Dec. 23 and 24, I went out each morning and eeled for big rockfish with Charles Southall. We fished until early afternoon both days due to evening holiday things. We caught nothing.
On the 23rd, Hunter Southall did not want to rockfishing with us. He and David Brabrand went to the Elizabeth River after specks. We got a photo text early that morning: David, first fish, 24-inch release citation. I so wanted to be able to tell them at the end of the day that our fish would eat theirs for a snack. They ended catching about 60 speckled trout including 5 fish between 24 and 26 inches long. At the end of the day, Hunter said that we should have gone fishing with him.
That night, Wes Blow ran out to the high rise area and eeled for big rockfish. About 10:30, I got a photo text from him with one about 48 inches long. Wes is my only fishing buddy that I automatically add to whatever he tells me. I have a few that I will mentally subtract from their lengths/weights until the fish is officially weighed but not Wes. So I knew he had a big one. It was the only fish he caught. He ran in and picked up his wife, Amy, for a Christmas Eve trip to the Elizabeth River to try and catch her first ever citation fish (Wes needs no sleep). They stopped at Wilcox’s on the way and weighed Wes’ rockfish. It weighed in at 52 pounds 5 ounces and they measured it at 50 inches long.
Wes and Amy had a great day catching speckled trout. They caught about 36 trout including some in the 23 and 7/8 inch range that Wes would not call a citation. Amy finally got one that made a “Wes” measurement of 25.5 inches long. It weighed close to 6 pounds on the boat’s digital scale. Wes caught one at 25.75 inches long. They released them all.
