Healthy Grin Sport Fishing

We went out with Dr. John Graves yesterday to try and catch young-of-the-year bluefin tuna. We just go offshore and troll little Clark spoons that you would use to catch Spanish mackerel. We did managed to catch a bluefin eventually but all of these wahoo kept getting in the way. In addition to the little spoons, we had a couple of ballyhoo/Ilander combinations back behind everything off of the riggers. The wahoo bite was very good. We started around 40 fathoms SE of the Cigar. The wahoo were thick. We trolled on north to try and find the bluefin and found more wahoo. Plenty of hoos from the 41050 to the 41150, 30 to 40 fathoms. On our monofilament surface baits, we boated 5 hoos, got bit off numerous times, pulled hooks and so on. Probably 20 or so wahoo bites. Had 3 blue marlin come in and look but no bites. We also caught a half dozen or so dolphin. Wes Blow caught his first two-ever wahoo. Both weighed for citations. His first wahoo was our largest of the day at 63 pounds.

Dave Trax on the Oblivian was fishing the same area and they were targeting wahoo. The last count I heard from them was 15 boated.

CHUMLINE OCTOBER 2012

This month’s meeting of the PSWSFA will be a swap meet. Bring your fishing related stuff that you would like to sell or trade.

For our speakers this month we have Joe Cimino and Lewis Gillingham from the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, Fisheries Section. They will be speaking
on the Fisherman Identification Program (FIP) and the Marine Sportfish Collection Program.

Meetings are free and you do not need to be a member to attend.

www.pswsfa.com/meetings.htm

We were light on crew for an offshore trip yesterday so we decided to stay inshore and try to catch a king mackerel. There has been a decent bite going on along the Virginia Beach oceanfront the past few weeks. We trolled plugs about 3 miles off of the beach between Rudee Inlet and Sandbridge. There was a good amount of life in that area. We saw a number of cobia but never got a cast on one. Ric Burnley was trolling near us and they caught a 65-pound cobia on a plug. We had about 20 bites. We caught a false albacore, a blacktip, 3 king mackerel and at the end of the day, we had all four rods go down with big red drum. The 3 of us managed to land all 4. We called Ric over when we got the bite, he trolled behind us and all of his rods went down too, more red drum. Good way to finish the day. We had 3 plugs bitten off. The rest of the bites just did not stay tight. Our largest king weighed 45 pounds 8 ounces. The plugs we were using were Rapala Magnums, CD 18 and 22.

Ken:

The tag that Lela deployed on a white marlin off the Healthy Grin on 5 September popped up on schedule at 6:37 GMT (1:37 EDT) this morning. The tag popped up at 34.58N, 65.56W, or about 460nm ESE from where it was tagged. From the latest temperature plots, that puts it into the warmest water around. If all goes well, the tag should transmit for about 30 days before the battery runs out. Unlike Emily’s tags, we won’t be able to infer the white marlin’s movements using geolocation, but using the temperature and depth data, we should be able to determine when it crossed the Gulf Stream.

Cheers,

John

Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament

For Immediate Release
October 2, 2012

State Record Swordfish Shattered

A 446-pound swordfish, caught on September 1, 2012 by Joseph T. Harris, of Virginia Beach, VA, has been certified as the new Virginia State Record by the Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament. Harris’ catch surpassed the existing record of 381-1/2 pounds, caught over 30 years earlier, by James Alexander of Virginia Beach.

Harris made his record-setting catch off Virginia Beach and south of the Norfolk Canyon, while fishing with Captain Justin Wilson aboard the Lynnhaven Inlet based 34-foot charter vessel Just Right. The huge swordfish hit a drifted whole squid. Harris was using a custom built 50-pound class stand-up rod mated to a Shimano TLD 50 reel and loaded with 50-pound test Ande monofilament line. Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament State Record Committee member Ken Neill, III, of Seaford, verified weight, length, and girth measurements and positively identified the swordfish, in accordance with the Tournament’s State Record procedures, and completed the State Record Application.

The crew consisted of a group of friends and did not depart Lynnhaven until nearly 8 PM and began deploying deep baits for swordfish about 11 PM. The first strike came shortly but the catch was an estimated 10-foot tiger shark and was released. Next was a 46-inch swordfish pup that was released by the youngest member of the crew. The record setting fish hit about 2:30 AM and came to the boat quickly, as the crew was able to actually touch the leader in about ten minutes after the initial hook-up. The fish then sounded and the next 2-1/2 hours produced a see-saw battle. Once the fish was finally at boat side, and the group fully appreciated the size of their prize, several gaffs were deployed to insure the swordfish could be controlled and pulled through the tuna door.

The group had planned to take advantage of the red hot white marlin bite and troll at daybreak, but with the 12-1/2 foot long swordfish occupying nearly the 34-foot boat’s entire cockpit, they elected to return once all the gear was stowed away.

Inside Rudee Inlet at the Virginia Beach Fishing Center the swordfish would weigh an incredible 446 pounds and boast a lower jaw fork length of 98 inches with an overall length of 152 ½ inches. The prior state record of 381 1/2 pounds was caught off Virginia Beach at the Norfolk Canyon, by James Alexander of Virginia Beach on October 11, 1978.

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

The Peninsula Salt Water Sport Fisherman’s Association held its annual Spot Tournament September 29 and 30. The event was sponsored by Grafton Fishing Supply and Seafood. The Tournament Director was Captain Rick Wineman. The event culminated with a fish fry and awards ceremony, held at Dare Marina and Yacht Sales, hosted by Steve and Cindy Martin.

Prizes were awarded for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place spot. There were also special prizes for the heaviest spot caught by youth anglers. A 5-year-old angler won the whole thing.

The 1st place spot for the tournament and for the youth division was a .56 pound fish caught by 5-year-old Caleb Sava.

2nd place in the youth division was Caleb’s sister, Lexi, with a .48 pound spot.

3rd place youth was Madison Hunt with a .47 pound spot.

In the overall tournament, 2nd place was won by Gene Fowler with a .55 pound fish.

3rd place was Steve Martin and his .53 pound spot.

Caleb’s champion fish was caught at the Monitor-Merrimac Bridge Tunnel.

The Virginia billfish bite just keeps going. It is rather impressive watching the Waterman, Backlash, Delta Dawn, Capt. Cheryl, Git-R-Done, Virginian, and the other great charter boats out there going in reverse. It also can be a bit irritating at times watching all of these boats with marlin jumping behind their boats after you (meaning me) have just missed your 5th (OK, maybe it was more than that) bite in a row. There are a lot of white marlin being caught along with good numbers of sails and blue marlin plus the occasional spearfish and the overnight sword bite. All kinds of slams are being caught. We have no idea how long this is going to last but we have a good chance for it to last the rest of this month. Get out there now if you can.

The Healthy Grin crew was doing one of our research things with Dr. John Graves and one of his graduate students, Lela Schlenker. We pulled small spoons to catch young-of-year bluefin tuna (mostly catching blackfin). The bluefin tuna are being used for DNA research and analysis of various chemical deposits in various body tissues that can be used to track where the fish has been living. The young-of-the year are sought because they have not had a chance to do much moving around yet so their tissues can be used to establish baselines for Western and Eastern Atlantic stocks. We did manage to catch 4 white marlin. Lela collected blood and tissue samples prior to releasing them with pop-up satellite tags.

Another note about the area charter boats: As we would see another Virginia Beach charter boat backing down (when we were not), I’d tell her that you need to go with him. These captains are really stepping up and helping with this fisheries research. They have gone out of their way to help Lela, Emily and John’s other researchers collect their samples and get their hi-tech tags out. If you charter one of these great captains, do not be surprised if there is a young person riding along to learn more about your fish.

This past spring, I lost a stainless steel wreck anchor on the Consols wreck. It was made by Bob Manus for my boat and it worked well for several years. Normally, I will lose them quicker than that but this one hooked up quick even with difficult wrecks and until this time, always came free. I was really sorry to lose it. A diver, Stephen Williams dove the wreck and found the anchor. He knew someone that knew someone….that told him that I had lost a stainless anchor on that wreck. He tracked down my boat and when I went over to work on it a couple of weekends ago, my lost wreck anchor was sitting in my boat. Thank you a bunch Stephen Williams!

Virginia is for Billfish Lovers

We are having another great billfish season off of Virginia. In addition to the white and blue marlin bite, we have had a good number of sailfish around. You can confirm this with Lewis Gillingham but I believe this is our second best year for sailfish since we have been keeping records. This means that Grand Slam catches have been more common this year as it is usually the sailfish that we have the most difficulty getting. So instead of, “Jimmy Grant, on the Waterman, got a Grand Slam!!!!!” this year he only gets one exclamation point. On a good day, there can be several boats catching slams.

This past week, the guys took it up a notch. First there was Capt. Steve Richardson on the Backlash that came in with a Double Grand Slam. They caught and released 2 blue marlin, 12 white marlin, and 3 sailfish. That is a great day of billfishing anywhere in the world.

We are also having a really good swordfish season and there are some real bruisers out there. Capt. Jake Hiles on the Matador came in with a Super Grand Slam. They brought in a swordfish, caught and released 3 blue marlin, 7 white marlin, and a sailfish. They broke off a much larger swordfish than the one they boated.

The action continued through the Labor Day Weekend. Saturday morning we were working on the Healthy Grin and listening to the radio chatter. Capt. Justin Wilson, on the Just Right, was headed in with an estimated 300 pound swordfish. Virginia’s State Record is a 381.5 pound fish caught by an angler fishing with Capt. Steve Richardson in 1978. We went out to test run the boat and passed the Just Right on their way in. The fish looked rather impressive in their cockpit. I told them that we were not going far and to give me a call if they tickled Steve’s record. We saw a couple of cobia, hooking one and breaking it off on a buoy when my phone started to ring. They had tickled Steve’s record and then smacked it around a bit. We ran back in to start the state record process. The new pending Virginia State Record swordfish weighed in 446 pounds. When told over the radio that his swordfish record had been broken, Capt. Richardson said that it is about time. He also made the statement that this new record was not likely to last out the year as there are so many big swordfish out there right now. He may be a prophet.

On our way offshore Sunday morning, the radio chatter was again of big swordfish encountered by the overnight boats. The Friendship, George Powell’s boat, had landed one an inch longer than the fish boated the night before on the Just Right. It sounded like the pending state record might have lasted only one day. It turned out that this fish was skinnier and weighed in at “only” 396 pounds. Two 400 pound-class swordfish brought into Virginia over the Labor Day Weekend and reports of encounters with much larger fish.

The Healthy Grin crew had a less eventful Labor Day Weekend. No super-duper slams or state records for us. We did experience some great marlin action. Hunter Southall caught his first-ever blue marlin, on a TLD 30, 100-pound leader, and a small circle hook. We caught 5 white marlin and jumped off, pulled off and plain missed more than I will admit too. We also caught a handful of dolphin. With us was one of Dr. John Graves’ graduate students. She was collecting blood and tissue samples from white marlin. Another of his students was on the Waterman that was fishing near us. She was placing long-term pop-up tags in white marlin. Our white marlin are being well studied.

September is a fantastic billfish month off of Virginia. Get out there if you can.

Photo notes: the attached photos are mine from this weekend except 3 that were sent to me: Backlash Double Grand Slam (I think Bill Gooch took that one), Matador Super Grand Slam (Jake may have snapped that one), and Friendship Swordfish (Tim Rollins is who sent that one).

You can get in touch with Captains Jake Hiles and Steve Richardson through their websites:

www.matadorcharters.com

www.backlashsportfishing.com

Contact Lewis Gillingham for information on, well everything. State record stuff and he will have contact information for Justin Wilson and his angler who caught the pending record swordfish, Joseph Harris.

Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament
2600 Washington Avenue, Third Floor
Newport News, VA 23607
(757) 491-5160

For information on his research, contact Dr. John Graves:

John Graves
Chancellor Professor of Marine Science & Chair, Department of Fisheries Science
Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary
P.O. Box 1346
Gloucester Point, VA 23062
Phone 804.684.7352 Fax 804.684.7157