Virginia is for Billfish Lovers
We are having another great billfish season off of Virginia. In addition to the white and blue marlin bite, we have had a good number of sailfish around. You can confirm this with Lewis Gillingham but I believe this is our second best year for sailfish since we have been keeping records. This means that Grand Slam catches have been more common this year as it is usually the sailfish that we have the most difficulty getting. So instead of, “Jimmy Grant, on the Waterman, got a Grand Slam!!!!!” this year he only gets one exclamation point. On a good day, there can be several boats catching slams.
This past week, the guys took it up a notch. First there was Capt. Steve Richardson on the Backlash that came in with a Double Grand Slam. They caught and released 2 blue marlin, 12 white marlin, and 3 sailfish. That is a great day of billfishing anywhere in the world.
We are also having a really good swordfish season and there are some real bruisers out there. Capt. Jake Hiles on the Matador came in with a Super Grand Slam. They brought in a swordfish, caught and released 3 blue marlin, 7 white marlin, and a sailfish. They broke off a much larger swordfish than the one they boated.
The action continued through the Labor Day Weekend. Saturday morning we were working on the Healthy Grin and listening to the radio chatter. Capt. Justin Wilson, on the Just Right, was headed in with an estimated 300 pound swordfish. Virginia’s State Record is a 381.5 pound fish caught by an angler fishing with Capt. Steve Richardson in 1978. We went out to test run the boat and passed the Just Right on their way in. The fish looked rather impressive in their cockpit. I told them that we were not going far and to give me a call if they tickled Steve’s record. We saw a couple of cobia, hooking one and breaking it off on a buoy when my phone started to ring. They had tickled Steve’s record and then smacked it around a bit. We ran back in to start the state record process. The new pending Virginia State Record swordfish weighed in 446 pounds. When told over the radio that his swordfish record had been broken, Capt. Richardson said that it is about time. He also made the statement that this new record was not likely to last out the year as there are so many big swordfish out there right now. He may be a prophet.
On our way offshore Sunday morning, the radio chatter was again of big swordfish encountered by the overnight boats. The Friendship, George Powell’s boat, had landed one an inch longer than the fish boated the night before on the Just Right. It sounded like the pending state record might have lasted only one day. It turned out that this fish was skinnier and weighed in at “only” 396 pounds. Two 400 pound-class swordfish brought into Virginia over the Labor Day Weekend and reports of encounters with much larger fish.
The Healthy Grin crew had a less eventful Labor Day Weekend. No super-duper slams or state records for us. We did experience some great marlin action. Hunter Southall caught his first-ever blue marlin, on a TLD 30, 100-pound leader, and a small circle hook. We caught 5 white marlin and jumped off, pulled off and plain missed more than I will admit too. We also caught a handful of dolphin. With us was one of Dr. John Graves’ graduate students. She was collecting blood and tissue samples from white marlin. Another of his students was on the Waterman that was fishing near us. She was placing long-term pop-up tags in white marlin. Our white marlin are being well studied.
September is a fantastic billfish month off of Virginia. Get out there if you can.
Photo notes: the attached photos are mine from this weekend except 3 that were sent to me: Backlash Double Grand Slam (I think Bill Gooch took that one), Matador Super Grand Slam (Jake may have snapped that one), and Friendship Swordfish (Tim Rollins is who sent that one).
You can get in touch with Captains Jake Hiles and Steve Richardson through their websites:
www.matadorcharters.com
www.backlashsportfishing.com
Contact Lewis Gillingham for information on, well everything. State record stuff and he will have contact information for Justin Wilson and his angler who caught the pending record swordfish, Joseph Harris.
Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament
2600 Washington Avenue, Third Floor
Newport News, VA 23607
(757) 491-5160
For information on his research, contact Dr. John Graves:
John Graves
Chancellor Professor of Marine Science & Chair, Department of Fisheries Science
Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary
P.O. Box 1346
Gloucester Point, VA 23062
Phone 804.684.7352 Fax 804.684.7157
