Healthy Grin Sport Fishing

I ran back over to the Eastern Shore this morning. Mostly exploring new (to me) areas. What fishing I did resulted in sharks. No tarpon sightings. On my way back across the bay, I stopped and cast to 3 buoys. Second buoy had two small cobia that were fighting over my eel. The second cobia kept grabbing the eel and holding on. Eventually, I brought the first cobia in, un-hooked it, and dropped the same eel in the water right beside the boat. The second cobia jumped right on it. The third buoy had a larger cobia on it. Still not a big one but big compared to the first two. Did not hit anymore buoys as I had to get home but the buoys on the Baltimore Channel were holding cobia today.

Dr. John Graves has a new batch of grad students. One is working with bluefin tuna. There is probably going to be a study with black marlin that will cause some poor grad student to spend a season at Tropic Star. I’m applying to grad school. One student, Emily, will be working with white marlin and roundscale spearfish here in the mid-Atlantic. We do not know a lot about rounscales. During all of those tagging studies we did down in Venezuela, our roundscale catch was zero. In the mid-Atlantic, they seem to be mixed in with the white marlin and are not an uncommon catch. Emily will be looking at a couple of things, the ratio of rounscales to whites here. They already have a good source of data from the large white marlin tounaments as tissue samples have been collected for many years. Those show the large fish weighed in but what about the average fish being caught? She will also be placing long-term pop-up tags in both whites and roundscales to see what they they do over time. Some charter boats and other dedicated billfish boats are volunteering to keep catch logs of whites and roundscales when they can get a positive ID and some will allow Emily to ride along on trips to place her tags.

Emily had not caught a marlin or tagged one before so we headed out yesterday to try and get her some experience before she starts riding with the professionals.

We ended up going 2 for 4 on whites. We caught our fish just north of the Norfolk in 55 fathoms. Top boat there had 6 fish. They had a bite down south at the triple 0s, top boat I know of there had 8. The best bite was near the Washington and we worked our way up there late. Top boat there got 20. We had a couple of nice dolphin. Bernie Sparrer got our largest at 28.25 pounds. There were some tuna caught but we never had a tuna bite. All 4 of of our marlin bites were flat-line bites. From now through September, it is going to be great marlin fishing out there. People need to get out, take off work, whatever.

If you are willing to help with this study, you can contact Dr. Graves at: graves@vims.edu

I have two boats. Both were recently towed to Dare Marina. I really like the Tow Boat US insurance.

With the little boat, I was up in the marshes of the Eastern Shore trying to catch a tarpon. I’ve been fishing with Capt. Blake Hayden of Right Tide Charters. He grew up over there. I took my boat, one time, to try some different techniques and broke down. I called the Boat US captain and he was ready to come get me. I asked him to wait and get me the next day, as I wanted to try night fishing over there. I have one of the Spot tracking devices. I gave him the link to my track and said to just follow the path I took and don’t come at low tide.

The Albemarle has been having issues with the port engine since a rebuild last summer. Injector failed within weeks. Idling issues. Cutting off when backing on a marlin, a bad valve. Still fishing but never has been right. One of the Carter Machinery mechanics recently found what I hope has been the underlying problem all along. Was told not to run the boat and the engine had to come out again. So another tow to Dare Marina. Both of my boats in the shop.

They did not stay there very long. Both Dare Marina and Carter Machinery jumped on it. Both boats were ready in a week and I got them both back for this past weekend to test them out.

Saturday’s plan was to take Dr. Graves and one of his grad students out for their latest study on white marlin and roundscale spearfish. Weather was a bit questionable and the crew fell apart so it was the little boat up first. Caught spot 2 at a time in the Poquoson River. Not large, eatin’ size, they went in my bait barrel.

Sunday, we took the Healthy Grin out for a test run. It ran fine. While cruising around, we looked for cobia along the Baltimore Channel. We saw 7 of them. Roger Burnley caught our only fish. It was the most aerobatic cobia I have seen. Would have made some great shots. My camera was down in the cabin. After that fish, I got my camera out and we never caught another one. The guys were telling me to put the camera back in the cabin. Back at the dock, Roger’s fish weighed 54.5 pounds.

Monday, I was back in the little boat. I loaded the livewell with spot and some eels and ran back to the Eastern Shore. There was a new tarpon area that I wanted to try. It looks good on satellite images. I ran aground about 10 times, having to get out and push (and this was at high tide). I got out of there and went to the area that I know how to get to. Capt. Blake Hayden was there tarpon fishing. I gave him some of my spot and told him what I had tried. He told me where I was making wrong turns and which creek should get me through to where I was trying to go. I did see 4 tarpon in the time I was in the old area. I’ll try to get through that marsh another time. On my way back across the bay, I stopped and made a blind cast to a buoy. I had forgotten my sunglasses so sight fishing was not an option. Cranking my eel back, I felt a jerk. It was a big eel so I just thought it was the eel. Got the eel up on the surface and there was a little cobia chasing and attacking it. No way that fish was going to be able to eat that eel but I opened the bail and let it do its best. After a short wait, I cranked up and came tight. I was impressed with that little fish then it started taking drag. When I first got the fish up, there was that little cobia following the larger fish that had actually eaten the eel. Trying to net that fish by myself was a pain. I could have gaffed it numerous times but I really did not want to keep it. Finally got it in the net; measured, photographed and released. It was 53 inches long.

A note on Virginia Tarpon: do not do it. Just don’t. If you still insist, go with someone who knows what they are doing, like Capt. Hayden. The only reason I am fishing for them is that I have caught almost all of Virginia’s citation fish. I’ve caught tarpon but not in Virginia. There are a few other fish like longfin tuna and sailfish that we have had multiple Virginia citations for, on my boat, just not with me on the reel. Those, I just need to come off the bridge and crank sometime. Never planned on trying to catch all of the citations, just have gotten very close by accident. So now I’m trying to catch a tarpon. I’m really starting to hate those things. Fishing with Blake, have seen a bunch, have hooked a few, even had the leader on the reel with one (twice) but only because the thing swam right by the boat twice before launching out of the water and the hook came flying out. I did not count that one as a catch. Other than tarpon, only pompano is left. Maybe I can petition the VSWFT Committee to just remove these fish from the citation list so I can go back to fishing for something easy like swordfish and blue marlin.

Dr. Ken Neill, III
IGFA Representative
www.igfa.org
www.pswsfa.com
www.vbsf-hookedup.net/healthygrin/

The August edition of Virginia Wildlife has an excellent article on Chesapeake Bay cobia titled, “Kings of the Bay”. It is written (and photographed) by Ken Perrotte. The article features Capt. Jorj Head and Wes Blow. Perrotte went chumming with Wes and sight fishing with Jorj. They caught fish with both techniques. The article begins on page 16.

Charles and I fished for tarpon with Blake both Saturday and Sunday. Saw plenty of fish, more on Sunday. No tarpon bites. A half dozen or so that we know of were caught Thursday-Sunday.

Phillip went 2 for 2 on white marlin Sunday at the Norfolk Canyon.

Jorj caught 6 cobia on Wednesday. I’m sure that he has caught fish since then but that is the last report he gave me.

Ric and Roger saw a bunch of cobia Friday and caught a couple.

Larry Lusk fished the canyon Wednesday and caught dolphin and yellowfin.

I have not gotten a report but I saw a photo of Matt and crew holding a check for 2nd place in the Flat and Furious Flounder Tournament.

Wes fished the CBBT Sunday and came home with a limit of flounder to 23.5 inches long. Picked one small cobia off of a buoy on the way in.

Rick Wineman fished the Norfolk Canyon area Thursday and caught 4 nice yellowfin.

Kathy and Dick Harris fished out of Hatteras on the Bite Me Saturday. They caught 11 sailfish.

The Youth and Ladies Tournament was held this past week. The Peninsula Salt Water Sport Fisherman’s Association holds this event each summer when the children are out of school. The tournament runs through two weekends to give us the best chance to fish during calm seas.

With hundreds of participants and thousands in payouts, the Flounder Bowl is our largest event each year but it is the Youth and Ladies Tournament that is out favorite. We spend a long week fishing with our wives, children, neighbors and friends. The competitors do not have to be members of the PSWSFA; they just have to be women and children. The targeted species are flounder and croaker.

The event culminates with a picnic and awards ceremony held at Dare Marina and Yacht Sales. It is always summertime hot but Dare Marina treats us well by setting up tents, umbrellas and large fans. The menu this year was hamburgers, hotdogs, barbeque, and Popsicles for dessert.

The event is free; there are no registration fees. The awards and food and drink are all provided by the PSWSFA. The prizes are typically gift certificates to the mall for the ladies. The children usually receive gift certificates to one of our tackle shop club sponsors.

From personal experience, the tackle shop certificates often are exchanged for cash with dad. Dad goes to the tackle shop and the child and mom head to the mall. I do not think that is going to happen with this batch of youngsters. We have some very serious young anglers in our area.

Matt Rinck bought his 5-year-old son, Baylor, a small cast net so that he would have something to play with while Matt tried to cast net some live bait for flounder. After several fruitless hours, Matt was ready to quit. Baylor held up his hand to stop his dad and said, “Dad, you just have to be patient”. They were and the Rinck family caught some impressive flounder.

Then there is 9-year-old Hayden Head. He was fishing with the Hatok family. They also got into some big flounder. Hayden caught an 8-pound doormat. After that, he would hook a fish and hand the rod off to another child, emulating his charter captain dad.

The Winners

Youth Croaker

1st: Jackson Stratton: age 5: 1.29 pounds
2nd: Spencer Elford: age 9: 1.125 pounds
3rd: Hayden Head: age 9: 1.06 pounds

Youth Flounder

1st: Hayden Head: age 9: 8 pounds
2nd: Baylor Rinck: age 5: 7 pounds
3rd: Madeline Hatok: age 6: 5.5 pounds

Lady Croaker

1st: Kay Uhler: 1 lb 3 oz
2nd: Amy Blow: 1 lb 2 oz
3rd: Wendy Elford: .9 lb

Lady Flounder

1st: Angie Rinck: 7.8 pounds
2nd: Amy Hatok: 6 pounds
3rd: Amy Blow: 4.58 pounds

Special thanks go out to Capt. JT Hale, our tournament director, for organizing this event and to Steve and Cindy Martin for feeding us.

Well, the Healthy Grin is down. The same engine that was just re-built. Carter Machinery and Dare Marina are jumping on it so hopefully the down-time will be short. The planned marlin trip with VIMS scientists had to be postponed.

We jumped on another Albemarle and went cobia fishing instead. We went on Charles Southall’s Special Kate. Capt. Jorj Head, (757) 262-9004, called us and told us where he was seeing some fish. We went over there and ran into a school of red drum. We also saw 7 cobia. We got casts on none of them. We did a little better with the reds catching a couple. Sometimes, they would chase our jigs. Other times, they would just sound. Overall, we ran into red drum schools 4 times before the thunderstorms chased us home. The last time I talked to Jorj, his charter had caught 2 cobia and a red drum. I do not know what his final tally was. I do know his charter the day before caught 4 cobia and the charter before that one, caught 13 cobia. Most of the action is in the bay along the Baltimore Channel.

Dr. Ken Neill, III
IGFA Representative
www.igfa.org
www.pswsfa.com
www.vbsf-hookedup.net/healthygrin/

The Chesapeake Bay has heated up. I just got out the weekly Fish News Tuesday night: www.pswsfa.com/news.htm , and then got more reports yesterday.

There was some good fishing yesterday.

Capt. Jorj Head, (757) 262-9004, has been cobia fishing just about every day. He has consistently been catching 3-5 cobia each day. Yesterday, his charter caught 13. They had shots at a bunch more.

While Jorj was cobia fishing, his son, Hayden, was fishing with Tim Hatok and his family for the PSWSFA Youth and Ladies Tournament this week. They waxed the flounder with Hayden catching the largest at 8 pounds. This is right on the heals of Matt Rinck’s family’s big catch earlier in the week which included two citation flounder. There are going to be some big flounder checked in at the awards ceremony at Dare Marina on Sunday.

Brandon Bartlett has been running back and forth between VA Beach and Hatteras to mate on charter boats. Yesterday, he was back at Hatteras. They came back in early with a limit of dolphin.

Dr. Ken Neill, III
IGFA Representative
www.igfa.org
www.pswsfa.com
www.vbsf-hookedup.net/healthygrin/

Sight casters have been doing very well over the past week. Capt. Jorj Head got 3 today, 5 yesterday…multiples each day. Reports can be seen at: www.pswsfa.com/news.htm

This evening, I was called to Grafton Fishing Supply where 7-year-old Brandon Drewry had a 79-pound cobia. It beats the current Small-Fry World Record by a half pound. The current record holder, Ken Braddy, was there to help weigh the thing. Paper work is being filled out for a new record application.

Making A Difference

Sport Fishing Magazine has sponsored a new award that they have called “Making a Difference”. These awards are designed to recognize those that have been instrumental in creating a positive difference to recreational saltwater fishing. They felt that it was time to bring the national spotlight to shine on these individuals and their contributions to recreational fishing. Each year, 5 individuals will be chosen from a list of nominees. The inaugural class of this new award was just announced at the ICAST Meeting in Las Vegas.

Among this initial class is Dr. John Graves of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. I can think of no one more deserving of this honor. From his nomination for the award:

Dr. John Graves

Gloucester Point, Virginia

John E. Graves received a Ph.D. from Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1981. He is currently a Professor of Marine Science at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary where he serves as Fisheries Department Chair. He is the Chairman of the U.S. Advisory Committee to the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT). He serves on the Highly Migratory Species Advisory Panel of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Dr. Graves’ genetics research allows law enforcement to identify what fish is actually being sold. They now can tell if that blue marlin is from the Pacific (legal) or Atlantic (illegal). This helps us to protect our protected species.

His studies with pop-up tags have led to the use of circle hooks in the recreational marlin fishery. He found that 37 percent of white marlin caught on J-hooks do not survive while almost all caught on circle hooks survive. This led to regulatory changes. He also proved that marlin released form long-line gear will survive. This led to ICCAT regulations requiring the release of all live marlin caught on long-line gear. There was concern with catch-and-release mortality with striped bass during the Virginia’s winter fishery. His release mortality study showed that more regulations were not needed for this fishery.

He serves on various committees at the national and international level and on the boards of research foundations. He has been a champion of tuna and billfish conservation at the international level.

“Our genetics research has changed the stock structure for Atlantic blue marlin and white marlin as well as striped marlin in the Pacific, helped demonstrate the validity of the roundscale spearfish, and provided molecular markers for the identification of billfish tissues and larvae, as well as the discrimination of Atlantic and Indo-Pacific blue marlin (which is necessary for the enforcement of the ban on importation and sale of Atlantic blue marlin). We have also demonstrated that the Mediterranean and Gulf of Mexico populations of bluefin tuna are distinct breeding units (there are slight, but significant genetic differences),” says Dr. Graves.

The pop-up satellite tag research first demonstrated that live release of recreational billfish is a huge conservation measure as most of the animals live. We then showed that blue marlin and white marlin released from commercial pelagic longline gear had high rates of survival, and then was able to get ICCAT to agree to an Atlantic wide measure requiring the release of all live white marlin and blue marlin. Reported landings of white marlin have dropped greater than 67 percent and blue marlin 50 percent (yeah!),” he says. “Then in the recreational fishery we demonstrated that J hooks in natural baits don’t do white marlin any favors (35 percent mortality after release) and that prompted NMFS to implement the requirement of circle hooks in natural baits in all Atlantic billfish tournaments.

Outside of that, our genetics work has contributed to our understanding of the stock structure of many other species: bluefish, weakfish, yellowfin tuna, chub mackerel, Spanish mackerel, striped marlin, sandbar shark, shortfin mako shark … Note that the NMFS Billfish advisory panel was merged into the HMS advisory panel several years ago. I’m currently serving my 8th consecutive two-year term as chair of the U.S. ICCAT Advisory Committee. I’m not compensated for this, but it is a way to make sure that the fisheries science gets incorporated into management. It also provides a means to introduce my students to the wonderful world of fisheries management.”

— Submitted by Dr. Ken Neill, III

To see all of the inaugural class of the “Making a Difference” Award and to watch the video of the award presentation, visit: www.sportfishingmag.com/inaugural-making-difference-award-winners-named

There are many individuals deserving of this honor. To learn more about this award, to see all of this year’s nominees, and to nominate candidates for the 2012 class, visit: www.sportfishingmag.com/makingadifference