Healthy Grin Sport Fishing

Caught off of our dock this morning.

Gabe Sava, Jeff Dail, and Charles Southall fished the Special Kate out of Hatteras today. They went 4 for 5 on some really nice wahoo. They also caught some dolphin.

Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament

For Immediate Release
October 17, 2013

State Record Bigeye Tuna Bested

A 311-pound bigeye tuna, caught on September 25th by Vic Gaspeny, of Tavernier, FL, has been certified as the new Virginia State Record by the Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament. Gaspeny’s catch surpasses the existing record of 285 pounds and 12 ounces, caught 10 years earlier in August 2003 by Melvin Bray of Dumfries, VA.

Gaspeny made his record-setting catch off Virginia Beach, at the Norfolk Canyon, while fishing with Captain Justin Wilson aboard the charter vessel Just Right. Gaspeny, a well respected light tackle fishing guide and outdoor writer, operates out of Bud N’ Mary’s Marina in Islamorada, FL, where he is best known for his ability to put clients on tarpon. Gaspeny also helped pioneer “day dropping” for swordfish off the Florida coast and in the process caught his 200th swordfish last July.

Gaspeny spent many of his early years in Tidewater, graduated from Cox High School and Old Dominion University and returns each year for a month-long fishing vacation to visit family and friends. It was a group of friends that left the dock early Wednesday, September 25, loaded with a full tank of fuel and 800 pounds of ice aboard Justin Wilson’s custom-rigged 34-foot Judge. Plan A was to day-drop for swordfish but it has been an off the chart year for Citation-sized bigeye tuna, arguably the best ever. So when the group received a call that a hot daybreak bite of bigeye tuna was going on the temptation was too great to resist. After arriving lines had hardly been set when all six went off and mayhem ensued. Two 50-pound class yellowfin were rather quickly landed but the other four fish appeared much bigger. One of those four fish came unbuttoned but the other three, all 200-pound class bigeye tuna, were landed. With over 600 pounds of tuna onboard the group decided it was time to move on to day-dropping for swordfish. The swordfish proved more elusive and, as the early morning adrenaline rush provided by the tuna ebbed, radio talk indicated the bigeye tuna bite was heating back up. The decision was made to pull up the deepbaits, reset the rods for trolling and return to the area where the tuna were caught earlier in the day.

It was nearly sunset when the huge bigeye hit a trolled ballyhoo rigged on a blue and white skirt attached to a heavy leader. Gaspeny was using a custom built J&B rod mated to a 50W Shimano TLD reel and loaded with 80-pound test Suffix monofilament line. He quickly donned a fighting harness and settled in for an extended battle. The tuna was finally gaffed boatside at 9:15 PM. There was a brief discussion among the captain and crew whether to stay and fish through the night for swordfish. “Reality set in,” according to Captain Wilson, “we were out of space and ice,” so the group headed in. It was a little before midnight as the Just Right pulled up to the docks at Long Bay Pointe Marina. The official weight of the bigeye would not be determined until the next day but it appeared their fish would easily exceed the current state record for bigeye tuna of 285 pounds and 12 ounces. Thursday morning the group’s suspicion was confirmed by Virginia’s Saltwater Fishing Tournament Director Lewis Gillingham.

“With the phenomenal bigeye tuna fishery we had off the Virginia coast this year I would have been really disappointed if the bigeye state record had not been broken,” Gillingham said. Rumors of fish over the existing state record had circulated but, for one reason or another, they were never submitted for state record consideration. Anglers fishing with Captain Wilson aboard the Just Right weighed a bigeye of nearly 300 pounds earlier in the month but it was not submitted for consideration because more than one angler fought the fish during the 4-1/2 hour battle.

The 311-pound record-setting bigeye tuna measured 79-1/2 inches in total length, 71-1/2 inches straight line fork length and sported an impressive 57-inch girth. The tuna was weighed and registered at Long Bay Pointe Marina. The prior state record of 285 pounds and 12 ounces was also caught off Virginia Beach, at the Norfolk Canyon, by Melvin Bray of Dumfries, VA on August 11, 2003.

For more information, contact Lewis S. Gillingham, Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament, 2600 Washington Avenue Third Floor; Newport News, VA, 23607, (757) 491-5160, vswft@mrc.virginia.gov

Off of my dock tonight. Catching speckled trout, bluefish, silver perch, and striped bass each night. There have been a few encounters with puppy drum but I lost each of those.

http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/b1eda138#/b1eda138/32

PSWSFA CHUMLINE OCT 2013

Walked down to the dock in the dark this morning. There were two puppy drum, 22-23 inch, swimming in the light. Swam a little grub in front of them and one pounced on it. After a drag-screaming run, the hook pulled. I was awake now. I climbed into the boat to get the landing net out in case I hooked up again. Second cast and another puppy drum was on. Longer fight but same result. What I did manage to land were little speckled trout and striped bass.

We headed out after breakfast and we were back in for dinner. It was a nice leisurely day trolling the beach. We trolled for kings from Rudee Inlet to Sandbridge and on out to the Santore. We stopped on the Santore and caught a few triggerfish. While trolling around, we saw some cobia and red drum so we into sight-fishing mode. We did not see anymore reds after we were ready to cast to them but we did see a good number of cobia. We ended up seeing 8 or so, hooking 3 and boating 2. While cruising around looking for cobia, we still were trolling plugs. Hunter Southall and Chris Boyce were on the bow when one of those rods went off. I got down off of the bridge faster than they could get back from the bow. I caught a 25-pound king mackerel. Went back up top to start trolling again and there were 2 nice cobia by the boat. The guys went scrambling to get to their casting rods. Hunter hooked up the smaller of the pair. That cobia ended up weighing in at 45 pounds. After boating that fish and getting it and the king on ice, we decided to leave them biting and to head in for an early dinner. The flurry at the end was close to the Dump Site buoy. There was a good king mackerel and cobia bite (and big red drum) bite today. The largest cobia I heard weighed 68 pounds and kings to 34 pounds were weighed in.

Well, yesterday was one of my more frustrating fishing days. Not one of the worst; nobody got hurt, the boat ran great, and we did not break anything important but dang was it irritating. We did not catch a tuna. We spent the day at the Norfolk Canyon with tuna being caught around us all day. Typical catch was 6-12 longfin, some dolphin, and maybe a wahoo or a white marlin. We started out catching dolphin. Not off of a buoy or anything, they just came in and ate everything…several times. We had a decent catch of dolphin then we lost a couple right at the boat, and then another one was gaffed and then flipped overboard as it was going into the box. No big deal, we had plenty and it was early in the morning. It was the last fish we caught all day. There was a fairly steady pick of albacore tuna by the boats around us. Watched a couple gaffed and landed on the same baits we were using. We had one hooked up on the green bar but pulled the hook. That was it. Later, a green stick boat called me on the radio. He had a bad day at the Washington and was trolling to the Norfolk. Asked if I had any pilot whales. I told him that they were a ways off of my bow and that I was trolling to them. He followed me to them and from sunset til dark, he caught 3 yellowfin and 2 big eyes, right on the north wall of the canyon. He said his first bigeye was about 225 pounds. There are tuna at the canyon, of various color, but we sure could not catch them. We did get visited by some white marlin. We had a couple of bites on the left side and then there was another on our shortrigger bait on the right side. We had a dink pitch bait ready just for this. We did not execute the bait and switch very well. We were also visited by wahoo. We had a big hoo come up and just look at that same short rigger bait but did not bite it. Later, we put a planer down and that got bitten off. We even put out a Clark spoon to see if we could catch a baby tuna for Dr. Graves. We could not even catch a baby. We were very good and not catching tuna in a canyon full of the things.