Healthy Grin Sport Fishing

I received information about a tautog I tagged seven years ago, tag number 138508. At that time, the fish was 16.75 inches long. The fish was caught on the Consol. It was recaptured this year by me. The fish was now 24 inches long and still on the Consol. Time at large was 2,499 days.

It was thought this might be the oldest recapture in the Game Fish Tagging Program but a quick check showed another tautog, recaptured this year had been at large longer.

About 8 years ago, I tagged an 11.5 inch tautog on the Westmoreland (tag number 121136). It was recaptured on the Cape Henry Wreck with a reported length of 16 inches. That fish had been at large for 2,826 days.

Both of these fish were re-released with their tags in place.

Fish number 138508

Yesterday afternoon, we went over to Fisherman’s Island in Charles Southall’s boat. We had 5 buddy boats fishing. The only one that caught any drum was the Burnleys who caught 4 big red drum.

Today, we went after tautog again. It was a slow day for us at the Triangles. We did catch some nice sea bass that we had to release and a few tautog. We briefly stopped on the Santore on the way in. That was our best wreck of the day but in total, we only caught 11 tautog. None were large. We came in early as Bernie Sparrer, in the photos, had to go to work. If he was late, it was because he would not stop fishing…not because the rest of us would not bring him in.

Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament
2600 Washington Avenue, 3rd Floor
Newport News, VA 23607
(757) 491-5160

For Immediate Release
April 3, 2012

25 Year Old State Record Tautog Broken

A 24-pound, 3-ounce tautog, caught on March 25th by Ken Neill, III of Seaford, VA, has been certified as the new Virginia State Record by the Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament. Neill’s catch surpassed the long standing record of 24 pounds, caught by Gregory Bell in 1987.

Neill made the record-setting catch at the Morgan wreck, which is one of the vessels contained within the footprint of the popular Triangle Reef site and located slightly over 30 nautical miles off Cape Henry. Neill, a dentist by trade, was fishing solo aboard his private boat the Healthy Grin. “I fished the day before with my regular crew of Peninsula Angler Club members and caught my biggest tautog ever, a 15-pounder. Sunday I had several other friends set to meet at the boat at 6 AM and planned to return to the same wreck,” said Neill. When the crew failed to materialize by 6 AM, Neill realized neither party had the other’s cell phone number. After a long 15 minute wait, lines were cast off and the Healthy Grin slowly motored out of Rudee. The wreck site from the day before was a relatively small structure and located well south of Rudee Inlet. Without any help to deploy, set and retrieve the anchor on the heavy 305 Express Albemarle, plans changed. “The Morgan is a large wreck and much easier to set anchor,” noted Neill. One can only speculate what the day would have been had the crew arrived on time but Neill, being a active participant in Virginia’s Volunteer Angler Gamefish Tagging Program who specializes in catching, tagging and releasing tautog knows one thing for certain from all the tag returns he has received over the years, “I never would have come close to that tog on Sunday.”

The tautog bite Sunday on the Morgan was much slower than the prior day on the southern hang and the first two hours produced only two tautog. Both were tagged and released. Sea bass were far more numerous at the Morgan, some were very good-sized but all were released because the season was closed. In an effort to detour at least some of the sea bass Neill baited up with a whole quarter of a blue crab. To fish a different area, and rather than weigh anchor and then reset the anchor, Neill opted to cast a short distance from the boat. Shortly afterward the big tog was hooked. “I knew this was a good fish right away. It was a really hard fight to keep it out of the wreck,” said Neill. But it was not until the fish was in the landing net and brought aboard that the true proportions of the fish could be realized. “I stopped fishing right then. I managed to set the camera up and take a couple of pictures and then I ran in to have it weighed.” The record tautog was caught on a St. Croix rod, mated to a Shimano Torium 16, spooled with 50-pound PowerPro Braid. A short mono leader and simple one hook mono bottom rig baited with fresh blue crab completed the outfit.

Tournament Director Lewis Gillingham conducted the official State Record weigh-in at the main office of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission in Newport News, although the initial Citation application was completed at Inlet Station Marina earlier in the day. The huge tautog weighed 24.22 pounds on the agency’s digital scale. For State Record recognition, weight is rounded down to the last full ounce, yielding an official weight of 24 pounds, 3 ounces. A mold and mount from the record setting tautog is being prepared. When this process is completed, Neill has donated the fish to the VMRC Biological Sampling Program. The sex will be determined through a necropsy and the otilith and opercula bones will be removed from the fish and taken to Old Dominion University’s CQFE Ageing Lab where age will be determined. The CQFE Ageing Lab has been examing tautog since 1999. To date the two heaviest tautog, both female, were determined to be 12 years (22-pounds and 9-ounces) and 17 years (21-pounds 13-ounces). Likewise the two oldest tautog were female at 23 years (11.49 pounds) and 22 years (at 12.99 pounds). So it will be interesting to learn how information from the new State Record fish, at over 2 pounds heavier and over an inch longer than any prior tautog sampled, fits the existing pattern. The shape of the head suggests the fish is female.

The 24-pound, 3-ounce record-setting tautog measured 32 inches in length and had a girth of 26-3/4 inches. The prior state record of 24 pounds was caught in the Atlantic Ocean off Wachapreague on a section of the Powell Wreck, by Gregory Bell on August 25, 1987. Subsequently, Bell’s tautog was accepted by the International Game Fish Association (IGFA) as the All-Tackle World Record. Bell’s IGFA record stood for over 10 years, until a 25-pound tautog was landed off Ocean City, NJ on January 20, 1998 by Anthony Monica.

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 National Marine Fisheries Service is taking two actions regarding
the recreational Atlantic bluefin tuna (BFT) Angling category fishery:

(1) closure of the southern area trophy BFT fishery (73″ or greater)
for the remainder of 2012, and

(2) adjustment of the daily retention limit that applies to the HMS
Charter/Headboat category (when fishing recreationally) to: 1 school
BFT (27 to <47”) and 1 large school/small medium BFT (47 to <73”) per vessel. The recreational daily retention limit that applies to HMS Angling category vessels remains at the default level of 1 school, large school, or small medium BFT (27 to <73”) per vessel. This action will be effective on April 7, 2012.

The forecast for yesterday was great. I met Wes and Hunter at Messick for my first trip in Wes’ new boat. Stiff breeze at the ramp. We went anyway. Big chop in the bay, we kept going anyway. Fisherman’s Island Inlet was all messed up with a confused surf with wind and current opposite of each other. We tried to fish anyway, for a little bit. Sitting side-to in those big waves was not fun. Lines got all tangled up, nothing would sit right. Caught a dog shark and a big spider crab that was tangled in about 3 lines (now cut that need to be re-rigged). There was one other boat out there when we got there. They left soon after we set up. It was too dark to see who they were. We quit and made the long run back. By the time we got back, there was not a breath of wind. We picked the one rough time of the whole day to try and fish. I think this is about the 4th similar trip on Wes’ new boat. He needs a good one soon or he may have to go get another boat.

http://hamptonroads.com/2012/03/change-luck-puts-angler-record-book

http://www.saltwatersportsman.com/news/potential-state-record-tautog-landed-virginia

If you missed the Virginia Striped Bass episode of George Poveromo’s World of Saltwater Fishing, you will have another chance to see it. Note the date change (originally scheduled to air in May) Encore Performances: Saturday, June 2 – 11:00 a.m. (Eastern Standard Time). www.georgepoveromo.com

We fished the 4A Drydock and the Consols today. We caught tautog at both. No big ones this time. They all looked really small to me. I did not take any photos of them. I did take a photo of Keith Blackburn and a sea bass he was not happy about having to release. A bit later, he caught his largest sea bass ever (about 5.5 pounds on the Boga Grip). It would have been his first-ever sea bass citation…if the season was not closed. Steve Martin caught a nice hake. We caught a total of 18 tautog with 6 being keeper-sized. We kept 3 males and tagged and released the rest. We caught 2 fish with tags already in them.

We had a good day catching tautog on the 4A Dry Dock the day before. We caught 32 fish up to 15 pounds and had several other fish that we just could not get up. My plan was to head back there in the morning. I had a different crew coming. Roy, who has fished with me a few times, and some of his friends were going to meet me at the boat at 6 AM. 6:15 and there was no Roy. I did not have Roy’s cell number nor did he have mine. I went on out on my own. They arrived at the slip about 3 minutes later. We have each other’s cells now.

It is a bit tricky trying to anchor on a wreck by yourself. I used to do it all the time in smaller boats but do not much anymore in the current Healthy Grin. I decided to change wrecks and ran to the Morgan because that one is a lot easier getting on right, solo. I got anchored up but was not right where I wanted to be. If I had a crew, we would have re-anchored. By myself, I stayed put and casted a little way to the structure.

It was clear when I ran out. Soon the fog rolled in and I could hear ship fog horns but could not see anything. The sea bass were relentless. My morning was not going well. I did manage to catch two, 15-inch tog mixed in with all of the sea bass. Tagged and released those. By 11:00, I was running out of crabs. I had plenty of clams but fishing with that was impossible with the sea bass. I was leaving the top shell on the crab and just cutting it in halves and quarters, and punching the hook through the shell. That slowed the sea bass down enough to give the tautog a chance.

A fish set down on the bait, an impressive tog bite. I knew it was a big fish but did not know how big. After the 3rd or 4th time of working that fish up and then having it just go right back down, I knew it was bigger than the 15-pound fish that I caught the day before. I still did not think it was this big until I slid the net under it and lifted it into the boat. That is when I saw just how big it was and started thinking about a possible record. It looked over 24 pounds on my Boga Grip but with the swells and a live fish, it was hard to tell.

I decided my fishing day was done. I used the self-timer thing to get some photos and ran on in. When I got in range, I was sending messages of a possible record to everyone. Danny Forehand left his house and met me at the dock along with Inlet Station Marina owner, Cason Barco. I put the fish on my scale and it was about 24.5 pounds. I called the VSWFT Director, Lewis Gillingham and told him that I had the next state-record tautog. I met him (with a lot of help from Danny, hauling coolers and such) at the VMRC building. On the digital scale, the fish weighed 24.22 pounds which converts to 24 pounds 3 ounces. It is 32 inches long.

The i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed so this should be the new Virginia state record once the application is processed. The one photo is of my fish next to the mount of the current, 24-pound state record. That fish was caught in 1987 by Greg Bell. His fish was the the IGFA All-Tackle World Record for many years until a 25-pound tautog was caught off of New Jersey in 1998.

Beautiful out on the ocean today. Tautog were cooperative. We caught 32 up to 15 pounds. Some nice sea bass had to be released. Blue crab was the bait of choice. Clam did not last a second due to the sea bass. We will be back after them in the morning.