Healthy Grin Sport Fishing

I got up early this morning. I had 3 peelers from last weekend still in the fridge that needed to go away. I got to the flats at first light. Good thing because I was just able to see that gill net in 1.5 foot of water. There was absolutely no wind. I got set up and started baiting the hook. Peeler did not smell too bad. I was swarmed by mosquitoes. Every Poquoson mosquito was there. I was wearing shorts, t-shirt, and sandals…not good. I made a cast and tried to work the popping cork while smacking myself with my hat. The mosquitoes were then joined by a swarm of gnats. No bug spray in the boat, not a good start to my day. I decided I was not doing this and “bugged” out after the one cast. I was back at the dock before sunrise. I had raingear in the boat. I should have put that on but I did not think of that until I was back home.

On the way home from work, I stopped at Grafton and bought chum, eels, and 3 peeler crabs. After dinner, I ran back out to the flats. It was better this evening. I still got bit by mosquitoes but the drum were biting. Mullet were everywhere.

The Peninsula Salt Water Sport Fisherman’s Association held a several months long, “Triple Threat” tournament. Targeted species were red drum, black drum, and cobia. Winners are determined by the combined total length of the three species caught by the angler.

The 2014 Triple Threat Champion is Wally Veal with a total length of 162 inches. Wally caught a 54.5-inch red drum, a 48.5-inch black drum, and a 59-inch cobia.

2nd Place was won by Ken Neill, III with a total length of 154 inches. He entered a 49-inch red drum, a 51-inch black drum, and a 54-inch cobia.

The tournament director was Capt. Rick Wineman and the event was sponsored by Bishop Bait and Tackle.

We fished the A, B, and the Benson. Caught nice sea bass at the Benson. Jacks to 58 inches at the A Tower. Smaller jacks at the B

Charles and I went out today to catch some jack baits. Our by catch included triggerfish and a cobia.

We fished the triple 0s area yesterday. We got to watch some billfish caught. We went 0 for 3 or 4. We caught a couple dolphin and stopped and jigged up some sea bass on the way in. The evening before I ran over to the flats and caught puppy drum.

Hunter Southall went cobia fishing for a couple of hours today. He caught and released a 51-inch cobia and pulled off another. He came and picked me up at my dock when I got home from work. We ran over to Poquoson Flats and caught puppy drum until it got dark.

Capt. Jorj Head went fun fishing today. They were going after flounder but they kept seeing cobia so they never got around to the flounder. They caught 14 cobia and pulled off a number of others. The Gentleman’s Club Cobia Cup was this past weekend. Jorj won it with a 61-pound fish. Including calcuttas, they won a bit over $10,000. Jorj also won the Hampton Creek Cobia Tournament earlier in the summer. The Chesapeake Bay Cobia Classic is this coming weekend. I think Capt. Jorj Head has a good shot at the sweep.

Saturday, Charles and Hunter Southall fished Poquoson Flats on a rainy day and caught puppy drum. Hunter has been doing well on those fish all summer as he is getting in as much fishing time as he can before he is off to university!

Sunday, we spent a rainy day offshore. We started at the weather buoy and caught some dolphin and false albacore. We moved on out to 50 fathoms and did circles for the rest of the day. Stan Simmerman caught a nice wahoo. We had a good number of marlin encounters with white marlin coming in on the big baits. Sometimes, we were successful on switching them off to the right stuff. Others were just too quick and would be briefly hooked up on a big bait. We caught 3 white marlin and a roundscale spearfish. We had Joe visiting from Kansas. Joe had never been offshore before and he caught the spearfish. I don’t think that he thought that the guys were serious when they said he was going swimming.

The Peninsula Salt Water Sport Fisherman’s Association held a croaker and flounder tournament for women and children. The event culminated with a picnic and awards ceremony held at Dare Marina on July 27. There were no entry fees, the tournament and picnic were free to all participants. This year’s winners:

Youth Flounder
1st – Hayden Head 5.9lb
2nd – Spencer Elford 3.9lb
3rd – Taylor Simmerman 3lb 2oz

Youth Croaker
1st – Hayden Head 1lb 4oz
2nd – Spencer Elford 1lb 2oz
3rd – Madison Hunt 14oz (.875lb)

Ladies Flounder
1st – Amy Blow 4lb 4oz
2nd – Ruth McCormick 2lb 2 oz

Ladies Croaker
1st – Diana Greasley 1lb 7oz
2nd – Ruth McCormick 1lb 4oz
3rd – Wendy Elford 1lb

I fished for cobia again this morning. Today, Stan Simmerman and myself fished with Charles Southall.  We went back to where I had caught 9 the day before. Today, we caught 6 to 47 inches. Wes Blow was up current of us. He caught 4 to 61.5 pounds. Jorj Head was down current from us. At last report, he had 6 cobia to about 40 pounds and a 50-inch red drum.

Fished the outgoing tide this morning. I caught 9 cobia (one as I was clearing lines). Largest was 50 pounds.