shoals and cast into the white water.  Red drum are famous for their explosive initial run, but early in the season the fish are more likely to play with the bait before eating it.  Watch the rod tips carefully for any sign of a hit.  We heard of several other boats scoring reds in the shoals and the bite seems to be picking up after dark. This week’s south winds and flood tide should be perfect for an after-work drum circle.

We've heard of improved catches of flounder around the 2nd and 3rd Islands of the CBBT.  Captain Kevin Selden of Dockside Inn reported that his headboats have been catching flatties - along with large numbers of spotted hake - at the 3rd Island.  The flounder will take strip baits on a flounder rig and the hake are looking for squid on a two-hook bottomrig.  Captain Jake Hiles of Matador had fun catching blues, striper, trout, and shad at the Hampton Roads bridge tunnel on small bucktail jigs cast into the bridge lights at night.  We've also heard of improved catches of blues, trout, striper, and blues inside Rudee Inlet with Gulp! jigs bounced off the bottom. 

We talked to Captain Kenny Koci on Big Tahuna. He told us that boats are scoring good numbers of gaffer dolphin and wahoo.  A few captains have even found blue and white marlin.  Kenny’s last trip started at a wreck on the 850 where he caught several big wahoo with vertical jigs.  Then he trolled up more wahoo and a mess of gaffer dolphin.  “Work the vertical jig fast enough to keep it away from the dolphin,” he recommended. 

All week, be sure to check back in with FishCrazy! for updates. 

Dad reported: Saturday saw several boats fishing for tog out of Indian River Inlet and all but one reported slow going. The successful boat ran far south to find his fish. On Tuesday one boat did find a good number of rockfish  right off the coast catching over 20 on Mojos and Stretch plugs.

Tog fishing picked up off Virginia Beach.  Ken Neill sent this report: It was beautiful in the ocean today. We fished until we ran out of bait: 250 clams and about 4 dozen crabs. Hunter Southall showed up this morning talking smack. He and his dad, Charles, had a bet going on which would catch the largest tog. The loser had to wash the winner's truck. When Hunter jumped out to an early lead, Charles said that we were not going in until he caught a larger tautog. It only got worse from there as Hunter soon caught a tog that turned out to be our largest of the day. Fish bit both the clam and crab baits. The clam caught the most and the largest fish. We ended up catching 49 tautog up to Hunter's 9 pound 8 ounce fish. 9 of the fish had previously been tagged. We also caught a good number of sea bass, some dogsharks. a nice hake, 2 cunners, 1 large toadfish and an impressive conger eel. We did not catch any cod.

We fished with Captain Kenny Koci on Big Tahuna on Saturday. We found a yellowfin at the 350 then chased bluefin on the surface up to the 511 but couldn't get the fish to bite. The fish were hanging on a bread between 68  and 72 degree water.  Kenny pointed out that when the warm water pushes inshore, the fish spread out and are harder to find.  When the water pushes out, the fish bunch up and go on the chew. We ended the day jigging big amberjack off a wreck.  On the way in, we ran into a humpback whale doing high-kicks on the surface. Kenny slowed the boat and let the crew watch the show. 

Fishing off Hatteras has exploded this week.  Captain Dan Rooks on Tuna Duck blasted bluefin and yellowfin on Monday.  He’s been catching fish both trolling and jigging.  He sent us this report: “Bites all day 300 pound class. We went 5-8 on topwater casting, and pulled of 7 on the jigs.”  Sounds like it’s time to go to Hatteras! 

The striper bite turned on Tuesday off Sandbridge.  Once again, diving gannets gave away the location of big rockfish feeding below.  Fish were caught trolling and jigging.  With any luck, the striper bite will last to the end of striper season!

Dr. Ken Neill III sent this week’s Peninsula Salt Water Sportfishing Association’s “Fish News”: Virginia’s bluefin bite might be over. I have not heard of anymore catches since our fish last week. Now, every time that I have thought it was over, more tuna are caught. More bluefin are being found off of Oregon Inlet and Hatteras so the fish may have moved south. Still, I would not be surprised if they start crashing our striped bass baits again (or any more surprised than we have been all winter). The striped bass bite has been hit or miss. It is fantastic if you can time it right. In open waters, Cape Henry to Sandbridge remains the area to be when the action turns on. The bay is full of rockfish that are providing some very good catch and release action. Fish are being caught along the CBBT, the Plantation area, along the Baltimore Channel and up in the rivers like the York and James. Tautog remain active in the lower bay and on the coastal wrecks. More anglers will start to target tautog now that the striped bass action has become more sporadic. Speckled trout are available in the Elizabeth River in the Hot Ditch area though the bite is not on fire. Tilefish are being caught around the 50-fathom curve when a boat makes it out there to try. Boats running offshore out of the Outer Banks are catching some bluefin and yellowfin tuna depending on the day. Hatteras boats are also catching some dolphin, wahoo, blackfin tuna and the occasional blue marlin.

The Virginia Striped Bass episode of George Poveromo’s World of Saltwater Fishing will air on the NBC Sports Network. The show times are: Friday, March 2 – 2:30 p.m. Featured airing: Saturday, March 3 – 11:00 a.m. Encore Performances:  Saturday, May 26 – 11:00 a.m. Locally, NBC Sports Network is Cox Cable channel 34 and Direct TV channel 603. www.georgepoveromo.com

The very popular Flounder Bowl will be held on June 30. It will be headquartered at Dare Marina again this year. More details to come.

It is a new year which means that is time to pay your dues for the year. Dues remain $30 for the year.

Save February 24 on your calendars. That is the date of the PSWSFA Awards Banquet. Cost again will only be $10 for adults and free for children 12 and under eating the child’s meal. The meals are actually over $30 each but the club covers most of it. www.pswsfa.com/chum.pdf

Feb. 13, I did not catch a thing. I was by myself, did a lot of running around and never put out a full spread. I never had more than 2 baits in the water. Lots of bait and whales from the hotels to the 2C buoy. It looked good with gannets diving. Did not see much at Sandbridge though late in the day, I did see some boats coming in from the Drydock area. I went up in the bay to Plantation, some bait and some diving gannets. Coming back out, it look pretty good inside the 3rd and 4th where there were gannets and gill nets but I had a ton of birds on the outside of the bridge on my Radar so I kept running. By the time I got there, it was over and it looked like the water had turned white with every gannet in the world sitting on the water. Drove around in them and made them fly again without marking much. Not many boats out. Finished in the almost dark at the 3 mile line off the hotels in birds I could see on my radar but could barely see with my eyes because it was almost dark. They could see as they were diving all around the boat, great marks, zero bites. I asked Cason if he had any fish weighed in and he said Capt. Billy brought in 3 over 40 pounds. He said he was down at the state line.

Feb. 11, Hunter and Charles Southall fished the Hot Ditch. They caught 3 speckled trout. One was large enough. 25 inches long, to earn Charles a release citation.

Feb. 10, Steve Martin tried for bluefin tuna off of False Cape. They did not have any tuna bites. They did catch and release a 35 inch rockfish.

Good news: striped bass are back.  While most people were at work, the Fish Crazy team was tearing up the fish.  Captain Blake Hayden and Captain Tim Hagerich were blasting striper off Virginia Beach.  Captain Russ Kostinas on Top Knotch also reported rockfish at Cape Henry on Tuesday.  Out of Hatteras, Captain Dan Rooks on Tuna Duck said that bluefin are making a good showing, "To the east." He's rigged up for trolling or jigging trips - it's the anglers choice.  On Wednesday, Captain Kenny Koci on Big Tahuna blasted the blackfin and caught a big wahoo. 

Bluefin tuna continue to tangle with anglers off Virginia Beach and the Outer Banks.  Captain Dan Rooks on Tuna Duck reported that bluefins have been thick off Hatteras.  These fish have been hanging in 70 degree water around the 400 to 500 lines.  Dan's out fishing, today, and will provide details in the next update.  Off Virginia Beach, bluefin fishing is better than striper fishing - or anything else you could think to do.  Dr. Ken Neill sent this report from Monday:

The Virginia bluefin bite just will not stop. Crazy fishing. It is February and we are still catching bluefin tuna right along the beach. It was beautiful today, sunny and calm. There were only a few boats out along the VA Beach oceanfront but those out there were tangling with bluefin tuna. The best bite was from the Golf Ball to the condos at Sandbridge from 2 to 8 miles off of the beach. We hooked two. We pulled the hook on one. Michael Hurst (Gloucester) caught the other one. Both were hooked on the same Stretch 30. This was Mike's first-ever bluefin tuna. It had a fork-length of 62 inches and weighed 133 pounds. While weighing the fish at Inlet Station Marina, another boat came in with a tuna twice the size of ours. They caught it on a 6/0 after a 3-hour fight. A 47-pound striped bass was also weighed in while we were cleaning our tuna.
 
The lure was attached to the leader via a new clip. It looks like a paper clip. Crazy Alberto gave me some to try at the SaltWater Seminar in Annapolis on Saturday. It passed the tuna test: www.tacticalanglers.com

Dr. Ken Neill, III
IGFA Representative
President, Peninsula Salt Water Sport Fisherman's Association, Inc.
www.igfa.org
www.pswsfa.com
www.vbsf-hookedup.net/healthygrin/

FishCrazy Weekend Hangover

What a FishCrazy Weekend. Saturday, the FishCrazy crew participated in Salt Water Sportsman’s National Seminar Series in Annapolis, Maryland. Over 500 people gathered to learn inshore and offshore tips and tactics from national and local experts.  Meanwhile, anglers fishing off Virginia Beach oceanfront ran into more bluefin that striped bass.  At least 6 bluefin were weighed in at the Virginia Beach Fishing Center.  FishCrazy team member, Brandon Bartlett and the crew on Virginian were responsible for one of these monsters.  The fish was caught 6 miles off Rudee Inlet.  Other tuna were pulled out of the water off Sandbridge and False Cape.  Boats fishing out of Oregon Inlet also saw bluefins on Saturday.  Captain Greg Mayer on Fishn Frenzy found the around the 400 line in 70 degree water. He said that there were a lot of bluefin in the area, but the fish weren’t not feeding. He managed to hook one over 73 inches – too big to keep.  Out of Hatteras, Captain Kenny Koci on has been jigging up good numbers of blackfin around the 200 rocks.  Captain Jake Hiles told us that there was a great bite around the Rockpile on Saturday with boats encountering tuna, gaffer dolphin, and a 500 pound blue marlin.  Inshore, anglers have been catching and releasing striper around the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.  We saw Captain Pete Dahlburg at the National Seminar Series on Saturday, and he told us that he’s still whacking rockfish around the bridge pilings.  The key to catching the fish is finding them and Pete’s electronics play a big role in that equation.  Using his Lowrance sidescan sonar, he find the fish hanging around his pilings then orders them to drop their jigs and start jigging. A 1 to 2 ounce leadhead matched to a 6 to 8 inch loft plastic will work the whole water column.   “The fish can be anywhere on the pilings,” he said.

This week's Peninsula Salt Water Sport Fishing Association News. For more details or to join the club, go to www.pswsfa.com

I tagged a tautog on the Westmoreland nearly eight years ago. It was just recaptured on the Cape Henry Wreck. This lucky fish was re-released with the tag still in place. If you can drag yourself away from the rockfish and bluefin tuna, anchor up on the wreck and see if you can this critter again. Tautog are active on structures near the mouth of the bay and along the coast. The further you go offshore, the more sea bass you will have to weed through to get to the tautog. Rockfish are what most are fishing for. This mild winter has kept a large mass of fish up the coast and up in the bay. Catch-and-release fishing for striped bass inside the bay is legal (as opposed to outside the 3 nm line where you are not supposed to target them at all, even for catch-and-release) and some anglers are enjoying this less crowded action. Most of the striped bass in open waters are being found from Rudee Inlet on north with most of the fleet finding fish from Cape Henry to the 4A buoy at the mouth of the bay. Bluefin tuna continue to be caught along the ocean front. Most recent action has been south of Rudee Inlet with False Cape being a good area from 2 to 6 miles off of the beach. Anywhere along the ocean front, especially where you find whales and bait, is a likely location to encounter a bluefin tuna this week. If you venture outside 3 NM for the tuna, make sure that you do not have any rockfish on board. Many specifically targeting these tuna will not keep any rockfish at all even if they are fishing inside open waters as a bluefin hook-up 2 miles off of the beach may find you well outside the 3 nm line by the time you finally subdue the beast. Speckled trout continue to be caught in the Elizabeth River in the Hot Ditch area though the bite is not as hot as it was last month. Boats running offshore are finding good blueline tilefish action along the 50-fathom curve mixed in with the sea bass and dogfish. Offshore boats out of the Outer Banks are finding some yellowfin tuna along with the occasional bluefin tuna. There is some blackfin jigging action out of Hatteras.

The Virginia Striped Bass episode of George Poveromo's World of Saltwater Fishing will air on the NBC Sports Network. The show times are: Friday, March 2 - 2:30 p.m. Featured airing: Saturday, March 3 - 11:00 a.m. Encore Performances: Saturday, May 26 - 11:00 a.m.

The very popular Flounder Bowl will be held on June 30. It will be headquartered at Dare Marina again this year. More details to come.

It is a new year which means that is time to pay your dues for the year. Dues remain $30 for the year.

Save February 24 on your calendars. That is the date of the PSWSFA Awards Banquet. Cost again will only be $10 for adults and free for children 12 and under eating the child's meal. The next regular club meeting will be in March. We will have board meetings in January and February. Over the past year, we have enjoyed Joe and Mimma's for our board meetings. For 2012, the board meetings will be at Bill's Seafood. Club members are welcome at the board meetings.

George Poveromo’s Salt Water Sportsman National Seminar Series will be in Annapolis, Maryland on Feb. 4 as part of its 25^th Anniversary Tour. Instructors will be: Captain John Oughton, Captain "Walleye" Pete Dahlberg, Rick Burnley, Dr. Ken Neill III, "Crazy" Alberto Knie, Captain Jimmy Price, Captain Brady Bounds, Captain Chris Dollar, Bill Carson, Harry Vernon III, and George Poveromo. Topics include: Live-lining for trophy stripers; refined striper trolling tactics; Big stripers on top water lures; Secrets of fishing the Susquehanna Flats; Chunking tricks for striped bass; Flutter-jigging for striped bass and bluefish; Targeting jumbo bluefish; Bluefish on surface lures; Inshore wire-line trolling techniques; How and where to catch more and bigger fluke; Bucktailing for fluke; How and where to catch fluke by the numbers; Secrets for catching big tautog; Can’t-miss tautog tactics; How to locate and set up on productive bottom (for tautog, black sea bass, fluke and spot); Target jumbo sea bass; Jigging for sea bass; No-nonsense weakfish and speckled trout tactics; How and where to locate weakfish and speckled trout; Spanish mackerel the easy way; How to find and use offshore temperature breaks to your advantage; No-nonsense strategies that produce more and larger makos;  Kite fishing tactics that take more sharks and tuna;  Hot methods for catching yellowfin and bluefin tuna; Offbeat tactics that score more yellowfin and bluefin tuna; Can’t miss tuna trolling strategies (includes sub-surface trolling techniques); Live-chumming, chunking and live-baiting for tunas; Trolling for white marlin; Little-know tricks that yield more white marlin; How to create and troll a deadly offshore teaser system (including dredges); Canyon trolling strategies; Secrets of fishing the canyons; plus comprehensive sessions on fishing the upper, middle and lower Chesapeake Bay! For more information on this seminar series, visit: www.nationalseminarseries.com .

Jan. 28-30, we fished for bluefin tuna each day. For the 3 days, we caught and released about 8 rockfish and hooked two bluefin tuna. We had another bite or two that did not come tight. Wes Blow fought one of the tuna and got it to the boat. It was about 130 pounds or so. That fish was on a white Mojo. Capt. JT Hale "fought" the second tuna. This one was full grown. He really just held on the rod as he watched the line disappear from the Tiagra 80W with 30 pounds of drag. That fish broke off at the leader just as we had cleared lines and were stating to chase it. It was on a pink/white Ilander/ballyhoo combo off of the outrigger.

Jan. 29, Capt. Rick Wineman fished for bluefin tuna without a tuna bite. They did catch some rockfish that they released.

Jan 29, Capt. Herb Gordon fished south of Rudee Inlet for bluefin tuna. Fishing right along the beach, they managed to fight and land a nice bluefin tuna. This is their 3rd bluefin landed this winter out of 7 they have fought.

Jan. 28, David Brabrand fished along the oceanfront for tuna and rockfish. They did not catch any tuna and only caught one rockfish. That one fish was worth the trip as it weighed in at 49 pounds.

Jan. 26, Danny Forehand gave the bluefin tuna a try. They did not get any tuna bites. They did catch some rockfish and brought home a limit minus one (try to save that one spot for that really big fish).

Jan. 25, Capt. Rick Wineman fished the VA Beach oceanfront for rockfish and bluefin tuna. They had one tuna on a pink/white Ilander/ballyhoo combination but pulled the hook. They then proceeded to catch 24 rockfish up to 47 inches long.

Jan. 24, Don Crist went fishing for tuna and rockfish. They had one tuna bite but pulled the hook. They caught two rockfish: 48 and 37 pounds. They lost another one at the boat. The big rock was caught on a ballyhoo behind a blue/white Ilander.

Jan. 23, Tricia, Bernie Sparrer and I ran down to Sandbridge where we had left them 2 days prior. Foggy, could not see anything. We got one bite on a parachute in the short rigger but it did not come tight. Trolled up to the Dump Site and got one bite on the stretch on the way. Just bent the rod over, did not stay tight. At the dumpsite, hooked up on the Stretch. Fish bugged out. Had to back through the rest of the lines hard to keep it from spooling us, cockpit full of water. We got the other lines in and turned and chased the fish. Got most of the line back and it took it all back. Chased it again, caught up to it, it went under the boat, and broke off. Tricia was impressed. She says she is going to be sore and she is not sure that she wants to tangle with another one. I guess as long as they keep biting, I'll keep fishing for these stupid tuna. That's 2 out there with my Stretches in them. Weather permitting and if the tuna hang around, I'll be trolling the beach again this weekend. We did not get a rockfish bite.

Jan. 22, Hunter Southall and Wes Blow fished the Hot Ditch. Action was not red hot but they managed to catch a number of speckled trout up to 26.5 inches long.

Anglers Earn Over 5000 Citations in 2011 for the 12th Year in a Row

Anglers registered 5176 trophy-size fish for Citation awards during the 54th Annual Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament, which ran from January 1st through December 31st.  This was the 12th year in a row anglers registered at least 5,000 Citations since the Tournament began in 1958.

Striped bass lead the Citation parade (44-inch for a release and 40 pounds for a kill) in 2011 with a total of 983 fish registered.  This total included 256 fish (26 %) for release and 726 fish (74 %) for a kill, and accounted for 19 % of the year’s total awards.    The season total was the fourth highest number of striped bass awards in Tournament history.  Seventy-four of the kill Citations were for fish 50 pounds or greater, 15 of these striped bass weighed 55 pounds or more and two topped the 60-pound mark.  The fishery was largely fueled by near ideal conditions in December and the availability of trophy sized stripers in many locations throughout the Bay and even inside some tributaries.  Numerous striped bass were recorded from the lower James River, above the James River Bridge, where trophy stripers have been rare in recent years.

Speckled trout accounted for the second largest number of Citations among the 35 eligible species in 2011 with a total of 948 awards with 692 (73%) releases and 256 (27%) kills.   Trophy trout represented 18% of the year’s awards.  The 2011 total was the second highest in the Tournament’s history, eclipsed only by the record setting total of 1056 Citation speckled trout registered in 2008.   The Virginia’s trophy speckled trout fishery is truly a year round fishery and Citation trout were registered in every month of the year in 2011.  While the majority of speckled trout registered were released, of those that were killed, six topped the magic 10-pound mark and 49 fish weighed 8 pounds or more.

After back to back record setting numbers, white marlin Citations dropped in 2011, but only slightly, as offshore anglers registered 915 white marlin releases in 2011.  This was the second highest number of white marlin awards in Tournament history and second only to the 1253 releases registered in 2010. White marlin accounted for the third most Citations and 18% of all Citations registered in 2011.  White marlin are only eligible for release so all of these beautiful billfish were released.  The season’s first white marlin was caught June 5 and the last three of the year were registered November 13.  The marlin fishing was consistently good from mid-July through late September with break in late August due to hurricane Irene.

Red drum accounted for the fourth highest number of Citations in 2011, representing 15% of the year’s total number.  The 755 red drum Citations represent the third highest number of awards issued for the species in the Program’s history.  Red drum Citations became “release only” in 2000, and coincidently, that was the first time in Tournament history more than 500 Citation red drum were registered in a single year.  Since 2000 anglers have failed to register less than 500 reds in only two years, as management measures for the sought after red fish preclude the keeping of the large adult fish.   The season for trophy-sized red drum is a long one in Virginia.  The season’s first red drum was caught on the off Smith Island on April 17 and the last three drum of the year were registered October 23.  Two of those drum were caught in the vicinity of the CBBT complex and the other was pulled from the barrier island surf out of Oyster. 

Several species deserve honorable mention in the 2011 review.  Cobia made another good showing, although numbers of Citation fish were down slightly from 2010 with 262 of these brown suited fish registered in 2011.  A full 27% were for released fish (minimum qualifying length is 50 inches) and some of the weight Citations were real brutes, topped by a 101-pound cobia.   The season’s first cobia was landed May 27, just in time for the long Memorial Day weekend while sight casting at the CBBT. The last cobia for the season was registered September 29 and was caught at the Chesapeake Light Tower.  Cobia accounted for 5 % of all Citations issued in 2010.     Blueline tilefish numbers reached their second highest total since these deepwater dwelling fish were added to the eligible species list in 2007, as 241 bluelines (10-pound minimum weight) were checked in during 2011.  Tilefish accounted for 5% of all Citations registered in 2011.  Due to the deepwater habitat preferred by these fish and the huge pressure change the fish are subject to as they are pulled to the surface, no release Citation is offered for tilefish.  Sheepshead numbers were solid and on par with 2010, as the season produced 206 trophy fish or 4% of the year’s total.

As the tide rose for several species in 2011, others saw their numbers ebb.  The number of spadefish registered in 2011 was the lowest total since this species was added to the Citation program in 1995, as a mere 8 Citations were registered.    Flounder Citation numbers dropped for the seventh year in a row, to just 197 fish.    Although 23 of the flounder Citations were for doormat flounder of 10 pounds or more, this was the only year since 1995 anglers failed to register at least 200 trophy flatfish.   Gray trout numbers, and not just trophy-sized fish, have been disturbingly low since 2005 and 2011 saw a continuation of that trend.  Spot Citation numbers took an inexplicable nose-dive in 2007 and remained low in 2011, as just 6 spot were registered for the season.    The “biggest loser” in 2011 in terms of total numbers was amberjack as just 21 jacks were registered during the year.  This was the lowest number of “AJs” registered since a release was added to the format in 1988.  Reports indicated amberjack were readily available at the “Southern Towers,” located some 50 miles SE of Rudee Inlet, but few of these willing gamesters met the release Citation minimum of 50 inches.

The Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament is operated by the Virginia Marine Resources Commission with funding provided by the Virginia Saltwater Recreational Fishing License Fund.  Awards are made to anglers catching fish meeting established weight criteria in 25 species while an additional 10 species meeting established length criteria are only available for release awards for a total of 35 species eligible for Citation recognition.

Citation awards are full color certificates delivered at the recipient’s choice as a plaque or in a plastic album page.  Special awards are presented to anglers meeting the eligibility requirements of the Master Angler and Expert Angler programs.  The Program also administers the very popular Virginia Junior Angler award program, where any angler 15 years of age and younger can earn a special Virginia Junior Angler Award certificate by catching and releasing 6 different species of saltwater fish in Virginia during a calendar year.

For more information, contact Lewis S. Gillingham, Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament, 2600 Washington Ave.; Third Floor, Newport News, VA 23607, (757) 491-5160, vswft@mrc.virginia.gov

Dad sent this report from Bandit out of Indian River Inlet:

Tog fishing is good out of Indian River Inlet.  I went on the Bandit with Captain Scotty Gold on Saturday and while I did not do that well, there were at least two 10 fish limits taken.  We fished a wreck 30 miles southeast of Indian River and for whatever reason the bite was always at the bow and I was not.  Green and white legger crabs were supplied by the boat and I did see one guy using extra large shrimp, but can't say he did better than anyone else.  All the tog were placed in a live well and most were transported back to Maryland in trucks and vans also equipped with tanks.

Indian River Inlet gave up keeper rockfish over the weekend.  Bucktails, shads and flies all produced fish.  The flies are fished using surf outfits and a rig made by tying the fly to a leader and either using a three-way swivel or directly connecting the leader to a sinker heavy enough to put the fly on the bottom.  The rig is allowed to drift the bottom with the current.

Captain Tim Hagerich fished on Fin Reaper on Monday. They had excellent action on big striper along the Demarcation line at the mouth of the Bay.  We also heard of an excellent bite of big rockfish off Plantation Light.  Captain Skip Feller on Rudee Angler reported that a big thresher shark was weighed in at Virginia Beach Fishing Center on Monday.  Several tuna and many big rockfish were also weighed in. 

Dr. Ken Neill added some details reporting that the bluefin were holding off False Cape.  Ken and I fished on Sunday and came lost one big tuna at the boat and broke a monster off after it dumped an 80 in the blink of an eye. 

Ok, here’s the skinny.  Big bluefin tuna have moved in to the Virginia Beach Oceanfront.  The fish are mixed in with monster rockfish.  This week, anglers have caught bluefin from Sandbridge to Cape Henry.  The fish are destroying striper tackle.  A few FishCrazy captains have landed fish up to 80 inches on Ilanders, Seastars, and SeaWitches rigged on 50 and 80 pound tackle.  The Virginia Beach Fishing Center is into the action.  In between bluefin bites, anglers trolling parachutes, umbrellas, and mojos are scoring big rockfish.  Even though the bay season is closed, crews drifting live eels over the sloughs and bars from Cape Charles to Kiptopeke are still catching some monster rockfish.  Captain Jake Hiles ran to the Cigar and caught a mess of big sea bass. 

Captain Jorj Head reported rockfish up to 57 pounds on eels at Plantation Light this morning.  Phillip Neal blasted big rockfish overnight at MP12 by drifting eels to the lights.  Captain Mike Beane found rockfish stacked up at the Green Can just off Cape Henry. He also hooked and lost a big bluefin in the same area.  Other skippers including Rick Caton and Steve Richardson reported big bluefin, too.  At the end of the day, Mike Beane ran into trophy rockfish right outside Lynnhaven.  All this in 20 knot winds and driving rain.  Why can’t they bite when the weather is nice?!? 

Delaware:

Dad sent this report from Delaware: Tog fishing remains good in the ocean and Delaware Bay.  In the bay most of the reef sites hold good numbers of tog as do the Outer Wall and the Ice Breakers. The ocean reef sites and inshore wrecks have tog while the wrecks in deeper water past the 20-Fathom Line are giving up sea bass in impressive numbers and size.  Some cod have been mixed with the sea bass.

Striper fishing has become a hit or miss proposition.  Good days find a mixture of big and little fish at the mouth of the bay.  Eeling, trolling and jigging have all produced results.  On the bad days, nothing works.

Indian River was dead on Monday morning.  Your reporter and Harry Aiken, with over 100 years of inlet fishing experience between us, failed to draw the attention of a single rockfish.  Conditions were perfect; incoming water, east wind and cold air temperature.  Birds were working over small shiners with nothing underneath.  Harry and I were duly humiliated.

The surf is dead.  A very few rockfish have been caught this fall and unless we get some east wind I don't expect this to change.  A few anglers have given up on the rock and are catching ling on cut bunker or mullet.

Check out Dad’s weekly column in Cape Gazette. 

Maryland:

Captain Walt sent this update from up the bay: The Chesapeake is still "littered" with schools of breaking and feeding Striped Bass from east of the Hooper Straits all the way down to the CBBT complex. Birds will most often mark the action, but sometimes that means birds (many grouped together) floating on the surface waiting for the fish to push the bait back to the surface. Some days requires quite a bit of travel across the water until the birds are spotted. But once they are spotted the fishing usually remains good within a mile or two of where you first wet your lines. Many schools are of the 16" to 20" range Stripers but there are also many schools of the 22" to 28" Stripers. Better sized fish have been coming from jigged metals like Sting Silvers and Crippled Herring. This fishing should continue while the water temps remain between 45 and 51 degrees.  We ran into Captain Russ Kostinas of Top Notch at Princess Anne Tackle.  He reported boats running into huge schools of rockfish just outside Ocean City Inlet.  “Keeping my fingers crossed,” he said.  So are we! 

Virginia

The only news out of Virginia right now is striper. Plain and simple.  After a long wait, anglers are starting to catch good numbers of big fish.  The FishCrazy crew fished Friday night and picked up two 46 inchers (one went 41.75 pounds) a 44 incher, and a monster 51.  All fish were caught on live eels at the High Level. The best tactic was slow trolling and drifting around the pilings while bouncing our eels off the bottom with a Carolina rig made up of a 3 ounce eggsinker, 4 feet of 80 pound mono, and a 9/0 Owner J-hook.  We heard good reports of tons of bait and a few striper from Cape Charles, to Plantation Light, to Kiptopeke for guys drifting with eels (on the same type rig).  We even heard rumors of guys catching a few big fish by trolling parachute rigs in the same areas.  Kayakers are also getting into trophy rockfish at Concrete Ships off Kiptopeke State Park.  Each change of the tide, it seems like one or two ‘yakers are getting lucky. Again, a live eel on a Carolina rig is the best rig.  Ken Neill sent this report from the High Level Sunday: We got a 44.5 inch first thing in the morning then some missed bites. PLANTATION looks great and a few big fish were caught around us. Took Charles in and came back out. Rick Wineman called me to them as they were leaving with their limit of 45 to 50 pound fish. Thanks Rick....I think. Hard doing everything solo. Best I can tell, I caught 10 or 11 fish 44 to 48 inches long with several in the 40 to 45 pound range. A couple I never slowed down. Tide has broken down and the wind has swung me away from the bridge, I'm exhausted, and my tackle is a mess. Everything has to be re-rigged. I think I quit for tonight. Captain Hunter Tucker was chasing rockfish around the bay, too.  He pulled some nice fish off the 4th Island by casting an eel to the rocks. 

Mike Standing on Waterman reported: Deep drop last week. Good sea bass, blueline ans one snowy.  Other days were small rock. Big ones are out over the line. Expect to pick up this week.

Wes Blow sent this report from the Elizabeth River Hot Ditch: Hunter took me to the cove yesterday we tagged 10 fish 18-20 inches, nothing big. We had a bunch of smaller ones. I was tagging one fish and one of my rods got pulled over board. Went back to fishing with the rods I had left. After about 30 minutes decided to try and retrieve the lost rod. Started casting a 3 oz lead head and slowly retrieving it. Had a few snags then one snag that kept coming in only thing it was fighting back. Got the line to the boat and hand lined in the end with the fish attached 18 incher. Tried pulling in the other end of the line with the rod attached and it snagged the bottom, came off anchor and retrieved the lost rod.

Rob Choi fished the Hot Ditch this weekend and pulled a good number of 18 to 23 inch fish, too. 

North Carolina:

Looks like the Oregon Inlet Fishing Center boats are catching good numbers of yellowfin and blackfin with a few wahoo and even a blue marlin. 

Captain Rom Whitaker on Release sent this report from Hatteras: Went live baiting for kings on Saturday and the fishing was excellent even though it was pretty rough.  Fish were only 12 miles out.

FishCrazy Holiday Hangover:

From Delaware Bay to Chesapeake Bay to Cape Hatteras – fishermen had a lot to be thankful for over the holiday weekend. 

Dad sent this report from the First State: The entire Delaware Bay holds big rockfish.  In the upper bay from Woodland Beach to Port Mahon chunking with bunker has accounted for rock over 20 pounds.  The most popular locations have been 4L, 6L, Blake's Channel, Cross Ledge and Miah Maull.  In the mid-bay, Brown Shoal has produced for eelers and trollers while the 60-Foot Slough has been good for chunkers.  At the mouth of the bay, the Eights, the Valley and Overfalls Shoal have been crowded with boats trolling and eeling.

Tog action was good at the bay reef sites, the Outer Wall and the Ice Breakers.  The new moon current kept the numbers down, but limit catches were made early last week.

The ocean is producing tog and sea bass.  Here too the current was a problem.  The best sea bass action has been beyond the 20-Fathom Line.  Tog are on inshore wrecks and reef sites.

Indian River Inlet and the surf from Cape Henlopen to Fenwick Island have seen a very few keeper rockfish.  Cut bunker or mullet have been the two top baits in the surf while eels and black salties have taken a few keepers from the inlet.  Tog have been caught from the inlet rocks on cut crab.

Thanksgiving morning, the wind and cold temperatures didn’t stop Wayne Seymour of the Virginia Beach Boater’s Warehouse from catching some nice specks in Rudee Inlet.  The best bite was around low tide on MirrOlure’s new 17 MR lure.  “Anything with chartreuse was good,” he said.  We saw Wayne in Owl Creek on Sunday – he told us he already had 5 nice specks.  Check out Boater’s Warehouse’s new location on First Colonial next to Super K.  They’ve got everything you need for boating and fishing. 

Friday, Dad and I ran out to the Third Island and pulled a limit of striper from the rocks. The best bet was a Rapala Wind Cheater.  We saw other anglers scoring nice fish by wire line trolling along the tubes.  Even guys who were jigging with bucktails and soft plastics caught nice rockfish around the islands.  After the striper bite died, we tried a little togging.  We only caught two and didn’t see any others caught from the 2^nd to the 1^st. 

Saturday, Roger, Dad, and I hit the 3^rd at dawn and limited out shortly after sun-up.  Same scene.  The best bite has been real early.  Rob Choi kayaked out to First Island and picked up a nice mess of tog.  The best bite seems to be on blue crab. 

That same day, Captain Hunter Tucker on Hawg Hunter blasted big cats on the James River. He even landed a big striper in the mix.  He said the best bite was in 30 to 40 feet of water. This fishery should go from good to outstanding over the next few months. 

Dr. Ken Neill’s crew from the PSWSFA sent this report of their holiday merriment: Our Thanksgiving week began with big catches of yellowfin tuna, jumbo sea bass, and big speckled trout. After Turkey Day, we were going to start looking striped bass to get ready for the arrival of George Poveromo and his TV crew but....we had run into some young-of-the-year bluefin tuna while catching yellowfin tuna earlier in the week. These fish are very valuable to scientists studying these fish so the striped bass were put on hold and on Friday, we went out on one of our dedicated science trips. We ran out to the warmer water in the Triple 0s area and put out a spread a lures that you would use to catch Spanish mackerel. The few boats around us, were catching yellowfin tuna. We had a number of bites on our little spoons. They all resulted in either pulled or straightend hooks. We covered a lot of water but never could find the baby bluefin. On the way in, we stopped on the Chenango to try and jig up some bluefish (for a global  genetics study). The bluefish were there and we got all the requested samples. We also caught a few nice sea bass and an Atlantic Bonita which became Sushi.

 Sunday, we jumped on Charles Southall's Albemarle we spent a half-day in the waters off Cape Charles. We drifted eels through good bait marks but we never had a bite.

Kayak Kevin Whitley reported a few big rockfish caught at the High Level on eels and one big rock caught by a kayaker at the Concrete Ships. “They’re just starting out,” he said. 

Captain Joe DelCampo reported big bluefish just 9 miles off Virginia Beach Oceanfront, today.  “This is the first day that we’ve seen them out there,” he said. 

Out of Hatteras, Captain Rom Whitaker reported excellent action on kings.  After blasting the kings (averaging 32 pounds) they ran out and blasted big wahoo.  This type of fishing can’t be beat – anywhere.

Jack Austin sent this report:  I spent a few days end of last week on Emerald Isle and fished a little, while also doing stuff with my family. Had good luck with small speckled trout in the surf as well as in the sound, down near Bogue Inlet. I fished from our kayak in the sound, and found it was a perfect craft for getting up next to the marshy grass islands. Most specks ran 12 to 13 inches so they were throwbacks. About every 10 or 12 fish, there would be a keeper mixed in. They hit curly tail grubs as well as mirrorlures.

Captain Aaron Kelly on Rocksolid had a fantastic day of fishing. They got into citation sized sea bass and trigger fish just off Rodanthe.  Aaron is praying for rockfish – so are we.

FishCrazy Holiday Hangover:

From Delaware Bay to Chesapeake Bay to Cape Hatteras – fishermen had a lot to be thankful for over the holiday weekend. 

Dad sent this report from the First State: The entire Delaware Bay holds big rockfish.  In the upper bay from Woodland Beach to Port Mahon chunking with bunker has accounted for rock over 20 pounds.  The most popular locations have been 4L, 6L, Blake's Channel, Cross Ledge and Miah Maull.  In the mid-bay, Brown Shoal has produced for eelers and trollers while the 60-Foot Slough has been good for chunkers.  At the mouth of the bay, the Eights, the Valley and Overfalls Shoal have been crowded with boats trolling and eeling.

Tog action was good at the bay reef sites, the Outer Wall and the Ice Breakers.  The new moon current kept the numbers down, but limit catches were made early last week.

The ocean is producing tog and sea bass.  Here too the current was a problem.  The best sea bass action has been beyond the 20-Fathom Line.  Tog are on inshore wrecks and reef sites.

Indian River Inlet and the surf from Cape Henlopen to Fenwick Island have seen a very few keeper rockfish.  Cut bunker or mullet have been the two top baits in the surf while eels and black salties have taken a few keepers from the inlet.  Tog have been caught from the inlet rocks on cut crab.

Thanksgiving morning, the wind and cold temperatures didn’t stop Wayne Seymour of the Virginia Beach Boater’s Warehouse from catching some nice specks in Rudee Inlet.  The best bite was around low tide on MirrOlure’s new 17 MR lure.  “Anything with chartreuse was good,” he said.  We saw Wayne in Owl Creek on Sunday – he told us he already had 5 nice specks.  Check out Boater’s Warehouse’s new location on First Colonial next to Super K.  They’ve got everything you need for boating and fishing. 

Friday, Dad and I ran out to the Third Island and pulled a limit of striper from the rocks. The best bet was a Rapala Wind Cheater.  We saw other anglers scoring nice fish by wire line trolling along the tubes.  Even guys who were jigging with bucktails and soft plastics caught nice rockfish around the islands.  After the striper bite died, we tried a little togging.  We only caught two and didn’t see any others caught from the 2^nd to the 1^st. 

Saturday, Roger, Dad, and I hit the 3^rd at dawn and limited out shortly after sun-up.  Same scene.  The best bite has been real early.  Rob Choi kayaked out to First Island and picked up a nice mess of tog.  The best bite seems to be on blue crab. 

That same day, Captain Hunter Tucker on Hawg Hunter blasted big cats on the James River. He even landed a big striper in the mix.  He said the best bite was in 30 to 40 feet of water. This fishery should go from good to outstanding over the next few months. 

Dr. Ken Neill’s crew from the PSWSFA sent this report of their holiday merriment: Our Thanksgiving week began with big catches of yellowfin tuna, jumbo sea bass, and big speckled trout. After Turkey Day, we were going to start looking striped bass to get ready for the arrival of George Poveromo and his TV crew but....we had run into some young-of-the-year bluefin tuna while catching yellowfin tuna earlier in the week. These fish are very valuable to scientists studying these fish so the striped bass were put on hold and on Friday, we went out on one of our dedicated science trips. We ran out to the warmer water in the Triple 0s area and put out a spread a lures that you would use to catch Spanish mackerel. The few boats around us, were catching yellowfin tuna. We had a number of bites on our little spoons. They all resulted in either pulled or straightend hooks. We covered a lot of water but never could find the baby bluefin. On the way in, we stopped on the Chenango to try and jig up some bluefish (for a global  genetics study). The bluefish were there and we got all the requested samples. We also caught a few nice sea bass and an Atlantic Bonita which became Sushi.

 Sunday, we jumped on Charles Southall's Albemarle we spent a half-day in the waters off Cape Charles. We drifted eels through good bait marks but we never had a bite.

Kayak Kevin Whitley reported a few big rockfish caught at the High Level on eels and one big rock caught by a kayaker at the Concrete Ships. “They’re just starting out,” he said. 

Captain Joe DelCampo reported big bluefish just 9 miles off Virginia Beach Oceanfront, today.  “This is the first day that we’ve seen them out there,” he said. 

Out of Hatteras, Captain Rom Whitaker reported excellent action on kings.  After blasting the kings (averaging 32 pounds) they ran out and blasted big wahoo.  This type of fishing can’t be beat – anywhere.

Jack Austin sent this report:  I spent a few days end of last week on Emerald Isle and fished a little, while also doing stuff with my family. Had good luck with small speckled trout in the surf as well as in the sound, down near Bogue Inlet. I fished from our kayak in the sound, and found it was a perfect craft for getting up next to the marshy grass islands. Most specks ran 12 to 13 inches so they were throwbacks. About every 10 or 12 fish, there would be a keeper mixed in. They hit curly tail grubs as well as mirrorlures.

Captain Aaron Kelly on Rocksolid had a fantastic day of fishing. They got into citation sized sea bass and trigger fish just off Rodanthe.  Aaron is praying for rockfish – so are we.

Weekend Hangover:

What a weekend!  Beautiful weather and a weekend don’t often come together. But when they do, the Fishcrazy crew makes ‘em pay. 

Dad said that the striper bite went off the hook this weekend in Delaware Bay.  Anglers drifting “The Valley” at buoy 8A with live eels caught some monster rockfish.  Dad was anxious that the onshore blow forecasted for this week should push bait and striper into the surf.  “I’ll be throwing 8 and bait and a chunk of bunker on Tuesday,” he said. 

Up the bay, Captain Chris Dollar sent this report: “If the weather would cooperate the fish would too. Plenty of rockfish between Pt Lookout and Bloody Point. Capt Harry Nield out of Wenona is trolling off Mud Leads for stripers to 30 inches. Light tackle jiggers are working lures under diving birds off Pt Lookout, Solomons and HI Buoy. Bridge structure - Hoopers Island, Bay Bridges, Narrows- is holding rockfish. Fat white perch on most deeper hard bottom and structure”. 

Out of VB, Ken Neill and crew on Healthy Grin smoked the yellowfin tuna this Sunday.  He started the day southeast of the Cigar in 50 fathoms working to 100  fathoms where they picked at yellowfin – putting 11 fish in the box.    Monday, Ken and crew smoked the sea bass northeast of Rudee. 

Captain Hunter Tucker caught a few striper and a mess of tog at the CBBT on Saturday. 

Kayak Kevin is anxiously waiting for big striper to show up at Kiptopeke.  “I think it’s still a week away,” he said, explaining that this week’s forecast cold front should push the fish closer.  “Right now, the big schools of rockfish are at the Maryland/Virginia line in the Chesapeake and Delaware Bay,” he said, “It will take a couple temperature drops to drive them here.”  Ocean’s East did weigh in one big rockfish caught at High Level on an eel.  “That was just a scout,” Kevin said, “the real mass of fish is still on its way.”  Check out Kevin and crew whacking big striper  and much more in his new video – Kayak Fishing Chesapeake Bay 2. 

While the big schools of big rockfish are still a couple weeks away, there are plenty of school sized fish around.  Anglers are encountering tons of schoolie and “slot” sized striper.  Many anglers are catching rockfish by slow trolling small bucktails with wireline along the spines of the CBBT rock islands.  Other anglers are hooking up by casting Windcheaters, 3 to 5-inch Storn swimshad, and 1 to 2 ounce jigs at the rocks and pilings of the CBBT.  An easy way to catch striper is by trolling Stretch and Bomber plugs along the bridge at 2 or 4 knots. 

Tog fishing should be excellent this week, too.  Anglers have been pulling good numbers of fish from the pilings and rocks of the CBBT with crabs and fiddlers.  A simple single-hook bottomrig with a 3/0 hook and 4 to 8 ounce sinker will snag tog from the rocks and pilings. 

The speckled trout bite continues to shock and amaze anglers in all backwaters.  The bite in Elizabeth River has really fired up.  Anglers working jigs, MirrOlures, or soaking cut bait anywhere from the discharge to the cove to the river are scoring some amazing specks. 

Lynnhaven and Rudee are still putting up some nice trout.  While the numbers have decrease, the size of the fish has increased.  Guys are catching good numbers of keepers by bouncing 3/8 ounce jigs off the bottom or working a MirrOlure midway through the water column.  A Zara Spook top-water plug can also be very effect at dawn and dusk. 

The pretty weather and beautiful fishing extended to the Outer Banks, too.  Boats fishing out of Oregon Inlet returned with limits of yellowfin and even released some billfish. Inshore boats caught big sea bass on nearshore wrecks.  Captain Aaron Kelly caught the season’s first rockfish on Sunday.  “I’m heading out for a night session now,” he said. 

We fished out of Hatteras this weekend.  Saturday, we ran out with Captain Rom Whitaker on Release.  First, Rom found schools of bunker off Hatteras.  After a couple throws of the castnet, the livewell was full of bunker, and we headed to the kings.  It took a few stops, where we caught a few fish, before Rom found the schools of croaker stacked up on his bottom machine.  The bite was on. By fishing live bunker and dead ballyhoo on a twin-hook king rig, Rom’s crew quickly put a limit of kings in the box. 

With the box full, we got back to the dock earlier enough for a speck session at Frisco Pier.  Thanks to JAM at Teach’s Lair, I was able to pull a couple nice specks out of the suds with a 4-inch Gulp! jig and 3/8 ounce jig head. 

Sunday, we started at the 880 Rock with Captain Kenny Koci on Big Tahuna  where we caught a couple nice wahoo and missed a few more.  Then, we stopped by a couple humps, hills, and wrecks to jig up amberjack, albacore, and blackfin tuna.  A great day with a lot of action! 

 We saw Captain Spurgeon Stowe on Miss Hatteras thick into the kings.  Spurgeon is anxious to get anglers on the water and into the fish.  This is a great way to get a great day of fishing and catching.  Nothing beats a day on the Miss Hatteras - once in a lifetime experience that you can have as often as you wish! 

Weekend Hangover:

My head hurts, my feet stink, and I don’t love Jesus – The FishCrazy team survived another weekend of wind and waves. Barely. 

After picking at nice trout in Rudee Friday afternoon I blew town and headed for Oregon Inlet bright and early Saturday morning.  Boats that headed to a warm water eddie east of the inlet found nothing.  Boats that started the day on the 480 scratched out a decent catch of yellowfin tuna.  Boats that ran south to the 200 line smoked the yellowfin tuna.  One boat even released a blue marlin.  Sunday was the same, with a white and sail released along with limits of yellowfin boxed. 

Captain Rom Whitaker on Release called with the hot report out of Hatteras.  On Saturday, his boat caught a big mess of nice tuna along with several thick wahoo.  Captain Dan Rooks also had a fantastic day on Tuna Duck – scoring a mess of yellowfin and a monster wahoo.  From Big Tahuna, Captain Kenny Koci added that he had 17 yellowfin – all around the 200 line.  Kenny said that wahoo and bills were caught at the Rockpile.  Folks, this is the time to get FishCrazy – it’s EPIC out of Hatteras!  Captain Aaron Kelly on Rocksolid has been loading up on sea bass and bluefish this week. He’s anxious for striper to show up. 

Sunday, we headed to the CBBT in search of striper and tog.  We picked up a few schoolies casting 4-inch Storm Shad and Rebel Wind Cheaters at the 3^rd Island first thing in the morning.  Then we went and set up on for tog at the 4^th.  It took us a couple hours, but we picked out a limit of big, fat tog using hard crab and fiddler.  We spotted Captain Herb Gordon on Pretty Work along with several other boats wire-line trolling long spines of Third and Fourth Islands and smoking some nice sized striper.  Each pass, each boat would hook one, two, or three fat rock by bouncing their three-way rigs around the rocks on the spine. 

Kayak Kevin reported good striper fishing at HRBT with the biggest fish hanging deeper in the water column. A 3-inch Storm Shad cast into the pilings and light line will produce plenty of school rockfish.  He added that tog are a good bet at any of the area bridges and reefs.  Specks have really turned on in the Hot Ditch.  Captain Blake Hayden scored a 9 pounder this week on cut mullet.  Above Average Captain Ben Shepherd has been smoking specks with jigs and MirrOlures.  “Lot of 4 to 6 pound fish,” Ben said, “non-stop all day.” 

Eric Sr. sent this report from the Diamond State: Tog and rockfish action is red hot in Delaware Bay. Rock to over 40 pounds were caught at the Eights, the Valley, Overfalls Shoal and the Outer Wall. A variety of plugs with Stretches leading the way and drifted eels have been the most successful offerings. Drifting eels at the 100-foot deep Valley on the slack water caught several big rockfish. Further up the bay big rock were caught on bunker chunks at the 60-Foot Slough, Cross Ledge, Miah Maull, reef sites 1 and 2 and Woodland Beach.  In the ocean, trolling along the beach from Hen and Chicken Shoal to Bethany Beach has produced rock and blues.  The surf is barren so far. Indian River Inlet has seen short rock with a few keepers. Tog fishing at lower bay reef sites, the Ice Breakers and the Outer Wall has been excellent. Green crab is the best bait. Good numbers of sea bass were caught on boats out of Indian River Inlet on Monday while working structure 28 miles offshore.

Check out Dad’s weekly column in Cape Gazette for up-to-date fishing news and oldie-but-goodie fish tales. 

Ken Neill's crew on Healthy Grin had a great day on tiles and sea bass fishing in 50 fathoms.  It was too rough for deep dropping, but they had 5 sea bass citations and a box full of nice bluelines. 

Fishing is great - even if the weather SUX! 

Monday Morning Hangover

Not many choices for weekend warriors on Saturday and Sunday.  I joined a handful of die hards on Rudee Inlet Saturday in 30 knot north east winds.  The wind was blowing so hard our anchor wouldn’t hold and fishing was impossible. The fish were equally annoyed, laying low in the big blow.  Tim Hagerich hit the dock lights that night and caught a ton of spike trout on a small jig.  Sunday, Wayne Seymore pulled a handful of keepers and a bunch of throwbacks out of Rudee using bass assassins.  He told us that “Rainbow Trout” has been one of the hottest colors.  Sunday, Tim Hagerich and I expected nice weather.  That was dumb.  Wind was blowing 15 NE when we met at the Crab Creek ramp so we decided to target trout until the wind relented.  Caught a few fish – including a couple over 20 inches.  Got itchy around noon. Wind subsided some – not much. Ran to the second island. Wind and waves kept us pinned down, but we dropped the hook on the spine and set up for tog fishing.  Slow bite.  No one seemed to be catching any.  We ended up at the First where we picked off a couple tog – including one over 22 inches.  Fish took both blue crabs and fiddlers.  Wind finally died as the sun set.  Other anglers reported scattered action on tog in the bay and specks in the backwaters.  Fishing action should improve as the weather calms – keep your fingers crossed. 

Humpday Blues

Ughhh!  The weather.  Each day that the wind blows, fall fishing slips away.  Looks like the next couple days might give a reprieve to anglers – who knows how long it will last.

Even in the worst of the blow, speckled trout fishing has been phenomenal.  Anglers throwing jigs on 1/8 ounce heads or MirrOlure MR17s or TTs have been cleaning up with tons of small trout and some keepers, too.  Anywhere current passes over structure seems to be holding specks. 

Brandon Bartlett texted us a video of a 30 inch grey trout that he caught on a small jig in Rudee.  He caught another good-sized weakfish and a million specks in the same place. 

Brandon also fished Triangle Wrecks and blasted a mess of nice blues. Then he headed to Backriver Reef where he caught a mess of tog.  While he was there, he saw another angler caught a bunch of big sheepshead. Brandon also watched several flounder fishermen hook into big red drum. 

Captain Blake Hayden reported a steady bite of big reds on Avon Pier during the week.  He also heard of fish coming to Avalon pier.  Not much action in the VA surf – even Sandbridge pier refuses to put up any big reds. 

Tog fishing has been off the hook almost anywhere anglers can drop fiddler crabs into structure.  Hot spots have been anywhere along the CBBT.

Today, sea bass season opened again. Fishing should be excellent on the near shore wrecks such as the Triangles.  Drop a two hook bottomrig baited with cut squid into any of the wrecks to score double headers of sea bass.  Also, try Shimano’s new Lucanus system for more fun sea bass fishing. Lower one of these jigs to the wreck and slowly retrieve it a few feet off the bottom.  The sea bass will nibble its way to the hook, then crank it up to the boat.

Big blues should also be available on the wrecks, along with doormat flounder. 

Offshore fishing was fantastic before the big blow.  Captain Jeff Ross on Obsession was bringing in good numbers of blackfin and yellowfin tuna.  Out of Hatteras, Captain Rom Whitaker reported limits of citation-sized wahoo (over 40 pounds).   Captain Dan Rooks has seen the same on Tuna Duck. 

Off Virginia, deep dropping has produced great catches of tiles and grouper.  Several crews even scored swordfish on overnight trips. 

Fishing would be real good, if the weather weren’t real bad. 

Weekend Hangover!

Kill the weatherman.  Both Saturday and Sunday were forecast to be pretty.  Both days started ugly.  Saturday, Tim Hagerich and I started the day looking for big drum around the CBBT.  Nothing.  Ran back in and picked up Brandon Bartlett – who got day and night confused – and headed to the CBBT in search of tog. We caught fish everywhere we stopped and limited it out.  We ended the day in Lynnhaven catching small speckled trout on Gulp! Jigs and Bass Assasins.  Trout seemed to like a 1/8 to ¼ ounce jig head. The key is to find current flowing over a drop then cast up tide and steadily work the jig back to the boat.  Specks often hold close to the bottom looking for a meal passing overhead. 

Sunday, the forecast 5 to 10 turned out to be 5 + 10 when Brandon, Tim, and I met at Rudee.  Beat our way past the Light Tower and put out a handful of Stretch’s and Rapala’s in search of thresher sharks. Last year, we got into threshers doing the same thing in the same area and we were hoping for a repeat.  Had one shark follow one of the plugs to the boat.  Made some circles but couldn’t get the shark to return.  Headed east to the Triangles.  Caught some big blues on vertical jigs.  Bridled them on 12/0 J-hooks and No. 12 wire.  Slow trolled around the Triangles.  Nothing. Threw the blues into the livewell and ran back towards the Tower.  Deployed the baits again.  Had one shark grab one of the blues but not the hook.  We’re going to keep trying. 

For a map of the Triangles artificial reef check out: http://www.mrc.virginia.gov/vsrfdf/pdf/triangle_reef_grid.pdf

Ran into Captain Stan Gold at the Triangles on Sunday. He ended the day with a nice catch of big flounder.  This is a great time of year to catch flounder by drifting strip baits on flounder rigs around the wrecks.  Sea bass season opens on November 1 – should be some good fishing. 

Also saw Ken Neill and crew. They blasted the big blues by trolling plugs and jigging.  Ended up with 5 weight citations.  They also caught a few keeper flounder. 

Captain Hunter Tucker posed this report from Hawg Hunter Charters: The 6th annual wounded warrior fishing event had a turn out of over 50 veterans and 20 boats.  Lots of big cats were caught with the largest topping the scales at 80Lbs.  Fish are still hitting fresh cut shad on fish finder rigs in 30 ft on the channel edges. 

Captain David Davis posted this report on Fishcrazy.info's Facebook page: Wide open bite in the Elizabeth River today. The slag pile, craney island, and just about any point that sticks out in the channel with deep water near by had fish. I went 57 fish in 60 casts at one point. I had 150 or so in 3-4 hours. 7 keepers to 28 inches- released them all!

Rob Choi sent us the kayak update. He paddled to First Island and bailed tog – up to 20 inches.  “Probably caught 30 tog,” he said, “I couldn’t even get the reel engaged.”  Rob also caught two big sheepshead.  While he was fishing, he saw another angler catch a 51 inch red drum while trolling for striper. 

Rob and Justin Meyer each fished HRBT after dark. They had a good catch of nice-sized rockfish.  Justin even saw one fish he estimated over 35 inches.  Cast swim shad or jigs into the lights of the bridge and hold-on! 

Captain Dan Rooks on Tuna Duck smoked the tuna and wahoo this weekend. He sent this report:    Ten year old River Jones landed this 56 pound wahoo, today offshore Hatteras in 90 feet of water on a 3 1/2 " drone spoon, while fishing onboard the Tuna Duck. Blackfin and tunny were plentiful as well.

From the First State, Dad sent this report: Tog and sheepshead were the hot fish for Delaware anglers over the weekend. A new state record 15.5-pound sheepshead was taken from the Ice Breakers and tog topping 7 pounds were caught from Delaware Bay reef sites. The ocean was pretty rough until Sunday and the inshore waters remained dirty creating less than optimum fishing conditions. Boats running overnight trips to the canyons returned with limits of yellowfin. The surf remains the domain of small blues to 18 inches taken on cut mullet. Indian River Inlet cleaned up a bit on Sunday and small blues and rockfish were caught on a variety of lures. 

Today was tog on the CBBT islands.  Caught fish everywhere we went.  Crab and fiddler.  Put a limit in the box.  Then ran up the Lynnhaven and caught a bunch of small specks.  Gulp and Bass Assassins.

Captain Mike Bean on Blue Dragon fished his way down from VB to Oregon Inlet.  Ran into blackfin at the Tuna Hole.  Heard wahoo and yellowfin, too.  "Big mats of grass," he reported, "when you got into a hole you drilled the place until you caught fish." 

Captain Ken Koci on Big Tahuna called with the hot wahoo report from Hatteras.  He's been slaying them.  Some of the best fishing has been around the Point. 

Tomorrow – thresher sharks. 

Weekend Hangover Report

To talk FishCrazy, you got to be FishCrazy!  Left the house Saturday morning at 3 to meet Captain Jason Snead on Dream Girl at Oregon Inlet at 5.  Ran east with a small faction of the OI heavy hitters to investigate a finger of water that had pushed into the 100 fathom.  Found the water but not the tuna.  Ended up bailing dolphin on a weedline.  After a disappointing day, Captain Dick Harris on Fintastic commented over the radio, “I think we got bitch slapped, today”

Got back to the dock and found out about a drum blitz at the Point.  Jumped in the Jeep and headed south.  Got to the beach as two fish were coming through the shore break.  Fished it hard for a few hours and saw a dozen other drum landed.  Nothing for me. 

After a long day on (and in) the water, I crashed out for a few hours before meeting Captain Jeff Ross on Obsession at Pirates Cove.  Warm water had pushed back into the 100 so we headed south and landed north of the 400 in the middle of a scattered tuna bite.  We landed two before the bite shut down.  Then we drove around and around and around…making our way to the Point.  There was a knot of boats working a scattered bite on the hot side of the break.  Jeff made a lap around the boats then headed off into the green water. 

He put out a planer pulling a pink seawitch.  Our first hit was a big wahoo. Then another big wahoo.  Then another big wahoo.  It was way past quitting time, but Jeff wasn’t done.  “I got a spot I want to hit up here,” he told us, “let’s put the lines out one more time.”  We didn’t troll 5 minutes before the long shotgun goes down, then the right long rigger, the right short, the left short, and both long shorts – 6 fish on!  Everyone hooked up and cranking.  We added a half dozen blackfin to the box before heading home.  “Love ending on a good bite,” Jeff said.

Riding with Jeff and Jason this weekend, I learned so much about fishing. 

While we were drilling holes in the ocean off OI, Ken Neill and crew were emptying the ocean of fish.  Here’s his report: “We ran out to the Triangle Wrecks today. We had the place all to ourselves. The chopper blues have arrived. We caught big bluefish on the troll and by jigging. Jigging was better. We also caught some false albacore. We used to keep them for bait but now, everyone is eating the bait. My wife ate some as soon as I got home. She said it is as good as tuna sushi and anyone who likes sushi will like it. Sea bass is closed so we were not targeting them but we still caught nice ones while fishing for flounder. Another flounder fishing bycatch was a sea creature that Wes Blow caught. He is always catching the weird stuff.”

Dad sent this report from the Homeland:

Delaware fishing has been hampered by the weather that included small craft advisories for most of the week. The first report of keeper rockfish came from the upper bay where bloodworms and eels produced rock at the Bull Pen and the Yellow Can. Tog were caught on mid-bay reef sites with green crab the best bait.

The lower bay had too much wind for most anglers with a few tog caught by the Outer Wall and Reef Site 7 on green crabs. Indian River Inlet is beginning to see more keeper rockfish with the best bite after dark while trolling Stretch 25s. Tog fishing in the inlet has slowed and the ocean saw little activity primarily due to high winds and dirty water. The surf holds small blues that may be caught on cut mullet. The last boat to run offshore came back last Monday with 13 yellowfin from the Spencer Canyon.

Be sure to check out Dad's weekly outdoor column in the Cape Gazette.

Captain Chris Newsome at Bay Fly Fishing posted this rainy day report: The rain has me stuck indoors this morning, but my cut up hands need the rest after landing all the fish of late!  We're still catching nice speckled trout to 22 inches but they have thinned out compared to the fast and furious speck action we had for a couple weeks.  The best thing going has been striped bass on poppers.  It's great fun seeing these rockfish crash topwater flies or lures.  We have been averaging 40-50 stripers per morning.  I still have openings later in the month - now is the time to fill that shallow water fishing urge!

Captain Steve Richardson left the tuna biting on Friday.  He’s out of town, but expects the bite to improve as the water cools. 

Captain Mike Beane on Blue Dragon had reports of a good bluefin bite between the Washington and the Norfolk Canyons.  He also expects those fish to move south as the water cools.  In the meantime, Mike continues to hunt spadefish and sheephead on the islands of the CBBT.  He says that there are so many tog on the rocks that the bottom looks alive.  “You can’t believe it,” he says.

The Oregon Inlet fleet left the tuna biting earlier this week.  A few days of wind and rain and they’ll be back at it ASAP.  We’ll be tagging along with Captain Jason Snead on Dream Girl Saturday and Captain Jeff Ross on Obsession Sunday.  Wish us pictures! 

FishCrazy Doldrums

Not much to report over the past few days.  No drum.  Fished Sandbridge Pier for a few hours Tuesday night and came up blank. Terribly slow year on the pier and in the surf.  Everyone’s fingers are crossed that the best is yet to come.  Saw Jason Carroll, mate on Waterman, at the pier.  He had news of a few tuna caught at the 900 line.  Talked to Captain Jeff Ross.  He had a good catch of yellowfin along with a big wahoo and a white marlin.  He told us that he was fishing south.  Speckled trout fishing remains the best bet on any inland waterway.  MirrOlures and softplastics are hottest.  Puppy drum have been MIA.  Sea bass fishing should also be awesome on offshore wrecks.  Luckily there is still a lot of fall – and good fishing – ahead. 

Heard that the kayakers were getting into drum.  Thursday, the wind dropped out and I called Kayak Kevin. A few hours later we met at the spot, launched the 'yaks, and paddled to the place.  Wasn't long before Kevin hooked up on a live bluefish on a fishfinder rig.  Big fish.  Released.  Then he hooked another big red on a 7-inch Gulp and a 2.5 ounce jighead.  This one was over 51 inches!  Then it was my turn. 49 incher on live blue.  30 inch girth!  Do the math = 55 pounds.  Then I hooked another on the jig.  48 inches.  All around the slack tide 

Kevin went out Friday morning and got another one.  I hit it Saturday afternoon and caught another big one.  Fished Sunday AM and PM tide turns and nothing...oh, well.

Dave Narr reported a good flounder bite at Kiptopeke with Gulp! jigs.  Looks like the specks are biting everywhere.  We saw a couple striper in the lights of the CBBT Thursday night.  Thousands of bluefish around the bridge lights, too. 

Mark Feltner of VCAN landed a 47 inch drum on the beach at Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge.  Remeber, you can get a pass for night fishing from the Park Office.  Check out VCAN's website for more details. 

Get FishCrazy! 

If you haven't had a chance to vote for my cover shot on Salt Water Sportsman's Facebook page - there's still time! 

Go to: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150656505100425&set=a.10150460878840425.64 0275.300885700424&type=1&theater

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To all of you who have voted...THANKS!!!  Bringin' it home to VA!

Also, there's still time to get in on the party aka: The Flounder Bowl. A flounder pounder champion will be crowned - could it be you?  Click on the link in the ad on this page to get in on the good times.

In other news: Dr. Bogus sent the hot report from the Crystal Coast:

UPDATE: Wednesday: Fished the kayak with friends in the Light Tackle Fishing Club. Went out from the Croatan Park (White Oak R.) off VFW Rd. in Cape Carteret. Had one hit on a Spook Jr., with the front treble fouled on my leader. I was retrieving at warp speed to fix it the foul when a drum made a bee-line off the bank and tried to hit it and missed. UGH! I also had another failed drum attempt on a spinner bait. Fantastic day, no fish...only near misses. Thursday: Surf rough and clean, but the wind is windy from SW. Needed a heavy metal to throw anything useful, best approach is to work your way down wind, cast side-armed and keep the metal low to stay under the wind. Anyway, nothing in the surf anyway so it doesn't matter what you use, results are still in a null set.  After a week of unusually hot temperatures, our surf temperatures broke 80° for the first time this season, usually an honor we give to the Fourth of July. But the last few days, despite the heat, water temperatures have dropped back into the 70s, with the surf on Monday at Bogue Pier measuring 77°. So what gives? The surface surf temperature rose quickly on several days of heat and calm or nearly so winds. And the calm winds were a welcome circumstance by the way. I’ve been telling people that it’s been windy since last November, and it has been by the way. The relatively calm winds allow the surface water to heat up quickly and stay stratified on the surface, but when the winds return, and they did from the southwest and brisk, we got mixing of the warmer surface with the cooler water at depths, resulting on the cooling we saw. Of course it also means that the deeper water was warmed up a bit too. Sort of a zero sum thing!
FYI, here is a partial list of some of the species that have upper avoidance temperature of 80° and above: red and black drum, sea mullet, spots, pompano, speckled trout, pompano, Spanish and king mackerel, barracuda, amberjack, Crevalle jack, dolphin fish, and topping the list the amazing tarpon that can tolerate water temperatures up to 100°. The tarpon can also gulp air so they can breathe and survive in hot, tepid low oxygenated summer water.
So how’s the fishing? This time of year, many count on the availability of nearshore Spanish mackerel. There are still Spanish around, but the numbers are down a bit and the fish are tending to smallish, but they are there along with bluefish. There are also some small kings starting to show in the mix too, especially over the reefs and rocks, around Beaufort Inlet and out to the Beaufort shipping channel and the sea buoy area. By the way, the inshore cobia bite is essentially over for this year, after another good season.As long as we’re out off the beach, lets continue with the near and offshore fish. The black sea bass fishing recently reopened and there have been good catches of sea bass in all the usual areas. Out of Beaufort the sea bass are from the Northwest places into the nearshore reefs and wrecks. Out of Bogue the same is true from Southeast Bottoms in to the reefs and rocks just outside of Bogue Inlet. The only problem is that after a long recreational season closure, there is now a lot of fishing pressure on the sea bass, and the reports are that they have been “hammered”. Another nearshore and offshore species that can provide a great pull is the amberjack. Many of the usual locations out of Beaufort and Bogue Inlets have been fished hard lately, and they include the Hutton, 13-Buoy, and AR 330. There is less fishing pressure east of the Lookout Shoals, in places like the D-Wreck and Atlas Tanker. We have hooked some nice fish around the Tanker jigging the Shimano Butterfly jigs. They do provide a great pull, and taste good too!Flounder fishing is still spotty, there are still lots of fish around the reefs and wrecks, and some moving to the inlets and into the inside waters, but many of these fish are short, which is under the 15-inch minimum.On the other hand it looks like a good sheepshead season. They are being landed from Bogue Pier and many inside locations as well, like the Atlantic Beach and Morehead bridges, including the train trestle. To the west the Emerald Isle Bridge and the White Oak River bridges will provide good action. Fiddlers and sand fleas work great, but don’t forget live shrimp, which, since they don’t have to crunch the shell off like they do with the crabs, you can get better hookups. I’ve heard of several ten-pounders landed. Now that’s a sheepshead.There are also some trout and drum being landed in the creeks and marsh areas. Hoop Pole Creek has been one good spot to try. Speckled trout season reopened today, June-16th, but remember that there is a 14-inch minimum size and the bag limit is six-trout/day, with no more than two over 24-inches. The surf has been spotty with occasional blues, Spanish and red drum, early in the morning or in the evening. If you find a good hole you can also pick up some nice sea mullet on sand fleas. Flounder have been few and mostly short lately. PIER UPDATE: Oceanana Pier reports some good action with Spanish, blues spots, sea mullet and some keeper flounder. Bogue Pier had some unusual catches of the week, a 36-pound cobia (#4 of the season) caught by a woman from Indianapolis on a bottom rig with, yes, a piece of squid and with 15# test line. And today, Jim Fox landed a 4.5# bonito on a Got-Cha! Go figure! There were also some keeper flounder, hogfish, couple of 2 to 3# Spanish. Sea mullet has tapered off recently. No kings this week. Seaview Pier reports trout, flounder, sea mullet, blues and Spanish sheepshead, spots and a few drum. No kings this week. Surf nearly two weeks. Jolly Roger Pier has the usual summertime mix. Spanish came back strong this week, blues on the wane, keeper floundersmall cobia, with some 35 to 35-inch keepers, and several tarpon hook-ups but ending in break-offs.Nearshore, has been spotty, some can’t find a Spanish, some reports landing some big ones. Seems like pogies and peanut pogies are needed right now to get hook-ups. Small peanut bunkers for big Spanish and bigger pogies for small kings  (8 to 10-pounds). I saw the pics, I also saw the photo of a nice sail caught and released within a mile from the beach. They were using a live menhaden for bait. Nice by-catch!The Big Rock Blue Marlin tourney is this week, we will have to see how it goes. So far 3-blue marlin weighed in so far, several more reported on the hook today. Good fishing out there! (http://www.thebigrock.com/)  The Ask Dr. Bogus Fishing show, heard every Monday morning at 7:30 on WTKF, 107.1 FM and 1240 AM can now be accessed on the Coastal Daybreak Facebook page. Sign up and be a friend at: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000671941944, and never miss a show. And now WTKF daily programming, including the Ask Dr. Bogus radio show is available in live streaming audio too. Just go to www.thetalkstation.com and click on the arrow. Just click to listen, it's just that easy!

If you haven't had a chance to vote for my cover shot on Salt Water Sportsman's Facebook page - there's still time! 

Go to: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150656505100425&set=a.10150460878840425.64 0275.300885700424&type=1&theater

If you're having trouble, try clicking "Like" on the Facebook page.

To all of you who have voted...THANKS!!!  Bringin' it home to VA!

Also, there's still time to get in on the party aka: The Flounder Bowl. A flounder pounder champion will be crowned - could it be you?  Click on the link in the ad on this page to get in on the good times.

In other news: Dr. Bogus sent the hot report from the Crystal Coast:

UPDATE: Wednesday: Fished the kayak with friends in the Light Tackle Fishing Club. Went out from the Croatan Park (White Oak R.) off VFW Rd. in Cape Carteret. Had one hit on a Spook Jr., with the front treble fouled on my leader. I was retrieving at warp speed to fix it the foul when a drum made a bee-line off the bank and tried to hit it and missed. UGH! I also had another failed drum attempt on a spinner bait. Fantastic day, no fish...only near misses. Thursday: Surf rough and clean, but the wind is windy from SW. Needed a heavy metal to throw anything useful, best approach is to work your way down wind, cast side-armed and keep the metal low to stay under the wind. Anyway, nothing in the surf anyway so it doesn't matter what you use, results are still in a null set.  After a week of unusually hot temperatures, our surf temperatures broke 80° for the first time this season, usually an honor we give to the Fourth of July. But the last few days, despite the heat, water temperatures have dropped back into the 70s, with the surf on Monday at Bogue Pier measuring 77°. So what gives? The surface surf temperature rose quickly on several days of heat and calm or nearly so winds. And the calm winds were a welcome circumstance by the way. I’ve been telling people that it’s been windy since last November, and it has been by the way. The relatively calm winds allow the surface water to heat up quickly and stay stratified on the surface, but when the winds return, and they did from the southwest and brisk, we got mixing of the warmer surface with the cooler water at depths, resulting on the cooling we saw. Of course it also means that the deeper water was warmed up a bit too. Sort of a zero sum thing!
FYI, here is a partial list of some of the species that have upper avoidance temperature of 80° and above: red and black drum, sea mullet, spots, pompano, speckled trout, pompano, Spanish and king mackerel, barracuda, amberjack, Crevalle jack, dolphin fish, and topping the list the amazing tarpon that can tolerate water temperatures up to 100°. The tarpon can also gulp air so they can breathe and survive in hot, tepid low oxygenated summer water.
So how’s the fishing? This time of year, many count on the availability of nearshore Spanish mackerel. There are still Spanish around, but the numbers are down a bit and the fish are tending to smallish, but they are there along with bluefish. There are also some small kings starting to show in the mix too, especially over the reefs and rocks, around Beaufort Inlet and out to the Beaufort shipping channel and the sea buoy area. By the way, the inshore cobia bite is essentially over for this year, after another good season.As long as we’re out off the beach, lets continue with the near and offshore fish. The black sea bass fishing recently reopened and there have been good catches of sea bass in all the usual areas. Out of Beaufort the sea bass are from the Northwest places into the nearshore reefs and wrecks. Out of Bogue the same is true from Southeast Bottoms in to the reefs and rocks just outside of Bogue Inlet. The only problem is that after a long recreational season closure, there is now a lot of fishing pressure on the sea bass, and the reports are that they have been “hammered”. Another nearshore and offshore species that can provide a great pull is the amberjack. Many of the usual locations out of Beaufort and Bogue Inlets have been fished hard lately, and they include the Hutton, 13-Buoy, and AR 330. There is less fishing pressure east of the Lookout Shoals, in places like the D-Wreck and Atlas Tanker. We have hooked some nice fish around the Tanker jigging the Shimano Butterfly jigs. They do provide a great pull, and taste good too!Flounder fishing is still spotty, there are still lots of fish around the reefs and wrecks, and some moving to the inlets and into the inside waters, but many of these fish are short, which is under the 15-inch minimum.On the other hand it looks like a good sheepshead season. They are being landed from Bogue Pier and many inside locations as well, like the Atlantic Beach and Morehead bridges, including the train trestle. To the west the Emerald Isle Bridge and the White Oak River bridges will provide good action. Fiddlers and sand fleas work great, but don’t forget live shrimp, which, since they don’t have to crunch the shell off like they do with the crabs, you can get better hookups. I’ve heard of several ten-pounders landed. Now that’s a sheepshead.There are also some trout and drum being landed in the creeks and marsh areas. Hoop Pole Creek has been one good spot to try. Speckled trout season reopened today, June-16th, but remember that there is a 14-inch minimum size and the bag limit is six-trout/day, with no more than two over 24-inches. The surf has been spotty with occasional blues, Spanish and red drum, early in the morning or in the evening. If you find a good hole you can also pick up some nice sea mullet on sand fleas. Flounder have been few and mostly short lately. PIER UPDATE: Oceanana Pier reports some good action with Spanish, blues spots, sea mullet and some keeper flounder. Bogue Pier had some unusual catches of the week, a 36-pound cobia (#4 of the season) caught by a woman from Indianapolis on a bottom rig with, yes, a piece of squid and with 15# test line. And today, Jim Fox landed a 4.5# bonito on a Got-Cha! Go figure! There were also some keeper flounder, hogfish, couple of 2 to 3# Spanish. Sea mullet has tapered off recently. No kings this week. Seaview Pier reports trout, flounder, sea mullet, blues and Spanish sheepshead, spots and a few drum. No kings this week. Surf nearly two weeks. Jolly Roger Pier has the usual summertime mix. Spanish came back strong this week, blues on the wane, keeper floundersmall cobia, with some 35 to 35-inch keepers, and several tarpon hook-ups but ending in break-offs.Nearshore, has been spotty, some can’t find a Spanish, some reports landing some big ones. Seems like pogies and peanut pogies are needed right now to get hook-ups. Small peanut bunkers for big Spanish and bigger pogies for small kings  (8 to 10-pounds). I saw the pics, I also saw the photo of a nice sail caught and released within a mile from the beach. They were using a live menhaden for bait. Nice by-catch!The Big Rock Blue Marlin tourney is this week, we will have to see how it goes. So far 3-blue marlin weighed in so far, several more reported on the hook today. Good fishing out there! (http://www.thebigrock.com/)  The Ask Dr. Bogus Fishing show, heard every Monday morning at 7:30 on WTKF, 107.1 FM and 1240 AM can now be accessed on the Coastal Daybreak Facebook page. Sign up and be a friend at: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000671941944, and never miss a show. And now WTKF daily programming, including the Ask Dr. Bogus radio show is available in live streaming audio too. Just go to www.thetalkstation.com and click on the arrow. Just click to listen, it's just that easy!

Don't forget to vote for my picture for the next cover of Salt Water Sportsman. Go to: SWS's Facebook page and vote VA Kings! 

And there's still time to get in on the fun for the PSWSFA flounder bowl.  Fish, Party!  Click the link on this page for more info! 

To start, Captain Russ Kostinas on Top Notch reported releasing a blue marlin and two whites between the 980 and 030 in 52 fathoms on Monday.  The blue one hit a Black Bart lure. He also had reports of gaffer dolphin in the same area.  That's some great marlin fishing! 

Captain Aaron Kelly on Rock Solid reported going 4 out of 6 today on cobia weighing 78, 68, 58 and one release.  Cobia fishing is still awesome in NC.   

Dr. Ken Neill sent this report from PSWSFA FishNews:

The flounder bite is picking up with large flatfish being caught in all of the normal flounder locations. The best places to catch larger flounder have been at the structure of the CBBT, from the 3^rd island bend to the high rise, and at the buoy 42 area. Cobia are being caught, both by sight fishing and chumming, but it is slow. Hopefully, the action will pick up this week. Spadefish are at the Chesapeake Light Tower, the CBBT, the Cell, and Wolftrap Light. They have not been very cooperative and the fish are on the small size. Red drum can be found on the shoals near the mouth of the bay. Black drum are being encountered around the islands of the CBBT. Sheepshead are available at the CBBT though there has not been many anglers targeting them yet. Sea bass can be found on the coastal wrecks where triggerfish are also possible. Offshore bottom fishermen are finding some tilefish and sea bass mixed together. Amberjack are at the South Tower but are not there in great numbers yet. The offshore fleets have been encountering a good early season marlin bite. Boats are coming back to Virginia Beach flying multiple release flags. Dolphin fishing is very good and there are yellowfin tuna around. Some impressive catches of bigeye tuna are being brought into Oregon Inlet.

It is Flounder Bowl time. The captains meeting is on June 24, 6:00 pm, at Dare Marina with fishing on Saturday, June 25. The entry fee is $100 per boat. Guaranteed 1^st place prize of $5,000. Due to the tremendous support of the Flounder Bowl sponsors, this is a very fun event with a lot of food and drink, low entry fees, and high payouts. There will be a barbecue at the captains meeting. It will be a seafood fest at the weigh-in on Saturday. Come on out and participate in this great tournament! For more information visit: http://www.pswsfa.com/FlounderBowl_11.htm

With perfect timing for the Flounder Bowl, the speaker for the July 21 meeting of the PSWSFA will be Jerry Morgan. He will be speaking to us about catching big flounder.

June 12, Mike Hurst and Bernie Sparrer fished the buoy 42 area. They caught 6 flounder with the largest weighing in at 6 pounds.

June 11 and 12: Saturday, we ran down to the South Tower (A Tower) to try and jig up some amberjack and to look for cobia. We also had ballyhoo on board to do a little trolling in the area. We did not have any live bait and I had a report from Brandon Bartlett that the jacks were real tough to get a bite on even with croaker the previous week. We got to the tower early. We did not get a bite on the jigs. We were leaving when Capt. Rick Wineman showed up with live baits. They ended up catching 5 amberjack. Rick is a nice guy and called us on the radio and offered us some croaker but we did not need any where we made our second stop. We dropped our jigs at the B Tower and the dolphin came out. Steve Martin and I had dolphin jumping all over. Charles fish was pulling harder and he thought that he might have a really big dolphin. His turned out to be an amberjack. The rest of the morning was the same. Very aggressive amberjack and the dolphin kept showing up. At first, the dolphin bit the jigs. Then they stopped that and we found that amberjack chunks suited them just fine. The dolphin were all gaffers. They became so after we broke off a couple trying to make them slingers. Most of them were in the 10-12 pound range with the largest at 22 pounds. The amberjack were 46 to 49 inches long. We got tired of cranking on those amberjack so we decided to just put out some ballyhoo and troll around the B Tower as there were obviously dolphin in the area. Boats were seeing some marlin to our east. We also wanted to dive inshore and cruise up along the coast to look for cobia. Well, we would troll some circles and then decide on which way to go. Soon after we got baits out, the temperature alarm goes off on the starboard engine. You have got to be kidding. We had the same thing happen a couple of weeks ago. Carter Machinery never found anything wrong with the engine and my diver did not find any obstructions outside of the boat. The engine had been running cool since then. We shut the engine down and checked things out while trolling towards home on the port engine. Well, we knew the engine is fine, checked the water strainer, clear. Charles just cycled the thru-hull valve a few times and presto, good water flow. The long rigger is going off with another gaffer jumping around. Well, close the engine hatch before you bring that thing in the boat. The overheating issue was fixed and we had another dolphin in the box but our minds were made up. Let's go inshore and look for cobia in case it happens again and this time we cannot get the water flowing (it did not happen again and the boat is running fine but I guess it is time for some fitting work). We stopped back at the A Tower. Did not see any cobia but did find an amberjack willing to bite a jig, another 49 inch fish. Ran on in and got close to shore around Corolla and worked our way up the beach to Rudee. We saw a lot of bait and rays. Some turtles and a single cobia that entire way. It was small and we did not get a good cast on it. Box of dolphin, sore arms from the amberjack, and we came in on two engines....good day. We had decided to just sleep in the next day but then Wes Blow called. His boat is at Dare Marina getting worked on and he wanted to know if we were going to be fishing. Charles and I talked about it, both feeling pretty tired. We decided that we would take his boat cobia fishing and that he would call Wes back and that they would pick a time (late as possible). Somehow, that turned out to be 5 AM. Next time, I'm picking the time. Something about having to be at the right spot, with the right tide or we would miss it. After 6 hours on a chum slick, I asked is it the right time yet? We were at Stony Lead, no action at all (did have one 12-inch cobia follow a bait up). Finally got tired of that, pulled in the chum pot and cruised around looking for them for a couple of hours. Again, plenty of stuff to see other than cobia. Pretty weekend on the water. I don't know where the cobia are. We were back in both days prior to the thunderstorms.

June 11, Capt. Rick Wineman fished the South Tower. The amberjack were not very cooperative. They did manage to catch 5 large jacks to 54 inches long. They then went out and trolled in the Triple 0s area. They did not have any luck on the troll.

June 7, Martin Freed and Ruta Vaskys fished 26 Mile Hill. They caught numerous, large false albacore. They then went to 21 Mile Hill where they found dolphin. They finished the day with a few sea bass on a nearby wreck.

FishCrazy weekend update

First, folks, there's still time to get in on the PSWSFA's Flounder Bowl on June 25th.  You could be crowned the greatest flounder fisherman in the world!

Also, vote for VA Kings on Salt Water Sportsman's facebook page for international coverage of this great local fishery.   

This weekend’s pretty weather was good for the fishermen and bad for the fish.  On Sunday, we ran out of Hatteras Inlet with the crew on Marlin Mania and blasted a limit of bailers and gaffers up to 20 pounds fishing southeast of the inlet between 30 and 500 fathoms. We heard on the radio that Captain Dan Rooks on Tuna Duck scored a bluemarlin and a bunch of dolphin, too.  Captain Rom Whitaker on Release has been consistently catching a box full of gaffers.  We’ll be rooting for Rom and Dan in this week’s Big Rock Tournament – check back for updates.  The Oregon Inlet boats had similar luck. Captain Jimmy Hillsman on Dream Girl reported excellent gaffer fishing at the500.  Big eye were biting at the 650, and billfish were caught at the 000.  On the way home from Hatteras, we stopped by Oregon Inlet Fishing Center and ran into Captain Aaron Kelly as he was spraying cobia blood off of Rock Solid.  He told us that his crew saw 11 cobia landing two keepers and a throwback.  Captain Donny Davis on DOA also caught 3 cobia. Aaron said that they were fishing off Rodanthe. 

Back in Virginia Beach, Captain Mike Bean on Blue Dragon ran to the 650 (north) and caught a mess of dolphin and released a blue marlin.  “We went the opposite direction of everyone else,” he explained, “and found a nice piece of water and lots of bait.”  And lots of fish, too.  Jason Carroll, mate on Waterman reported good marlin fishing at the 000 and scattered gaffers inshore. 

Tuna were the top story off the Delaware and Maryland coast last week.  Yellowfin were caught at the canyons from the Spencer to the Poorman's.  All were taken on trolled baits and lures.  Several bigeyes were taken from the same locations.

Bluefin are available at the inshore lumps such as Massey's and the Tea Cup, but few boats stop for them due to the one fish limit.  Big blues and a few makos inhabit the inshore waters as well.

Closer to the beach, flounder and sea bass were caught over rough bottom at the Old Grounds and B and A buoys.  Both species produce a lot of shorts and a few keepers.  A few thresher sharks were caught along the shipping channel.

The best rockfish bite at Indian River Inlet has been at night with live spot or shad.  Black plugs and white bucktails with a white worm have also accounted for a few rock.  Flounder action in the inlet and back bays has not been up to par.  A few big fish to 9 pounds were caught, but many boats reported catching very little.  Small blues and hickory shad are available during incoming water.

Delaware Bay has produced a few rock in the upper area around Collins Beach with cut bunker the top bait.  Most of these fish are small males with a few keepers mixed in.  Flounder fishing in the bay has been hit and miss.  Some boats are having decent catches with a few keepers while others can fish all day without so much as a decent bite.  (That would be Mike and me on Wednesday.)  The first croaker of the season were reported at the Cape Henlopen Fishing Pier.  The Lewes and Rehoboth Canal and the Broadkill River have seen excellent flounder action with a few keepers mixed in with a host of shorts.

PSWSFA's Fish News courtesy of Ken Neill

Cobia have arrived in the Chesapeake Bay. Cobia were caught by both chumming and sight fishing this past week. The cobia bite is still red hot out of Oregon Inlet, which indicates that we still have a lot of fish heading our way. Cobia fishing should improve each day. Black drum are schooling around the islands of the CBBT. Red drum can be caught up on the shoals and boats cruising around looking for cobia are also encountering them. Big red drum are popping up all over the lower bay and along the oceanfront. Sheepshead have arrived at the CBBT. Spadefish are at the normal spadefish locations but hook-and-line catches have been non-existent so far. There should be some caught this week. Small bluefish are all over the lower bay. Big bluefish are on the ocean seamounts and on out offshore. The Fingers are loaded with the critters. A few Spanish mackerel have been caught inside the bay. Flounder fishing still remains on the slow side but some larger flatfish are being caught at the CBBT. Big speckled trout continue to be caught in the rivers of the Mobjack Bay. Offshore fishing is good. The tuna bite (bluefin, yellowfin, and the occasional bigeye) has been red hot around the Washington Canyon. Good catches of yellowfin tuna were made at the Norfolk Canyon this week. Yellowfin tuna, marlin and a lot of dolphin are being caught out of the Outer Banks.

May 31, Martin Freed and Ruta Vaskys trolled around 21 Mile Hill. They caught a bunch of big bluefish to 38 inches long. They then hit a nearby wreck and caught a bunch of big sea bass and 10 cod.

May 30, I got a call from Capt. Jorj Head, (757) 262-9004. He wanted to know if I wanted to go do a little scouting for cobia. We cruised around from Thimble Shoals to the CBBT. We got to cast to a Chesapeake Slam. We found black drum around the 4^th island of the CBBT. They did not want to bite. We ran into a school of about a dozen big red drum. The did bite Jorj’s jig and got is grub tail. Last we saw a nice cobia. I cast an eel right in front of its nose and spooked the heck out of it. Short trip, saw some nice fish, caught none. I needed 2 more feet on my cast.

May 29, after last week’s trip, the guys wanted to go out and do it again (and see if they could beat Roger’s pending record grouper). Roger could not go and said that he was going to put a hex on us. He would not even let us take his lucky, blinking light thing. We started at the Eureka and hopped our way out. We never found any good concentration of sea bass. We caught some nice ones and Michael Hurst caught his first citation-sized sea bass. We decided that we had had enough of the little stuff and we were going to run up to the canyon and break Roger’s record. Lost an engine on the way. Roger was serious when he said that we were not allowed to break his record. He must have some type of GPS device hidden on board that activates if we get too close to his grouper spot. We limped all the way back in on one engine: trolling speed. I said that we are supposed to be looking for small bluefin tuna for VIMS (27-inch class) so we should put out some spreader bars. Bluefish like spreader bars. We would have one bluefish on the hook bait and several others trying to get the other squids. Lost one bar that got bit off. The guys were in tuna mode and had the gaff out. I asked if anyone wanted these fish, “oh yes”. OK, well some of these are pretty long (skinny), you might want to think about a release citation. After they gaffed the third one that looked long enough to me I said would someone please put a tape on that fish and see what size you are gaffing? It was 36.5 inches long. After that, they stopped gaffing them and we never got another long enough. The bluefish kept us very entertained from Wayne’s World to the Spring Chicken. From there to the Light Tower, we did not have a bite. No more grouper trips unless Roger can go.

May 25, Capt. Rick Wineman fished for drum near buoy 10. It was a slow evening but they still managed to tag and release 4 large red drum to 51.5 inches long.

Another day of great fishing.  Captain Jimmy Hillsman reported that the cobia blitz is only getting better out of Oregon Inlet.  One of his friends reported catching 7 cobia this afternoon.  The best bite has been between Rodanthe Pier and the Ranger Station but Jimmy told us that 70 degree water pushed up to the inlet. Monday, we saw a big fish on the inlet change and heard reports of others. 

We also heard from Jason Carroll on the VB boat Waterman. They were in the middle of a school of reds this afternoon – Jason landed 18 fish.  Both cobia and drum will respond to a 3-ounce bucktail and big curly jig.  Best colors are hot pink, orange, and (my favorite) white on white.  We also heard that the flounder harvest continues in Rudee.  Now the fish have moved into Lynnhaven, too.  One of my students caught flounder “until our arms hurt,” in Rudee then went to Lynnhaven and found more flatties – including some keepers – under the Lesner Bridge.  He also had a mess of speckled trout, including one fish over 24 inches in Rudee. All caught on chartreuse green Gulp! Minnows and 3/8 ounce jig heads.  Off Virginia Beach we also heard of a yellowfin tuna bite on the north side of Norfolk Canyon in 200 fathoms.

In Hatteras, Captain Creature on Sea Creature continues his marlin streak with a white and blue on Monday and released a sail and lost a blue today.  The most consistent spot has been behind the Rockpile. 

Dad sent this report from Delaware:

Good rockfish action is still available in the upper Delaware Bay on bunker chunks.  Most of the fish are small, but keepers are being caught.

Flounder are caught from the Broadkill River and the Lewes and Rehoboth Canal.  Minnows, shiners and Gulp! will all work.

At Indian River Inlet the rockfish have slowed, but small blues and shad provide plenty of action.  Flounder fishing has been slow.

The offshore fishing got off to a good start with bluefin, yellowfin, dolphin and wahoo all taken over the weekend.  The bite was spread out from the Spencer to the Poormans.

What a memorial Memorial Day.  Fished with Captain Jason Snead and Captain Jimmy Hillsman on Dream Girl. We started the day south east of the inlet on a weedline in 15 fathoms where we found a mess of gaffer dolphin.  Other boats fished up and down the line and found gaffers and marlin.  After we had a box full of dolphin, we ran inshore and started looking for cobia. It didn’t take long.  Dream Girl is equipped with a monstrous tower that makes spotting cobia easy.  Jimmy Hillsman is equipped with a pair of eyes that makes catching these fish just plain cheating.  Cruising around Whimble Shoal from Rodanthe Pier to Pea Island, we spotted dozens of cobia and landed three – a 30, a 70, and an amazing 90 pounder.  Back at the dock, we ran into Graham, mate on Rigged Up.  He told us that they had 38 big dolphin and a blue marlin fishing farther up the same weedline.  All the boats who fished out of the Fishing Center had a fantastic day and all the anglers had fantastic catches. 

Ok Fishing Fans, this weekend’s update is going to have you cheering. 

First. The cobia bite is going off out of Oregon Inlet.  Friday, fished with Dream Girl. Started offshore where we boated a 170 pound big eye tuna. We were fishing the 800 in 150 fathoms where a few yellowfin were caught. Then we ran inshore and spotted a bunch of cobia and boxing a 60 pounder.  Today most of the offshore fleet fished south where they had a good pick of gaffer dolphin and some mixed marlin.  Sunday, we fished with Aaron Kelly on Rock Solid. We spent the whole day chasing cobia off Rodanthe and Pea Island.  We saw loads and landed 9 fish up to 70 pounds. 

We also heard from Captain Steve Wray who reported the first good bite of flounder at the 3^rd and 4^th Island. The fish were caught on cut bait and minnows.  Steve said that he also had rumors of triggers and spades around the islands and confirmed reports of big black drum. 

On the kayak scene, Dave Narr and Rob Choi found schools of reds around Fisherman’s Island today. 

Captain Jason Carroll on Waterman ran way south where they caught a mako. The said that there were reports of small yellowfin from the Washington Canyon.  But the bigger yellowfin that the boats caught fishing with the OI fleet didn’t move up the beach.

Captain Aaron Kelly reported that cobia fishing is picking up out of Oregon Inlet. They went 5 for 7 today, but two of the fish were over 70 pounds.  Slobs!  Now is the time to get on this bite out of Oregon Inlet. The season starts strong and only gets better. 

The re-opening of Virginia’s sea bass season drew a fleet of boats out into the ocean this past weekend. Sea bass were caught on structures at the Triangle Reef, wrecks like the Powell and the 4A Dry Dock and on out to the deep water wrecks. Tasty, jumbo sea bass, weighing as much as 7 pounds, were brought back to the docks. Boats hitting the deeper wrecks also slipped out for some bottom fishing around the Norfolk Canyon. There will be a new leader for blueline tilefish in the Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament. Numerous golden tilefish and a number of snowy grouper were caught. The snowy grouper includes a pending Virginia State and IGFA All-Tackle World Record caught by Roger Burnley while fishing on the Healthy Grin. Back inshore, anglers continued to bang on the drum. Both reds and blacks are being caught. The red drum bite truly was excellent the past weekend. Some large speckled trout are being caught in the Mobjack Bay area. Flounder fishing is still on the slow side though there are signs that it is picking up. Some large flounder have been caught at the CBBT and the Bluefish Rock area produced some decent catches of keeper flounder this past week. Look for this same area to start producing some cobia over the Memorial Day weekend. The cobia bite is very good off of Hatteras and Oregon Inlet. There are more fish moving towards the Chesapeake Bay each day. Spadefish are also in the area and the first hook and line catches should be made soon. The offshore waters off of the Outer Banks are producing good catches of dolphin and yellowfin tuna. Blue marlin are also making a good showing. Productive water is in range of boats running out of Virginia and we will be seeing more boats heading out to get in on the tuna and dolphin action. There should be some bluefin tuna showing on the sea mounts like the Cigar, Hot Dog and 26 Mile Hill.

The next meeting of the PSWSFA will be on June 21. Our guest speaker will be Capt. Blake Hayden of Right Tide Charters: www.righttidecharters.com . He will be speaking to us about Virginia tarpon.

May 22, Capt. Rick Wineman ran out for the opening day of the sea bass season. Everyone on board registered at least one sea bass and one blueline tilefish citation. They even released a 7-foot shark for a third citation species. Their largest sea bass weighed 6 pounds 6 ounces while their largest blueline weighed in at 13 pounds 6 ounces.

May 22, we ran out for the re-opening of Virginia’s sea bass season. We caught a nice class of bass with a number pushing the 5-pound mark. In addition to the bass fishing, we did some deeper bottom fishing in the area of the Norfolk Canyon. We had a good day catching: 5 Golden Tilefish, a Pollock, Blackbelly Rosefish, 6 bluefish, 12 or so Hake, Blueline Tilefish to 17 pounds 5 ounces, and 2 Snowy Grouper. Steve Martin caught both our largest golden and blueline tilefish. Roger Burnley caught both snowy grouper but he owes a shout-out to Wes Blow. We would have already come home but Wes has a thing about battling sea monsters and wanted to do “one more drop” for 2 or 3 hours after we were ready to quit. By the time Roger caught his second grouper, only he and Wes were still fishing. After this fish, Roger quit also. It was worth the extra effort. His first snowy weighed 50 pounds. We weighed his second fish at the VMRC building this morning. The digital scale read 70.48 pounds, which will be 70 pounds 7 ounces (2 hundredths short of an even 70-8). That is a lot of fish to crank up from 600 feet. The whole crew is dragging today. We are going through the state and IGFA World Record processes. If approved (and it should be), this will be the 6th All-Tackle World Record Snowy Grouper caught on the Healthy Grin. It will be the 10th All-Tackle World Record caught on the boat overall. Roger Burnley previously held the IGFA Snowy Grouper record and he established the initial Virginia State Record for the species (on the same trip Jeff Dail established the initial state record for golden tilefish).

May 21, Danny Forehand fished Fisherman’s Island Inlet. They caught 3 large red drum.

May 20, John Hunt fished offshore out of Oregon Inlet. They caught 2 yellowfin tuna, 10 dolphin, and a cobia. The cobia hit a Green Machine.

May 20, Keith Blackburn fished Fisherman’s Island. They caught 8 large red drum to 50 inches long.

May 20, Danny Forehand fished Fisherman’s Island. They caught 13 big red drum. Danny said that it was his best drum trip ever.

May 19, Alan Meetze ran across the bay, dodging thunderstorms, to get in a little drum fishing. They managed to catch 2 black drum before being chased back in.

May 15, Hayden Head caught a black drum bigger than he is. It was his first citation black drum. He was fishing near buoy 10 with his dad, Capt. Jorj Head, (757) 262-9004.

May 15, we went drum fishing again. This time we fished the buoy 10 area. We used chowder clams, sea clams, and hard crab for bait. We caught 18 black drum.

May 14, we ran over to the buoy 13 area in the afternoon. Caught 4 black drum on chowder clams. Came back in before the thunderstorms.

Fishcrazy Weekend Hangover

Another weekend and a lot of fish bit the dust.  The Fishcrazy kayak team stayed on Eastern Shore chasing drum and striper. We didn’t find any drum but we did find a lot of striper cruising around on the surface in the skinny water behind the islands.  However, we didn’t find a lot of hungry striper.  Only one was dumb enough to bite my Berkley Power Bait swim shad.  They wouldn’t even touch a live crab.  Other anglers had better luck.  Boats anchored up at Buoy 8 and 10 and in the shoals between Fisherman’s and Smith Islands.  It seemed that night time, during the last part of the incoming tide, was the best time for reds and black drum.  We’re still not seeing tons of crab swimming along the surface, a sure sign that drum fishing is going to go off.  There’s still time to get in on this fun.

Flounder fishing still hasn’t fired up.  Captain Stan Gold and his crew spent Saturday prospecting for flatties at Bluefish Rock only to come up short.  This natural reef off Hampton is one of the first places to find flounder by drifting strip baits on three-way flounder rigs.  The best place to find flounder seems to be Rudee Inlet where anglers are weeding through throwbacks to put together a few keepers.  The flounder pounders were pounding the flounder out of Wise Point this weekend, too. Action seemed to be centered in Government Cut, at both ends of Raccoon Island, and under Fisherman’s Island Bridge and the deep channel that parallels the rock wall on the south side of the bridge. 

Captain Greg sent this report from Fishing Frenzy out of Oregon Inlet: We had some great tuna fishing the last 3 days down close to Diamond Shoals.  Yesterday there was a really good showing of Blue Marlin, with close to 20 fish raised in a few hours for the fleet. Check out my fishing report http://fishinfrenzy.com/blog/

Captain Ben Shepherd was in Hatteras, too. He blasted gaffers then came inshore and caught a 45 pound cobia. 

Captain Hunter Tucker also spent the weekend in Hatteras catching a mixed bag of gaffers, wahoo, kings, and amberjack. 

Fishing was fantastic and the weather was incredible – a deadly combination for the fish. 

The big news came from the deep this weekend.  Dr. Ken Neill took the Healthy Grin Crew deep dropping on the start of sea bass season. While sea bass fishing was scattered – though the class of fish was large – they really got into the bite out deeper.  First, the crew blasted golden tiles in one spot. Then they moved to another hole and caught several big snowys – including a 70 pounder that will give my brother Roger the IGFA World Record – again.  His fish was caught on a live rosefish in 100 fathoms of water on the north side of Norfolk Canyon just before dark.  Congrats Rog and Ken – cranking baits up from 600 feet is hard work – you earned it. 

That’s the news from now. Check back tomorrow for an update. 

Big Bite in Delaware:

Dad sent the hot report from the First State this morning!

"Indian River Inlet in Delaware is in the middle of the hottest rockfish bite in memory.  The fish are coming in during flood tides and eating everything in site.  Very few are under 28 inches and the largest to date has been 37 pounds.  Tsunami shads, white bucktails with a white worm or eels have been the most popular baits.  On Saturday from 4:00 to 9:00 PM every man, woman and child had a limit and released many more.  Sunday evening was almost as good and more were caught on Monday morning.

The surf is still a slow pick with cut bunker the most productive offering.  A few fish to 30 pounds have been caught from the beach.

Your mother and I went out this morning around 9:00 and fished the Broadkill River until around 2:00 PM.  I caught three flounder including one keeper.  Your mother did not catch anything.  Bob Baker was out there as well and he did not have a keeper."

Elsewhere, Captain Rom Whitaker and Captain Creature reported excellent dolphin fishing out of Hatteras.   

OMG! What a weekend. We spent Saturday fishing the Hatteras Village Tournament with Captain Rom Whitaker and crew on Release.  We trolled plugs behind the 280 Rocks in 100 to 150 fathoms of water between 78 and 80 degrees. We caught a crazy sailfish, but never saw a blue marlin. Rom was luckier earlier in the week when he scored a blue and lost another along with releasing a white marlin. That put Rom in 3^rd Place.  At the end of the day we surveyed other skippers and blue marlin were spotted and caught from behind the Rockpile to the 400 line. We caught up with Captain Creature on Sea Creature who was fishing closer to the 400 where he caught a nice mess of dolphin and released a blue marlin.  Later, we checked in with Captain Tim Hagerich mate on Marlin Mania. They released two white marlin and boxed a limit of dolphin fishing south of the Rockpile.  Overall, fishing was scattered, but if you were in the right place (and on the right boat) the action was hot.  Captain Jake Hiles on Matador got into the dolphin, too. He also had a white marlin. He said that there were tons of small blackfin and a few yellowfin on the rocks east of the Tower.   

Drum fishing was hot, too.  Captain Mike Bean on Blue Dragon smoked the black drum around Buoy 13 on Saturday.  He marked the fish feeding on the bottom and set up camp.  Mike has been catching his black drum on whole hard crab.  Dr. Ken Neill was fishing the same area and picked up four blacks using whole chowder clam.  Red drum fishing slowed due to a big swell and dirty water.  As the full moon rises, the fishing should only get better.  In the past week, the reds have moved to the shoals at the lower bay, so anglers don’t have to brave the breaking waves and shallow water around Fisherman’s Island. 

Captain Craig Paige probed the rocks islands of the CBBT for striper and blues over the weekend. He picked up some nice striper – but no keepers over 32 inches – and some nice bluefish.  He also hooked two “big” fish, but lost them before he saw them.  “I have a feeling they were big black drum,” he said.  For the striper and blues, a Rebel Windcheater or Skitterpop topwater lure are deadly.  Big black drum lurk around the islands, too. They can often be seen swimming around the rocks just under the surface. These fish are notoriously difficult to hook, but can be fooled with a 1 to 2 ounce jig head and 5 to 7 inch soft plastic. 

One of my students reported fantastic fishing in Rudee this weekend. He and his buddies whacked and stacked keeper flounder and speckled trout.  The key to the bite was a chartreuse Gulp! on a 3/8 ounce jighead.  Captain Steve Wray at Long Bay reported flounder and puppies in Lynnhaven Inlet from the beach, boat, and kayak.  Gulp! happens to be the best bait.  Striper are biting at night around the pilings and islands on topwater poppers and swim shads.  May 22 Sea Bass season reopens and Steve is ready to annihilate some fish.  Kevin at Ocean’s East II reported that Rob Choi fished HRBT over the weekend and had striper to 32 inches, blues, and flounder, too.  Striper will be caught in the bridge lights at night with small swimshad.  Flounder can be caught on Gulp! jigs around the pilings or on the shoals and bars.  Blues will be everywhere eating everything – after they devour all your soft baits, feed them a bucktail or a diving plug to teach them a lesson.  Dave Narr hit the Eastern Shore in the 'yak this weekend. Wind was too tough for the drum on the shoals so he pulled flounder out of the backwaters with a 1 to 2 ounce bucktail and 4-inch Gulp! 

Guest reports:

Dr. Bogus sent this report from Crystal Coast. Subscribe to his most excellent fishing report at http://drbogus.com/links.html. 

Pier sheepshead (fiddlers), keeper flounder to 18-inches, Spanish and blues.

ICW flounder-coming inside (netters), Lots of sea bass on the inshore reefs and rocks (Station Rock, Bear Rock), can’t keep even 1 until June-1.

UPDATE: The “pump me up” surf temp was 72 (and felt good to the feet, what is the foot equivalent of al dente?) and 74 in the sound on Wed. dropping to 70 and 71 after a cool night and NE winds. Over the past few days I Fished the point shoals, the point of the point and the CG channel today as well as the creek. Closest to a fish that I came was stepping on a jellyfish and then there was the filleted carcass of a bluefish on the beach and some dead menhaden littering the creek-side. Pier has had a variety the last two days, baby cobia, blues, Spanish, hogfish, spot, sheepshead (fiddlers), sea mullet, black drum and speckled trout. By the way, those NE winds have been pushing the smoke from the Dare County fire down this way, so you can smell it daily and sometimes see the haze. Already over 21,000 acres burned near the Alligator River.

Especially in the spring and fall the water temperatures and correlated fishing are often sinusoidal, and NO this will not be cured by Claritin, or your favorite antihistamine. Last Monday I wrote a glowing fishing report, based on surf and sound temperatures climbing into the fish-friendly 70s. By midweek and two cold fronts, which froze my tootsies off by the way, water temperatures rapidly went into the tank, down to 65° almost overnight. Baitfish and their foragers went out off the beach and down deeper in the water column looking for more favorable (warmer) water conditions, leaving midweek cold and the fishing unrewarding. By the weekend water temperatures and fishing improved and by Monday the surf was back to 70° (69 Tuesday), 72 by Wednesday and back down to 70 today. Up and down, up and down…sinusoidal!

By the way, first week of May is perfect timing for the Spanish to return, you can almost set your tide clock by it. So Spanish and blues are back along the beach and over the artificial reefs and rock ledges like AR-315, -320, and don’t forget AR-330, also Keypost rock 45-Minute Rock etc. These reefs and rocks are also showing a very good flounder bite with limits of six flounder being reported and fish to four pounds. Spanish and blues above, flounder on the bottom. How about the bonito you ask? There were still around last week but from all the reports I hear, they may have taken an early exit like they have the last couple of years. When things are “bonito bueno”, they often stick around into June.

Last year was epic for local Crystal Coast cobia, and this year is also off to a great start, with quite a few fish being weighed in at local tackle shops along Bogue Banks. Fish have been landed from Lookout shoals, Barden’s inlet, and around Beaufort Inlet as they move into the deep water spawning areas. Fish are being taken sight-casting bucktails, live eels and soaking shad chunks. And there are lost of shad (a.k.a., pogies, menhaden) along the beach right now. Pelicans and gannets diving from above and cobia from below, tough life as a pogy. UPDATE: Some cobia landed out of Bogue Inlet, my guess is around the Bogue Inlet sea buoy, but that’s just a guess.

Speaking of the Lookout Shoals, there is a school of 500 to 1,000 big reds on the east side. I saw a photo of a 79-pounder that was released.

There are still bottom fish in the Beaufort Inlet and surf too, the gray trout and sea mullet are still being landed on speck rigs tipped with shrimp or jigging Stingsilvers with shrimp.

People think of summer when they think of sheepshead, but some of the best sheepshead is in May when the fish are hungry and less fussy. Check out the buoys and along the Beaufort shipping channel, bridges, port wall and fishing pier pilings. Some nice fish have been sighted (and caught) at Bogue pier. Just dig up some fiddlers or sand fleas, which are both out and about right now, and are both are great baits. 

PIER UPDATE: Generally, pier fishing has been improving considerably. Oceanana Pier reports blues, Spanish and sea mullet. Bogue Pier has had a real potpourri, over the past few days, showing nice bluefish and Spanish catches, pompano in the 1.5 to two-pound range caught on sand fleas, and shrimp, a doormat flounder that was pushing 8-pounds, landed on a bottom rig another 18-incher caught on Gulp!, and several keeper cobia was sighted but not hooked. Seaview Pier reported blues, Spanish, keeper flounder sea mullet and R&B drum. Surf City has had a good week too with blues big and small, big Spanish and their first king action, loosing a 25-pounder under the pier and landing a 15-pound king. Jolly Roger has had an excellent week with blues galore, some Hatteras blues in the mix, good landings of Spanish both R&B drum sea mullet at night and a number of big 2 to 3-pound pompano.

Offshore, dolphin, blackfin tuna and wahoo are still biting in the Big Rock and Swansboro Hole areas. If you still have your Loran charts, I’ve heard of a great dolphin bite out at the 600-line in 100-fathoms.

Dr. Ken Neill sent this week’s PSWSFA fishnews. 

Big black drum have started to bite in the buoy 16, 13, and 10 areas. They have been available inside the seaside inlets for the past couple of weeks. Now they are invading their lower bay congregating areas. Expect to find fleets of boats, in the afternoons, at each of these areas for the rest of May. Big red drum continue to be caught in the surf of Fisherman’s and Smith Islands. Fish are also starting to be caught on Nautilus and 9-Foot Shoals. Flounder fishing has been slow in the bay but it is showing signs of picking up. Flatfish action is good in the seaside inlets of the Eastern Shore. The springtime speckled trout bite is underway. The Mobjack Bay area has produced some large specks. Croaker are keeping anglers busy up in the rivers. I ran into Sinker Man this week. He was on an emergency run to some of the local fishing piers. They were running out of supplies as the croaker run, along with some nice weather, was keeping the piers full of anglers. The next fish to arrive will be cobia. They are at Hatteras now and the boats are out catching them. They will start to show in the bay in a couple of weeks. Typically, it is some drum fisherman that will catch the first one. The tower boats will be cruising around before you know it. Offshore, there has been a good run of mako sharks from Hatteras to Virginia Beach. Dolphin catches have been good out of the Outer Banks. Yellowfin tuna, wahoo, and some blue marlin are also being caught. Virginia boats, making long runs to warmer water holding around the 1000 fathom curve, have caught some dolphin and yellowfin tuna.

The May 17 meeting of the PSWSFA will be a little different. We will be having a swap meet. If you have some fishing stuff just sitting around bring it in and you may find another club member that would like to buy it from you. We will have tables set up for members to display their stuff. Instead of a formal speaker, we will have other tables where different members will have mini-clinics. Ballyhoo rigging, knot tying, cast net throwing and other things will be covered. Pretty much anything you want to know, there will be some club member there that can help you out. 

May 9, Martin Freed and Ruta Vaskys trolled the areas of 26 and 21 Mile Hills. The expected bluefish were not there and they did not have a bite in 6 hours of trolling.

May 8, Brandon Bartlett fished out of Rudee Inlet. They caught 2 gaffer dolphin and a 140 pound mako shark.

May 8, Wes Blow fished Fisherman’s Island Inlet and caught 8 large red drum. He then moved over to the buoy 10 area and caught 2 large black drum.

May 8, Keith Blackburn fished Fisherman’s Island Inlet. They caught 7 big red drum.

May 7 and 8, Preston Sparrer fished his boat out of Hatteras Inlet. For the two days, they caught 16 gaffer dolphin, 3 blackfin tuna, and a 203 pound mako shark that tried to eat the boat.

May 7, Wes Blow and JT Hale fished Fisherman’s Island Inlet. They caught two red drum and a shark before the rain sent them home.

May 7, Capt. Rick Wineman fished right in the surf of Fisherman’s Island Inlet. They caught 5 big red drum to 52.5 inches long.

Fishcrazy Tuesday

Flounder, drum, cobia, dolphin

The work week hasn’t slowed down anglers.  The flounder bite continues to gain momentum.  All of the backwaters seem to be holding flat fish.  This week, one of my students reported that Rudee Inlet has really turned on. Not only are keeper flounder lurking in the deeper water around the turning basin and inlet, but speckled trout, grey trout, and blues are also in attendance.  Chartreuse Gulp! swimming mullet  on a ½ ounce jig head has been the ticket for fooling whatever swims Rudee.  Seems that the outgoing tide has been the best time. 

Red drum action continues to amaze and astound anglers anchored between Fisherman’s and Smith Islands.  Whole blue crab on a fishfinder rig is the ticket to snaring big reds in the shallows.  The key is to anchor close enough to cast baits into the shallows.  After blasting reds in the shallows, Wes Blow moved over to Buoy 8 and caught a pair of trophy black drum, too. 

Cobia reports are becoming more common.  Captain Aaron Beatson of Carolina Sunrise charters has been finding cobia and reds off Portsmouth Island. Captain Aaron Kelly, of Rock Solid, has also been in on the red drum bite.  Fishing should improve as the fish move closer to Cape Point and Oregon Inlet.  Cruise around the ocean looking for fish, then cast a 2 ounce bucktail and hope for the best. 

Captain Tim Hagerich on Marlin Mania reported excellent dolphin fishing today. He said that they caught a limit of gaffers fishing along weeds at the 000s. 

With fishing this good during the week, who can wait for the weekend?

Captain Steve Coultier of Sea Creature charters reported a limit of dolphin, today.  “Half of them were gaffers,” he added.  Steve also had a mess of blackfin and a wahoo. He said that he heard of a few bluemarlin, “to the south.”

On the other end of the water column, flounder fishing was excellent out of Wachapreague over the weekend. Captain Zed’s reported a good bite of flatties in Green and Drawing Channels and at Bullhead.  The fish will respond to minnows or shiners fished on a two hook rig.  This is the best time of year to catch a mess of flounder.  

Fishing this weekend was fantastic.  Looks like the big reds have finally moved onto the shallow shoals at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. Ken Neill and crew reported catching a half dozen or more fish on the night tides.  Whole blue crab on a fishfinder rig is the weapon of choice.  Wes Blow was set up in the shoals when we called Sunday night.  He had landed a couple nice fish Saturday night and was looking to add a couple more to his numbers.  He said that he also heard of a few black drum caught on Nautilus Shoal.  Harry Hindmarsh of Cabin Fever Communications searched high and low for the striper and drum on Saturday.  He did get paid off for his efforts, but it took a lot of effort. 

On the offshore scene, we caught up with Captain Kenny Koci of Big Tahuna after he returned from an overnighter out of Hatteras.  Before the sun went down they busted a bunch of gaffers and yellowfin, even a white marlin.  Then, after dark the Katchmo crew smoke checked the makos.  "Everyone caught one," Kenny bragged, "even me!"  After getting their fill of makos, Kenny's crew moved deeper and deployed rigged squid for swords.  The next morning they put a dozen more gaffers in the boat then returned home. 

Ken Neill Sent this report from the Penninsula Salt Water Sport Fishing Association: 

Sight fishing for cobia has taken off. We have been waiting for them for a long time. They are not in the Chesapeake Bay yet but they are close enough for a road trip. If you just cannot wait any longer, head down to Hatteras where Mr. Brown Suit is waiting for you. Boats running offshore out of Hatteras and Oregon Inlet are finding yellowfin tuna and dolphin. There were some bigeyes caught out of Oregon Inlet. Back in Virginia, the flounder bite continues to be anemic. Anglers are having to work hard for the fish that they are catching. Drum are receiving a lot of attention. Big red drum are being caught in the surf of the Eastern Shore. Anglers fishing inside the seaside inlets are finding red drum, black drum and schools of larger striped bass. The black drum “Cabbage Patch” bite should be starting soon. Tautog fishing was good but the season is now closed. Some large speckled trout are being caught in the Mobjack Bay area. Croaker are biting in the rivers. Small bluefish are being caught in Rudee Inlet and along the oceanfront. There should be some large bluefish in areas like the Hot Dog.

April 30-May 2, a number of club members took advantage of the pretty weekend to get out to fish. Most tried for red drum in the breakers of Fisherman’s and Smith Islands with little success. The guys who fished behind the islands found schools of red drum, black drum, and some decent sized striped bass. The guys targeting flounder did not do well at all. We had boats fishing the CBBT, Deadman’s Hill, 36A and 42. A few guys fished in the Mobjack Bay area and found some large speckled trout. A couple of guys went down to Hatteras. The offshore boat got a good catch of yellowfin tuna while the inshore boat caught cobia. It was a busy weekend on the water.

Dr. Bogus sent this report from Crystal Coast:

UPDATE: On Wed, the surf jumped to 71°, the sound 74° and brought in blues big (Hatteras) and small 1-2 pounds) marauding the pier in schools, lots of silversides. Even better the Spanish showed in decent numbers this morning in the 2-3 pound range. They had a nice blitz on Tues. and Wed. Marauding Hatteras blues (you could easily see them in packs) probably chasing the bottom fish (sea mullet) away for a while. The point/surf was dead the last couple of days, and the Surf dropping to 66° overnight (sound 67°) on the NE winds and cold front, didn’t help at all. Water now clearing on the NE wind. There have been small shad baits along the beach in the surf. The CLRJ has been good with Spanish, blues and Hatteras blues and some citation BIG red drum. Cobia are HERE!

Reds, Striper, Flounder, Blues, and more

Red Drum and Striper are still lurking around Fisherman’s and Smith Islands, but today’s reports were of increasingly finicky fish.   We did hear that schools were spotted in the lower bay – around Nautilus Shoal.  Now that bay water temperatures have pushed into the 60s, look for the fish on all the shoals.  This is a good time to anchor up on the shoals and soak a whole blue crab on a fishfinder rig.  Position the boat so that it is on the edge between deep and shallow water.  Then cast baits onto the bar and into the slough. Also, look for black drum to show up on the mussel beds and reefs.  Search out fish with the fishfinder, the throw the anchor and deploy sea clams on a fishfinder rig. 

We also had excellent flounder reports from all along the coast.  We heard that Rudee Inlet fired up this weekend with keeper flounder, reds, and speckled trout.  A Gulp! jig on a ¼ to ½ ounce jig head will score each species. The best bite has been at the mouth of the inlet and in the turning basin.

From Delaware, Dad reported that Mom out fished him in Broadkill River today.  They were both fishing minnows on flounder rigs, but Mom was able to put two keepers in the boat while Dad was only good for several throwbacks.  They fished the end of the flood and the top of the ebb. 

Stop bitching and go fishing. Time to get fishcrazy!

Today, we fished the Eastern Shore with Harry Hindmarsh of Cabin Fever Communications.  Cruising around behind the islands, we spotted schools of big striper and red drum.  The fish fell for a big Berkley PowerBait swim shad.   Other anglers reported scattered drum on the shoals and black drum in the deeper holes.  The flounder bite is really picking up.  We saw several crews return with keeper flatties.  Reports came from Oyster and Wise Point.  On the offshore scene, Captain Rom Whitaker of Release reported excellent yellowfin fishing and a good pick of gaffer dolphin. Last week, he was fishing kite baits for blackfin when an 800 to 1000 pound bluefin crashed his Yummi Flier.  "It was the biggest tuna I'd ever seen," said Rom.  Captain Dan Rooks also reported good action on yellowfin and dolphin fishing  behind the tower.  Dan added rumors of "tree shakers" around.  Tomorrow is going to be a beautiful day - go Fishcrazy! 

Weekend Hangover Report       

Got word from Captain Tim Hagerich, mate on Marlin Mania, that fishing picked up out of Hatteras over the weekend.  Tim reported catching a dozen tuna, wahoo, and gaffer dolphin. 

Big news is that the red drum bite is sputtering to a start on the Eastern Shore Shoals. Wes blow initiated the season on Sunday with a couple big reds followed by Ken Neill on Monday with another big drum.  We fished the area on Sunday (not far from Ken) only to hook and lose a big red. 

While Wes caught a couple of his fish on cut bait, the bulk of the bite has been on whole blue crab.  Simply hook the crab through the shell and rubberband its legs to the hook.  Use a fishfinder rig with an 8/0 circle hook and a 4 to 6 ounce pyramid sinker. To maximize casting distance, make the leader to the hook 1-inch long.

The early season bite is on the shallow water shoals between Fisherman’s and Smith Island.  Find where a deep slough cuts through the shoals and anchor on the edge so you can cast into the white water. This is a very dangerous place to fish and the crew must be vigilant to avoid letting the boat drift into the white water. 

The key to the bite has been fishing the change of the tide.  Wes  and Ken each caught his fish just as the in-coming tide was picking up speed.  We lost ours about an hour later just before the current started cranking.  On Monday, low tide was right around 4:00.    

Before the big drum bite, we spent the morning fishing for tog on the CBBT. Only found a few at Third Island on fiddler. Looked like other anglers were having similar un-luck. There were a bunch of guys fishing the pilings north of the 4th - maybe they had different un-luck.

Water temperature at the Island was in the mid 50s.  Water temperature on the shoals touched 60 at the tide turn.