Healthy Grin Sport Fishing

I went out after speckled trout this morning. It was still blowing too hard but it was dark, so I couldn’t see the waves. By the time I could see them to be scared, it was too late. The trout seemed to like it. I don’t know how many bites I had but I managed to hang on to 18. They were mostly aggressive, small males, 13-18 inches long. I lost the one big fish that I had hooked.

I woke up and it was dark and rainy. I let the dog out and went back to bed. I woke up again and it was light and rainy. I fed the dog. Apparently, old retired me doesn’t want to get wet so I just sat around until the rain stopped. Went out and chunked a topwater bait for a couple of drifts. Four explosions, held onto three. Nice trout between 22 and 24 inches long. Came in for lunch because, apparently, that is something old retired me does. Who the heck am I fishing with? Might go back out after lunch. Might take a nap. I’ll decide after coffee. 

George Poveromo came to Virginia Beach to film an episode of his television show “World of Saltwater Fishing”, www.georgepoveromo.com . I joined him on the Top Notch, with Captain Russ Kostinas and mate Bobby Kostinas: www.topnotchcharterfishing.com . I really liked the old Top Notch but this new boat is a really nice ride. Fish on it if you get the chance.

Russ put us on the fish and Bobby was a wizard in the cockpit. The target for this episode was white marlin. We caught those and they were not camera shy. We also caught a roundscale spearfish, yellowfin tuna, skipjack tuna, and a bunch of dolphin. I got in on some great fishing on a great boat and George got an action-packed television show!

The show will air in 2026 on the Discovery Channel and will have second airing on ESPN2.

Yesterday, we went out with Dr. Hamish Small to help him with his red drum research. We caught 9 red drum and a cobia. They were all tagged and released. We also caught a flounder, which was not released. Three of the largest drum (citation sized) were fitted with pop-off satellite tags. They will release from the fish after 45 days and transmit their data. Please release any of these fish with tag still in place…and report it! Our fish were mostly caught on live spot provided by Tricia Neill (Honey, we are out if you aren’t too busy ).
We also caught bluefish and some full-sized southern and butterfly stingrays. One of the big southerns had a nice cobia swimming with it. Instead of helping me with the stingray, that was kicking my butt, Hamish Small and Wes Blow casted to the cobia. It did turn on their baits but did not bite. Wes did snag the stingray with his jig so I did get some help after all.

We took Dr. Hamish Small back out to tag red drum this morning. We caught 10 red drum, including one that was already tagged, a black drum, a nice flounder, a number of bluefish, and Stan Simmerman caught a full-grown southern stingray. 

We took Dr. Hamish Small out to tag red drum this morning. The largest of the drum are being fitted with psat tags. These tags will release after 45 days and transmit their recorded data. Please keep an eye out for fish with these tags (it is not like you can miss them). Release the fish with the tag still attached so it can continue to gather data. We had a good trip catching 16 red drum. We also caught a half-dozen or so medium bluefish. It was a busy morning.

Yesterday, I trolled plugs along the oceanfront and caught multiple sharks. Today, I tried again and caught multiple red drum. I like the drum better.

After being beat up by big red drum and a sporty ride in yesterday, I’d planned to take today off. Got a message from: Stan Simmerman, thinking about trout fishing, interested? Yep. The morning started with a topwater explosion and a fun fight until the end when the trout refused the net. That was the only topwater bite we had. The rest of the morning, Stan made me catch all of the trout as he wanted more net practice after that first fish (my story, I can tell it as I want to. I did mention maybe if I had a younger net man…) The bite was not hot, but I did manage to catch 4 speckled trout including a couple of nice ones. Stan caught a striped bass, a flounder, and a croaker.

Trolled along Virginia Beach today. Big schools of red drum south of Sandbridge. Cranked until I got too tired. Spanish were being caught by the fleet. Sounded like some good cobia catches off of the CB buoys and a handful of big kings have been caught the past couple of days from Cape Henry to Sandbridge.