Sheepish

Posted on June 9, 2023 by admin

I took my assistant, Meghan Wells , and her father, Michael Wells , out this morning to try for a sheepshead. Mike caught a sheep, a nice flounder, and our largest tog. Meghan caught a bunch of small tautog. This left oystertoads for me. I did manage to lose the one sheep I had hooked.

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Quick Trip

Posted on June 3, 2023 by admin

I snuck out this morning before the predicted blow. It was slick calm at the time. I released some tautog, caught a keeper flounder, and a big ‘ol sheep. Back in before the white caps.

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Cobia

Posted on June 2, 2023 by admin
I went out with Stan Simmerman today after cobia. We tagged and released 6 fish up to 50.5 inches long. We had numerous other encounters including a nice fish that leaped completely out of the water and threw the hook.
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Cobia

Posted on May 29, 2023 by admin

The wind finally let up enough today to be able to leave the dock…to socked in fog. I did a little pre-season cobia chumming. I caught an released 3 cobia up to 52 inches long. When the fog finally lifted, it revealed that I was not the only boat after early cobia.

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On Top

Posted on May 13, 2023 by admin

Had some topwater bites this evening. Held onto a few including a very fat 22-inch speck.

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Sheep, drum, tog

Posted on May 9, 2023 by admin

Caught black drum, tautog and a big sheep this weekend. No trout.

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Across the bay

Posted on April 29, 2023 by admin

I started shallow this morning. I did not get a speck bite. Moved out to the reef and caught a half-dozen tautog. None were big, just one keeper. Then ran to the eastern shore and caught 3 black drum. Pulled the hook on two others. Pretty day on the water.

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A long wait

Posted on April 25, 2023 by admin
As newlyweds, Tricia and I flew down to the Orlando area. I was still in dental school. We fished for largemouth bass and we still have the 10.25 pound “honeymoon hawg”, that Tricia caught, hanging on our wall. We then drove down to Key West and caught tarpon in the harbor. On the way, we saw signs along the canals about protecting the recently stocked peacock bass. I said that I wanted to fish for them some day. A dental career, two children, and 30 something years later, we did.
I called Capt. John Shanley at Jurassic Park Fishing Charters: www.jpfishingcharters.com and told him the time that I would be down there. He had three days open and I booked them all to give us the best chance at catching a peacock. It took maybe 15 minutes to catch the first peacock bass. Over the three days, we caught hybrid stripers, largemouth bass, clown knifefish, mayan cichlids, gar, and loads of peacock bass. I have no idea how many we caught. It was a blast catching those fish on light spinning tackle.
After I had scheduled the peacock fishing days, we had a couple of opens days left. A number of people had told me how much fun catching snook was. I had never caught a snook. I called Capt. Eric Lion at County Line Fishing Charters: www.countylinecharters.com and talked to him about snook fishing during those days. He said that if I was flexible, he would contact me about when would be best: tide, night vs day. I did not hear back from him until having dinner after peacock fishing. He had been texting the wrong number for days before figuring it out. If I was still interested, we’d fish the outgoing tide in the next afternoon. That morning he contacted me about the weather and asked if I could come earlier to beat the storms…on my way. We did not get to fish his tide but it did not matter. It took 15 minutes for my first snook hookup. In 4 hours of fishing, I caught 10 snook and had maybe had that many more bites: missed them, pulled the hook, and I had one I could do nothing with. It just went right through the pilings and broke me off.
Maybe, I won’t wait another 30 something years.
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A few Tautog

Posted on April 15, 2023 by admin

Today, I did some tautog fishing with Stan Simmerman. We mostly caught sea bass. We caught 8 tautog, none were big. A school of 30-inch red drum made for some fun bycatch.

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Tagged Tautog

Posted on April 10, 2023 by admin

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Volunteer Dr. Ken Neill breaks another record for the Virginia Game Fish Tagging
Program
April 10, 2023
Virginia anglers know that wreck fishing for tautog can be pretty rewarding in the spring. One angler
who is very familiar with the joys of tautog fishing is Virginia Game Fish Tagging Program volunteer
tagger, Dr. Ken Neill. Since joining the program at its inception in 1995, Dr. Neill has tagged more than
3,700 fishes for the program. During this time, he’s contributed a tremendous amount of data and set a
few program records. The most recent record being for the longest days at large (the length of time
between when a fish is first tagged and released, and when it is last caught).
On March 23, 2013, Neill tagged a 12.5-inch tautog at the Morgan Wreck. This fish was initially
recaptured by another VGFTP volunteer tagger, Mr. Wally Veal, at the Morgan Wreck on January 22,
2017, and measured 16 inches at the time. However, it was the most recent recapture that made the fish a
record breaker. The tautog was last recaptured on March 26, 2023, by Mr. Andrew Homer at Triangle
Wreck (part of the same complex as Morgan Wreck) and measured 22 inches long. This recapture
marked a new record of 3,655 days at large (more than 10 years!) for a VGFTP-tagged fish.
Surprisingly, this was not the first time that a fish tagged by Neill has been a record holder. It was eleven
years ago today when the VGFTP first shared a record-breaking tautog recapture by Dr. Ken Neill. Neill
first tagged that 11.5-inch tautog on April 10, 2004 off Cape Henry, and that fish was at large for 2,826
days, only 94 days short of 8 years. Neill’s tautog set a new record at the time for days at large which
was broken in 2019 when a cobia (originally tagged by Sheldon Arey at Latimer Shoal in 2009) was
recaptured and released at the York Spit 3,623 days later.
VGFTP Principal Investigator Susanna Musick of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) says,
“Thanks to Dr. Neill and Mr. Homer, we have another outstanding recapture record! These long-term
recaptures help highlight site-fidelity and show how much these fish can grow. We can see the
significance of this type of habitat for structure-oriented species like tautog. Also, multiple recaptures of
the same fish show the importance of good catch and release handling and tag retention. We’re lucky to
have devoted volunteer taggers like Dr. Neill in our program and are grateful to the anglers who report
these tagged fishes.”
The VGFTP is a cooperative fisheries research program in partnership with recreational anglers, the
Marine Advisory Program at VIMS and the Saltwater Tournament at the Virginia Marine Resources
Commission (VMRC). The program’s funding is from state saltwater license funds and VIMS. To learn
more visit: www.vims.edu/vgftp/ or www.facebook.com/vagamefishtagging/

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/volunteer-dr-ken-neill-breaks-another-record-virginia-susanna-musick?utm_source=share&utm_medium=guest_desktop&utm_campaign=copy

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