We went back out after wahoo yesterday. It was gorgeous out there but we did not get any wahoo bites. We caught 3 blackfin tuna including our largest out of Virginia so far, 2 false albacore, and a barracuda that we thought was going to be our wahoo.
Closer to shore, I’m catching speckled trout off of my dock every night. No striped bass yet…maybe tonight.
Friday, Danny Forehand and I went over to the boat and got it ready for a planned wahoo trip on Sunday. We went out and trolled for king mackerel for a bit. We did not get a king. We did pull something off that may have been one and there were a few big kings caught by other boats. We were trolling four rods when two went off. During the fight, we managed to get all four lines crossed up and under the boat. We did land and release Danny’s big jack crevalle. The fish I was fighting got in the wheel as we were landing Danny’s. My diver had just cleared a bunch of line from the wheels. We put some more line back for his next dive.
It blew Saturday and Saturday night. I told the crew to check the weather and to decide if they still wanted to head offshore. The only hardy souls remaining Sunday were Phillip Neill, Chris Wayman, and Stan Simmerman. They said that they were good to go so down to the Cigar we went. The forecast was right on with big seas early but by mid-morning, it was an entirely different ocean. The wahoo liked the weather. We had about 15 wahoo bites and only managed to land 3. They were all nice fish with the smallest weighing in at 45 pounds, the largest at 85 pounds. We trolled a little spoon for a bit to see if there were any baby bluefin around for Dr. John Graves. There were baby blackfin. Phillip caught a big false albacore that managed to escape overboard from Stan’s hands before we could measure it so no release citation for Phillip. The rest of us each weighed in a citation-size wahoo. These were the first-ever citation wahoo for both Stan and Chris. At 85 pounds, Stan started out big.
Our club’s spot tournament was this weekend. I trolled plugs along the oceanfront and did not catch a single spot. The fish we pulled off last weekend bugged me all week so I went and gave the king mackerel another try. I had three bites. The first fish pulled…a continuation from our last trip. The next fish was a big red drum that I did catch. The third bite was a screamer and it was what I was after.
I trolled along VA Beach for kings today. I caught red drum, false albacore, and spinner sharks. I did watch a nice king get caught by a nearby boat.
I went over to the boat Friday morning to check the oil and stuff to make sure that everything was ready for our group of scientists the next day. I slipped out of the inlet and trolled the oceanfront for king mackerel for a couple of hours. No kings this trip. I kept seeing Spanish mackerel and little tuna creatures that I expect were small false albacore. To make sure that they were not the young-of-the-year bluefin that we were going offshore in search of, I put out a little spoon and caught a Spanish. The guys looking for cobia were having a good day.
Saturday, on board, we had Doctors John Graves and Hamish Small and PhD student Nadya Mamoozadeh from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. Our volunteer mates were Danny Forehand, Capt. JT Hale, and Gabe Sava. We were on one of our yearly searches for baby bluefin tuna. We trolled Spanish mackerel tackle near the Norfolk Canyon. On it, we caught skipjack tuna, bullet tuna, dolphin, blackfin tuna, and 2 YOY bluefin tuna. The “2” is unusual. Typically, we do not find them at all or we catch a bunch.
Gabe being Gabe, we soon had one of the blackfin tuna rigged up and being trolled off a rigger. With these baby tuna around, there should be a blue marlin here eating them. We never did see a blue marlin. We did see a few white marlin and we did catch one of those. I did not get any photos of the white. It was kind of rough and I was driving the boat and trying to stay in the tower.
John and Danny caught a double of similar-size tuna. They looked the same coming in the boat but one is a blackfin and one is a bluefin.
Friday evening I ran to the flats with Tricia and Casey. They hooked 3 puppy drum, pulling the hooks on 2 with Casey landing one.
Saturday, Tricia and I went to the ODU football game, meeting up with freshman Hunter Southall and some of his classmates. Brent Meadors, on the Breike, trolled inshore for king mackerel. They caught a 27-pound fish ( angler Kendel Blankinship).
Sunday, we ran offshore for billfish. Weed mats were everywhere and so were the dolphin. Without trying for them, we ended up with 36 nice dolphin on the troll. When we first set out, we put out a little spoon the see if the baby bluefin were here for Dr. John Graves. We caught a jack right away, the spoon broke so that was that. We did catch a couple of white marlin and should have had 3 or 4 more. We did collect DNA samples from the ones we caught for Dr. Graves’ grad student, Nadya Mamoozadeh. For information on her research or to volunteer to help her collect fin clippings of the marlin you catch: nrmamoozadeh@vims.edu . We also had a sailfish hooked up briefly.
Monday morning, Gabe Sava and I trolled the oceanfront for king mackerel. We caught one. When I called home to see if they wanted me to bring home lunch, they said no and that they were going fishing. Tricia and Casey caught a variety of bottom fish at Poquoson Reef. Hunter Southall took one of his new college friends to the flats and she (Tori) caught a nice puppy drum.
Tricia, Casey and I made a short trip to the flats this evening. Hooked 3 puppy drum, lost 2. Casey caught this one.
Charles and I trolled the oceanfront again this morning. We did not catch a king today. We lost a few fish that we never saw. We caught a couple false albacore, 2 houndfish, a ribbon fish and a dolphin. We were trolling about 3 miles off of the beach.
I went over and did a little work on the boat this morning. I then decided to sneak out and troll some plugs along the oceanfront. I lost a nice king at the boat. Tricia was heading over so I started trolling back to the inlet and I hooked up again. I got this one. Ran on into the inlet and picked up Tricia and weighed the fish. It weighed 25.5 pounds. We went out and trolled some more. We did not have anymore king bites. We did catch 3 of these cutlass fish creatures.
