I had booked off this past week to fish the Virginia Beach Billfish Tournament. It is a great event and we have fished it every year. I lost an engine and had to go through a rebuild. I did not think that I would have a boat so we did not enter the tournament. My crew went back to work. Dare Marina did the yard work, Carter Machinery did the engine work. They combined to do some kind of record rebuild and got me back fishing in no time. Then I had an electronics issue and Ayers Marine Electronics fixed it in a day. Having boat work done is never fun but when you are dealing with good people, it takes a lot of the pain out of it.
I still had the week off and my boat was fixed. Early in the week, we fished an overnight trip offshore and caught marlin, grouper, and stuff. In the middle of the week, we caught cobia sight fishing. At the end of the week, there was a possibility of still fishing the billfish tournament. I had been asked about fishing a company boat but then they did not enter the tournament. I was invited to fish on another boat but I had already made plans to do something I have been thinking about for years. I went tarpon fishing.
Not knowing a thing about tarpon fishing in Virginia, I chartered Capt. Blake Hayden. I knew of him by reputation and I fish with some guys who have fished with him. They all speak highly of him. I booked him for two days. Charles Southall has been talking about doing this for a long time, so he split the charter with me.
Friday
We ran to the Eastern Shore and set up in one of Blake’s spots. We saw tarpon rolling right away. I have caught tarpon in the 100-pound class in Florida. These were bigger. Different spots are favored for different tides, wind direction, and time of day, and when in the season it is. Stuff you could figure out if you spent years over there. You spend most of your time catching sharks and rays. The fishing is really pretty easy, basically red drum fishing on the shoals. Early in the morning I hooked up and it was coming to me easy. I said shark. Then it swam past me and started to pull drag pretty good….ray. Then it turned back very swiftly and came up fast. Uh-oh, a big tarpon comes straight up right at the back of the boat. Blake estimated 150 pounds. It looked larger than that to me. The hook came flying out. When we looked at the circle hook, the point was rolled over. Later in the day, a tarpon rolled over where Charles had a bait on the bottom. The fish made a sharp u-turn and dove down fast and Charles’ line started going sideways. He engaged the reel and the tarpon comes skying out of the water. It does a back flop and Charles’ line breaks. It looked like the fish landed on it. We had a couple other hook-ups with fast drag pulls that came loose before we could see what they were. They felt tarponish. No photos of the tarpon even though Ric Burnley was along just to take photos. He did not have his camera in his hand for either jump. Things happened fast.
Capt. Jorj Head sight fished for cobia inside the 4th island. They caught 13 cobia.
Brandon Bartlett fished the billfish tournament. Saw fish around the 400 line. Caught a blue marlin and missed some whites.
Saturday
We met with Capt. Blake Hayden at the base of the CBBT. Also waiting there was Carl Herring. They were fishing the club challenge. While he was waiting for his crew member, Carl told us of his Eastern Shore tarpon catches. I think that guy has done it all. Blake said that if the wind was blowing one way, we would go back to where we were or if it was blowing another way, he had another spot. When we got there, the wind was not blowing at all. We went back to the same spot. We saw even more tarpon rolling than the day before but did not have any tarpon hook-ups. We did catch some impressive southern stingrays though. I snagged Charles’ hook as I was bringing my bait in to check it. I told him that I had him and he said that I did not. Sure enough, I had his rig from the day before: hook, leader, sinker, shock leader, and about 30 feet of main line. It looked like a sharp cut. I don’t think this fishing is for everyone but we had a blast. Capt. Blake was a lot of fun and we have already booked him for another trip.
Capt. Jorj Head sight fished for cobia inside the 4th island again. They caught 17 cobia including 5 release citations.
Brandon Bartlett fished the billfish tournament at about the 350, 50 to 100 fathoms. They saw about a dozen fish but did not get many bites. They caught a spearfish right before lines in.
Sunday
We went billfishing. I went to get some ice and there was the Gee Daddy tied up with a rigger full of flags. We were just getting started and those guys were still up celebrating their big tournament win. I went over and congratulated them and asked where I should go. The guy told me to go to the 150 in 50 fathoms. Thanks Gee Daddy. From the 160 to the 140 in 50 to 70 fathoms, we saw marlin everywhere. Free jumpers, balling bait, cutters, at one time I had ten fish tailing on one side of my boat. I looked to the other side and there were another ten. I have no idea how many fish came in the spread. At first I thought we were still tarpon fishing. We had a couple of one jumps and gone. Then we pulled one after a good fight. We plain missed 3 more. We finally caught our 7th bite. A lot of the fish were coming in and tapping a bait and leaving. We would drop back and nothing. The bait would look untouched. We still had plenty of others that did eat. We ended up catching 4 white marlin and a spearfish. We should have caught 15. I am sure one of the good charter boats would have had a 20 fish day there yesterday. Billfishing is very good right now.
Larry Lusk fished the Fingers. They found plenty of dolphin and a nice wahoo.
Monday
I did not fish today. I got a call from Brandon Bartlett. He wanted me to call Zach Hoffman. It turns out the cobia fishing just continues to be red hot. They had Ken Braddy on board. Ken holds two junior world records for cobia and they said he had another. I met them at Dare Marina with an IGFA certified scale. His fish weighed 92 pounds 8 ounces. His current record is 86 pounds so a pending world record for Ken! He caught his fish sight fishing near the Baltimore Channel.
