Healthy Grin Sport Fishing

Charles Southall talked me into missing our fishing club meeting last night, to go fishing. We ran to the CBBT as soon as we got out of work and fished several hours of the outgoing tide. Fishing with eels, we had a total of 4 bites, catching 2. Gabe Sava caught a fat fish about 45 inches long. I caught the other one, about 48 inches long. Slick calm ride across the bay in both directions.

It Takes a Village

About a year earlier, George Poveromo told me that he would like to come back to Virginia to film another episode of his “World of Saltwater Fishing” television series: http://georgepoveromo.com/  . George is really a great guy and a lot of fun to be around. I always enjoy fishing with him and we started to talk about what we should fish for. I really wanted to fish for marlin. I described our fantastic drum fisheries and the run of big bluefish each fall. Basically, I went through all of the amazing fishing we have here in Virginia other than striped bass. Usually, that fishery has been a given but the past winter was not good. I only had two good days and both of them were by luck. Of course, George asked about fishing for striped bass…large striped bass. I said yes, that is typically an awesome fishery in Virginia except for the past winter and I was not sure what the next winter would hold. George told me that his largest striped bass was 28 pounds. Somehow, I told him to bring his production crew and we would catch rockfish a lot larger than that.

The production schedule required the trip to be as early as possible. I asked him to push it back as late as possible. Partly as to my best guess, a year in advance, as to when the large striped bass would be here. It also had to do with, “it takes a village”. There is a lot of effort into producing one of these shows. Many of my fishing buddies who have been a part of these productions in the past are school teachers. I knew what kind of help we would need and I hoped that they would be on Christmas break. We settled on the dates of December 13-15. This was in the middle of the week to avoid the weekend crowds and it was about as late in the year as they could go and get the show produced in time for it to air.

The first thing I did was to ask my wife, Tricia, when our kids Christmas break would start. She looked that up and it wasn’t until later. That just ruled out all my York and Poquoson school teacher buddies. I called the Burnley brothers and no, the Virginia Beach schools would not be out yet either. The past two shows George did here were in the summertime, so all of these guys were available. While chasing Virginia Tarpon with Capt. Blake Hayden, http://righttidecharters.com/  , I told him that George and the Marc VI were coming back and that I might have a problem getting one of my regular guys to run the Healthy Grin as the camera boat. Blake said that if all of my crew were working, he would do it. Blake is one of Poveromo’s regional experts from the national seminar series. Blake also is probably the top trophy speckled trout guide in the state and this would be during Blake’s busiest time of the year. This was a tremendously nice offer on Blake’s part but that is just how he is. I told him that I would take him up on it if I needed to but I would check to see if any of my crew could take off work during that time. I spoke to Charles Southall who is the person that got the Marc VI in and out the water during George’s previous two shows in Virginia. Charles said that with this much advance notice, he could arrange for our nation’s submarine program to survive without him for a few days and he would run the Healthy Grin. Now, if we could get another guy or two to help out…We had a lot more than that. Charles said that we have so many people willing to help that there will be no room for the camera crew. It is great to have good friends! Charles ended up asking Wes Blow and Steve Martin to help him. Hunter Southall also was there whenever he was not in school. Throughout, we received offers of help from charter captains, marinas, tackle shops, and individual anglers. It was amazing.

Everything was set up except for the fish. The week before their arrival, with water temperatures in the mid-50s, my cousin, Phillip Neill and I went out to pre-fish for the show. We fished from early Saturday morning, all through the night, and all through Sunday. We had a total of two bites and caught both. Nice 45-inch fish but it was not good. Both fish were caught 2-3 o’clock in the morning. They were coming to do a daytime show. George asked me what our options were. I told him that it was going to be cooler the following week and the bite should pick up but that the few large fish being caught were at night at the CBBT. Other than a night show, he could switch to jumbo sea bass and we would have no problem catching them. He said that he would have the production crew pack their lights for nighttime filming and that they were really going to love me.

The next week, the Marc VI arrived at Rudee’s Inlet Station Marina, www.rudeesmarina.com . Charles, Hunter, and I went and launched that big Mako with Charles’ Tahoe. Everything went smoothly, we got it in the slip at Inlet Station, and Hunter got George’s boat washed up. We were planning on going pre-fishing again but it was blowing so we put that off until the next day, Sunday. We started dark and early and Charles caught a nice fish at the high rise at first light. We fished all day without another fish. The pressure was building now. I took Charles in and I went back out to fish all night and into Monday prior to George’s arrival that afternoon. When I got back out there, Capt. Rick Wineman called me and said they had three big fish. They were where Phillip and I had caught our two fish the week before. I anchored up near where they were leaving from. The fish were there. I caught big fish one after another until they just wore me out. The one I kept weighed in at 44 pounds. I was tired and knew what I needed to know so I went in to get a little sleep. I did send out a message to my crew and copied it to George giving the report and mentioned that it sure would be nice if the production crew could get their stuff together and go out fishing the night of their arrival. That just was not going to happen. On my way back to the boat Monday afternoon, I got a call from George. Their plane had just landed and he had read my message. He canceled a dinner meeting with Virginia Beach officials, and they would be ready to go as soon as they checked into their hotel. That was a surprise. I called Charles, said get the guys and I turned my truck around to go get George’s tackle and the special clothes I had to wear for the cameras.

It was show time but would the fish cooperate? We were not anchored up too long when we got our first bite. We lost that fish and the next one. Oh come on! Finally, George gets a fish to stay on and we catch our first fish for the show. It was about ten pounds heavier than his previous best striped bass. After our third fish, George said we had enough for a show even if we did not fish the rest of the time they were here. The pressure was gone. We had their show before the first scheduled fishing day. From then on it was just fun. I ended up catching the largest fish of the night and of the trip. It was a 50-pound class fish that was released for the cameras. We did not get a photo of it so I am anxious to get a look at it again when the show airs. George asked if he would get a lot of grief if he kept a fish to eat. I told him that would be fine and nobody should give him a hard time. He kept one fish from the trip and we released the rest.

As they had the show and it was supposed to blow a bit the next day, they took that day off and enjoyed Virginia Beach. My guys went fishing and we did not catch a fish. Wow, sure glad that did not happen for the TV cameras. We went back out the next day in the Marc VI with the cameras. This time we were doing what the show was supposed to be about in the first place, daytime eeling for trophy striped bass. Again the fish cooperated for the cameras and George bumped his personal best striped bass up to the 40-pound class. The production team was ecstatic and started to plan how they would show both the day and night trophy striped bass fisheries. After dark, we went back to the CBBT mostly to film the structure, light lines, all the boats and so on…mood footage.

After they had gotten all that and had everything they could use and then some, we still stayed out there and fished some more. If you just see George on TV, you may think he is just a TV personality that puts on a show. In real life, he is one of us. He is a hardcore angler. He pulls his own anchor, cleans his own fish and boat after a trip and he fishes hard. I was more than ready to go in after a long day of fishing. George was having a blast. We did not quit fishing until the camera guys started shivering.

George had a great day and an evening of catching his largest rockfish ever. He is already planning his next trip back to Virginia.

The show will air on NBC Sports: March 2, 2:30 pm; March 3, 11:00 am; May 26, 11:00 am.

www.georgepoveromo.com

George Poveromo’s World of Saltwater Fishing, http://www.georgepoveromo.com/  ,is here to film a show about Virginia’s trophy rockfish. Saturday, we got the Marc VI in the water and watched the wind blow. Sunday, we went out to pre-fish prior to the arrival of George and his camera crew. The short of it is that we (Charles and I) caught a dozen rockfish in the 44 to 48 inch range. Most of them came after I had taken Charles in to go to work and I had come back out to the CBBT by myself. Capt. Rick Wineman called me and said that they were on big fish and had caught a couple pushing 50 pounds. Thanks Rick!. I went and fished next to them. Tough fishing solo. Managed to catch some pretty fish and got one photo in focus. Now if the fish will just bite when the cameras are rolling!

Note: photos of Rick and David Wineman and Jody Linthicum with their 45-49 pound fish are also included.

George Poveromo’s World of Saltwater Fishing is coming to film show about Virginia’s fabulous trophy striped bass fishery. Never mind that the water is so warm that I keep checking each buoy I pass for a cobia. I like walking around in t-shirts and bare feet in December but the TV crew is coming. I wonder how far north we can run the Marc VI? While most of the fish are still north, there are a few nice fish around. We went scouting today in various boats. So far, no catch reports from the other boats except for those that gave up and went speckled trout or tog fishing. In my boat, we managed to catch a couple of 45-inch fish, at the high rise, in the pre-dawn hours. During the daylight, we drifted in the buoy 38 area. Bait looks great everywhere. We had three bites there but did not hook any of them. There is a little more than a week before George and his cameras arrive. The water needs to cool a bit more in that time or I need to convince George and his production crew that spending the night at the CBBT is a most fun thing to do.

Our Thanksgiving week began with big catches of yellowfin tuna, jumbo sea bass, and big speckled trout. After Turkey Day, we were going to start looking striped bass to get ready for the arrival of George Poveromo and his TV crew but….we had run into some young-of-the-year bluefin tuna while catching yellowfin tuna earlier in the week. These fish are very valuable to scientists studying these fish so the striped bass were put on hold and on Friday, we went out on one of our dedicated science trips. We ran out to the warmer water in the Triple 0s area and put out a spread a lures that you would use to catch Spanish mackerel. The few boats around us, were catching yellowfin tuna. We had a number of bites on our little spoons. They all resulted in either pulled or straightend hooks. We covered a lot of water but never could find the baby bluefin. On the way in, we stopped on the Chenango to try and jig up some bluefish (for a global genetics study). The bluefish were there and we got all the requested samples. We also caught a few nice sea bass and an Atlantic Bonita which became Sushi.

Sunday, we jumped on Charles Southall’s Albemarle we spent a half-day in the waters off Cape Charles. We drifted eels through good bait marks but we never had a bite.

Sunday, we ran out of Rudee to check out the warmer water just east of the Cigar. Tuna action was good. We caught 11 yellowfin tuna. We also collected 4 baby bluefin tuna for Dr. John Graves, under a science permit. The little guys are off to VIMS and other labs. The yellowfin are destined for the Thanksgiving Feast.

Monday, we headed back out to the wrecks, really after bluefish (for a scientist in Africa somewhere). We did not do much with the bluefish, catching one about 12 pounds. We did very well with the jumbo sea bass however. We loaded up with some really nice fish, weighing in seven over 5 pounds and then we just stopped weighing them. A lot of bass over 4 pounds.

Two really good days of fishing

I stopped the boat just outside the inlet at 3:30 AM. The wind was howling. I turned and said that the Albemarle can handle it but are you guys sure that you want to go out there and Wes does not get to talk. Wes Blow is plumb crazy: unless it is a named storm, he is ready to fish. Roger Burnley said the he would rather go and wish that we had not, than to not go and wish that we had. Not being sure of that logic, I asked Stan Simmerman what he thought. I did not ask his 13-year-old son, Deven, as I am afraid that he may have more screws loose than Wes. Stan said that he was up for anything. I said OK, it is not going to be pretty. We ran out to the Norfolk Canyon, never seeing another boat all day…imagine that. It was really too rough to fish deep. We tried one of our grouper spots and Roger hooked up to what appeared to be a nice fish right off. He lost that one and then it turned into a lesson in futility. I am constantly backing the boat into the wind to try and slow the drift, waves are breaking over the transom and Deven and Stan forgot their raingear. It was not pretty. We decided to move shallower and maybe go back deeper if the wind let up. It never did. It was a lot easier fishing more shallow and we had steady action on blueline tilefish and jumbo sea bass. We caught two smooth dogfish and never saw the first spiny dog. We did catch some spiny dogs on the Triangles last week but they have not invaded the offshore bottom yet.

Back at the dock, we weighed in 5 citations. There were a few others that may have made it if we had put them on the scale. A lot of the sea bass were in the 3-4 plus pound range. Deven got his first sea bass citation. He is 13 so he has a lot of firsts ahead of him. Roger Burnley also got his first sea bass citation which surprised me. He said that he had caught them over 7 pounds but that was back in his commercial fishing days. This was the largest he had ever caught while recreationally fishing.

We went back to the Triangle Wrecks yesterday. The weather was gorgeous. The fishing was slow. The nice sea bass we had been letting go seemed to know that the season was back open. There was a fish potter working the area while we were out there. That may have had some affect. We did manage to catch some nice bass but none were large. We ran into the big bluefish once. We trolled around looking for them and never found them. While drifting for flounder, they showed on the fish finder. We dropped a couple of jigs and Charlie Sparrer had a really big one to that boat (20 pound class) that bit the hook off of the jig before we got the landing net under it. No problem, we would just catch more. They disappeared as fast as they showed up and we never found them again. We caught a total of 6 flounder and a few small bluefish while flounder fishing. Capt. JT Hale caught 5 of the flounder and all of the bluefish. It was his birthday so the rest of us contend that we were just letting him catch all of the fish.

I had a number of hits on my jig and had a huge bluefish follow it up to the surface as I took it out of the water to go get the net for Charlie’s fish. Bernie and I got the net out but took too long as it was hung up on that side door. Now there have been some comments that maybe I was actually impeding the net deployment and that the reason that we never found the fish again was due to my skillful avoidance of them as these fish were larger than my 18 pounder that currently is leading the state. I deny all such accusations. It is purely happenstance that my fish gets to stay in first place for one more day. They really were big blues, like those we caught the year Charles won the state.