Healthy Grin Sport Fishing

I went fishing with Charles Southall today. Cobia fishing was very good. We caught and released 10 cobia up to 53 inches long. We tagged and collected DNA from 9 of them. Very close to us was Wes Blow and Congressman Rob Wittman. They had almost the exact same day, catching and releasing 10 cobia with tags and collecting DNA.  One of their cobia already had a tag in it.

I drove over to Rudee after lunch today. Put two baits out right outside the inlet and immediately both rods went down. Landed both. No other bites. There were some cobia caught and a king.

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We ran out to the Norfolk Canyon yesterday. We went out to try new-to-us live-baiting for marlin. We started out trying to catch tinker mackerel. We caught the heck out of the sea bass and blueline tilefish. We struggled with the mackerel. We managed to catch a few, bridled them up, and started trolling them. It was the first time we had used the trolling valves on the boat, those things work really well. It was not long before we had our first hook-up that dumped all of the line on the TLD 30 but really, it was down to the knot before any of us even noticed that something was going on. Some quick backing down allowed Charles Southall to keep the line from breaking. They saw the fish in the distance and said marlin but they were not sure what kind. When it got close to the boat, a very large and agitated hammerhead moved in and we were sure it was going to eat the marlin. When we finally got the “marlin” up enough to see it, it was another big hammerhead. While leadering that fish, the other shark grabbed a mackerel dangling from the long rigger. With a 2nd shark hooked up, we quickly cut the leader on the 1st. Then, the second shark broke off while a 3rd big hammerhead came in and at our last mackerel dangling off of the other rigger. That did not last long. Out of mackerel, we went back to catching sea bass and tilefish and a single mackerel. Back on the troll for 2 minutes and that one was taken by another shark also. So back to the bait catching. Some of the tilefish and sea bass were too small to keep. We “released” a few that floated. The water erupted with multiple hammerheads attacking the fish. We managed one more mackerel, it was getting late, so back on the troll with it and some silver perch I had left over as bait for the Flounder Bowl.  A hammerhead came in on the mackerel and we cranked it away from it. Stan Simmerman had a shark rig ready and fed it out but the shark went and ate one of the little silver perch. I fought that fish and somehow the little circle hook and light leader held and I got that shark to the boat. So we ended up going 2 for 5 on hammerheads. We never had a chance at a billfish. We ended up with a nice catch of sea bass and blueline tilefish to 10.5 pounds.

I went out this afternoon to catch bait for the Flounder Bowl. I got distracted. Caught 3 cobia and came in for the captains meeting.

There has been a very good blue marlin bite going on off of Virginia the past couple of weeks. There seem to be a lot of fish everywhere. They are being caught out past 100 fathoms but also in as shallow as 20 fathoms. Several were caught right on top of the Cigar yesterday. The bite has been anywhere from the Triple 0s area on up to the Norfolk Canyon. Most boats are having encounters with a lot of boats seeing multiples in a day with as many as 4 caught. Yesterday, the top boat I heard had 3. We saw one and caught it, nice one. Most of these fish are in the 300-400 pound range with 200-600 pound fish being caught. We also caught some dolphin and a keeper-size mako.

The day before, I got the boat ready for our offshore trip and did a little trolling and sight fishing along the oceanfront and in the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. There are a lot of cobia, red drum, Spanish mackerel and some large king mackerel in the area. I did  not fish long but did catch a cobia on a plug.

Richie and Dylan Moore had never caught an amberjack and had been asking to be included on a trip for the past couple of years. Yesterday, we took them to the South Tower and they caught all the jacks that they could possibly want.

While we were catching jacks, we were listening to the offshore bite going on. Excellent gaffer dolphin everywhere, a scattered bite of yellowfin tuna, at least one bigeye tuna, some wahoo and white marlin and an excellent blue marlin fishery is going on. Several boats had caught a couple, one boat had released four. There was good fishing from the Norfolk Canyon on down to the Triple 0s.

What has become almost a tradition and was an exact repeat from last year; after watching the guys fight a dozen or so jacks, I came down from the bridge, picked out a croaker, and caught a single amberjack, and went back up to drive the boat for the rest of the day. Again, my one fish was the largest one caught.

After the guys were done trying to catch a jack as large as mine, we hit a wreck and caught a few keeper-size sea bass which we did not keep while continuing to listen to the offshore bite. We had not brought ballyhoo or our offshore stuff. I talked with Charles Southall and we figured that there had to be something on the boat we could troll. We scrounged around and put out some kind of spread. We ended up with a nice catch of dolphin to finish the day.

I fished for cobia Saturday and Sunday mornings, home for lunch each day. Saturday, I fished by myself and caught 3 cobia plus a bunch of sharks. Sunday, I fished with Charles and Hunter Southall. The sharks were waiting and we caught 6 cobia. I broke a 7th off at the boat and I had the hook pull on the biggest of the day. Two good mornings of cobia chumming.

Doug Olander, Editor-in-Chief of Sport Fishing Magazine contacted me about coming to Virginia to do a story. Sure, what are you interested in catching? Well, they were not interested in tautog (better article for their sister publication, Salt Water Sportsman) but were interested in our other wintertime fish: big sea bass, the deep-drop creatures, striped bass, bluefish, bluefin, and those big wintertime speckled trout we catch (though they had heard that fishery might be done). Doug said that he just could not get away but would send his editor Sam Hudson to fish with us. I think that Doug is just too smart to leave Florida in the dead of winter to come up here.

Sam contacted me and scheduled to fish Friday-Monday over the Super Bowl weekend. They wanted to know if they could invite U.S. Congressman Rob Wittman and a tackle manufacturer or two. Sure, invite whomever you want but just make sure that they know what they are getting into. It is going to be cold and miserable but we’ll catch something.

I sent out an “all-call” to my fishing buddies asking for help. Charles Southall, Gabe Sava, Wes Blow and Stan Simmerman said that they would take off work too crew for the extended weekend. I said we were going to take them tautog fishing, the one fish they don’t want. They just don’t know how impressive the tautog we are catching really are and besides, they can take photos of all the big sea bass bycatch that we will have to release. We would take them deep-dropping sometime and we should be able to find at least one striped bass somewhere.

Sam then contacted me and he had talked to someone who had told him that the fishing was bad and that March would be better with tuna fishing starting. I told him that March was just more of February. Tuna fishing should be very good then out of the Outer Banks and if they wanted to do a tuna article, he should talk to Ric Burnley who knows a lot of the captains down there and he could help him get in on some great fishing down there. Sam said they definitely wanted Virginia. I told him that we can do the deep-drop stuff year-round and if he wanted pelagics in the mix, to come in May. Tuna should be here and we will have a very special drum fishery going on with the possibility of cobia also. So the trip was postponed until May 29-June 1. We went fishing the weekend that they were originally going to come. It was cold and miserable. We caught fish including what is now the All-Tackle World Record Carolina hake.

Sam contacted me again, saying that the trip was shortened to 3 days and that he would be flying in on May 29 to fish May 30-June 1. I told him that when he got here, check into his hotel and come to the boat because we were going fishing. He was up for that so we were back to 4 days of fishing.

I called Cason Barco at Inlet Station Marina, (757) 422-2999 and told him what was going on and asked him if it was OK if we put another boat in a slip for the weekend and parked a boat trailer in his sister’s yard like we did for George Poveromo’s visits. He said sure and Charles brought his boat to Rudee. When Sam got there Friday, we left my boat in the slip and ran Charles’ boat to the drum grounds (in case we wanted to fish in the breakers in the inlet). On the way over I asked Sam why he was here. He said to do a feature. OK, a feature on what? What did he want to fish for? He said the article is a feature about Virginia as a fishing destination. They had seen the photos of all of the big fish we are catching here and all the records set in Virginia. What he wanted was not a story about catching a particular type of fish but more of one about the variety of great fisheries that we have in Virginia. OK, we are going to start with red drum.

We got over to buoy 8 and there was boat there fighting a fish. We anchored up and caught a couple nice eagle rays. The other boat put away their net and got out a gaff to land a nice cobia. We moved closer to buoy 10 and I hooked up to a big red drum before the second bait was in the water. Get them out, they are right behind the boat! We caught 8 large red drum in short order including as many as 3 hooked up at a time. Well that was a good start. We left them biting and headed in as we were leaving the dock very early in the morning.

Day 2, we headed out dark and very early to the Norfolk Canyon. We were going to bottom fish but I wanted to try for a bigeye tuna first. The canyon was full of pilot whales and porpoise. There were a few bigeye caught but we did not get a big bite. We caught a dolphin and went bottom fishing catching trophy-sized blueline and golden tilefish. It was hard to get Sam to fish as he wanted to get the shot and was taking a lot of photos and video. We did get him hooked up to a big golden but his hook pulled on the way up. I talked with Sam about our other possibilities and he said that if we could catch a cobia and a yellowfin tuna the story would almost write itself. I told him that we could do that.

Day 3, started a little later. Congressman Rob Wittman was fishing with us. He was going to fish with us for 2 days but the Magnuson-Stevens Act had been called up and he had to be back in Washington for the vote Monday, so he just had the one day. I stopped by Grafton Fishing Supply on my way to the boat and asked them for their best cobia jig. As the owner is also a partner in Reel Fast Tackle, it was no surprise that I walked out with a 2-oz Reel Fast Tackle jig with a 5-inch Reel Fast Tackle grub trailer. On the way to the boat, I called the best cobia angler I know, Capt. Jorj Head, (757) 262-9004. I told him that I had a United States Congressman and an Editor of Sport Fishing Magazine fishing with me and that I needed to catch a cobia, where should I go? He told me where to go and what to look for. Congressman Wittman drove into the parking lot with his personalized license plates “COBIA”. I met him and said that I knew he liked to cobia fish and asked if he had done much sight-fishing for them. He said, “Man, that’s my thing. I love doing that more than anything”. He then brought out his phone to show me photos of a pair of 90-plus pound cobia he had caught out of Hatteras a week prior. We saw our first cobia right when we stopped…before we were ready for it. We saw about 15 cobia, catching 6. Rob was spot-on with his casting and caught the most fish. Wes Blow was tagging and releasing everything. After the first cobia, about 45 pounds, was released, Gabe and Charles said that was our dinner! Wes just said that it makes for a good photo for our Congressman to be tagging and releasing fish. I did catch one from the bridge, on my Reel Fast Tackle jig. While everyone else was working on a smaller fish to the portside, a larger cobia popped up on the starboard. I was hooked up before anyone else saw it. That cobia, I slipped into the fish box before Wes got to it.

Day 4, we were joined by Charles’ son, Hunter. Hunter is home from college and is working this summer as a mate for Capt. Joe DelCampo out of the Virginia Beach Fishing Center. The great charter captains at the Fishing Center were more than helpful in sharing what was going on with the offshore bite. Tuna fishing is very good right now. Hunter showed up with some numbers written down and said this is where we need to start. We stopped and caught some dolphin off of the weather buoy and then ran out to where the tuna were. They were really there. Most of the boats caught their limits and ran in early. There were schools of skipjack and yellowfin mixed together and you just trolled in front of them and hooked up. Other schools were all tuna, you could just see them swimming. Boats would call each other over to keep on them. You would see numerous boats stopped near each other, all fighting fish. We caught 11 and could have caught more but we were running out of room and ice plus the guys, including Sam, thought it was a good idea to cast to them so instead of trolling baits in front of the school, I’d drive to the school so someone could cast from the bow. We caught one on a spinning rod and called it a day…a very good day. If you want to get in on this bite while it is hot, the Virginia Beach Fishing Center can be reached at: (757) 491-8000.

The article will appear in Sport Fishing about this time next year.

I received a message from Kayak Kevin that he thought that he had recaptured one of our red drum. After some discussion, I understood that he was referring to one of the red drum that we had place satellite pop-up tags in several years ago. Indeed, the photo of the “tag” looked exactly like the anchoring system that we had used. Dr. Andrij Horodysky confirmed that it was one of the anchors he had made, right down to the shrink tubing. At the time, he was still a graduate student of Dr. John Graves at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

Dr. Graves and his students had done a number of studies of pelagic fish with satellite tagging. What had not been done, due to the tag’s large size, were studies of inshore fish. There were some concerns about catch and release mortality of large striped bass being caught during the wintertime at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay after the season was closed. The practice was legal but Virginia’s fishery managers wanted to know what harm was being done. A newer generation of tag was smaller, making it a possible answer to the question. We took Dr. Graves and Andrij out in the Healthy Grin one very cold winter to find out. It turned out that the tags worked great and there were no mortalities of the caught, tagged, and released striped bass.

This opened up the possibility for the study of other inshore fish with pop-up satellite tags. Dr. Graves gave me a refurbished tag and asked me to place it in a red drum. In the spring of 2008, my wife, Tricia, and I took the tag out to shoals and she caught a big red drum. The fish was deep-hooked and we just cut the leader and left the hook in the fish. We placed the relatively large pop-up tag and a Virginia Game Fish Tag into the fish, held it up for photos, and then released the fish. On schedule, 30 days later, the tag released from the fish and transmitted its data. The fish had survived the experience and a lot of data was gathered.

This led to a red drum tagging study the following year. We went out in Charles Southall’s boat, Special Kate, and tagged 15 red drum during a weekend in May. Both satellite tags and Virginia Game Fish tags were place in each fish. The PSAT tags were scheduled to release at various times with 1/3 releasing at 30 days, 1/3 at 90 days, and 1/3 at 180 days. Some very interesting water column usage and migration patterns were shown and again, there were no post-release mortalities.

Back to 2015, the fish Kayak Kevin caught was indeed one of the fish that we tagged that weekend in 2009. From his photographs and the photographs we took of the fish during the tagging study, we have even identified which one. Chris Boyce caught the fish in 2009. It was about 46 inches long at that time. Almost exactly to the day, 6 years later, and almost in the exact same location, Kayak Kevin recaptured the fish. The fish was now 52 inches long. Kevin snipped off the tag anchor so it does not have to swim around with that anymore. The Virginia Game Fish Tag was no longer on the fish. The steel-dart anchor had failed while the surgical-grade nylon PSAT anchor had held, even with the much greater drag created by the larger tag. This could be one reason for the very low tag return rate for large red drum. These same steel-dart tags seem to work well in cobia but they may not be staying in the large drum as well.

For more information on the red drum (and other) research, Dr. John Graves can be reached at graves@vims.edu . Dr. Andrij Horodysky can be reached at: andrij.horodysky@hampton.edu . More about Kayak Kevin (yes, that is what he is known as): www.kayakkevin.com

An article on these studies which was first published in the IGFA’s International Angler: https://healthygrinsportfishing.com/?page_id=280

We have another, pending, All-Tackle World Record. The fish species has been identified as a Spinycheek Scorpionfish. It weighed 4.39 pounds. The current world record is at 3 pounds 5 ounces. If approved, it will become the 12th All-Tackle World Record caught on the Healthy Grin. It will be the 3rd set by Roger Burnley. Roger has set the snowy grouper record twice and is the current record holder. Roger caught the fish at the Norfolk Canyon while visiting for the holiday weekend.