Healthy Grin Sport Fishing

Well I had some ideas about those tarpon. Last weekend, crew scattered to the winds so I loaded up Tricia’s boat. I really loaded it up. A flat of fresh butterfish, a flat of bunker, 10 gallons of peanut bunkers (caught off of my dock under the light) and a livewell full of spot and croaker and bunker. I have caught tarpon in Key West harbor. There, we just anchored up and chunked with shrimper by-catch and free lined a bait with the chunks. Also, down there, in the Caribbean and such, I have seen those things just circling in lights at night. So I pre-cut a 5-gallon bucket of bunker and butterfish chunks. My plan was to run over there Sunday afternoon and spend the night. Well, I woke up dark and early Sunday morning and said the heck with it and ran over there in the dark (starting to get light by the time I made it to the other side of the bay). During the day, when the current was moving, I cut up chunks (I saved the pre-cut stuff for the hot night bite). I free line baits back plus I had some live baits out at all times. I caught sharks and rays. I could see Blake Hayden up above me a ways. He was hooking tarpon (4). I had tarpon around the boat but no hook-ups. Down from me a ways was Ric Burnley. He hooked a couple of tarpon. None were caught but they did have some hook-ups. They all went home and it got dark. I never moved from my first spot as I could not…engine would not start. The James of Tow Boat US were ready to come get me but I asked them to just leave me there and come get me the next day. I put out the swordfish light and chunked and fished all night. A couple of surprises to me. I never had any problem at all with bugs and very little bait came to the light. I also never saw a tarpon in the light. Sharks and rays thought the chunking thing was a good idea. I continued to fish the next morning until Tow Boat US showed up to get me (good to be a member). I will back over there next weekend, back with Capt. Blake. So much for my ideas…I see no reason to spend anymore nights over there or Key West style of fishing. Still have not tried a kite. Ric thinks bow fishing might be the answer. I still favor a shotgun.

The International Game Fish Association has posted some archived articles on their website that are very informative. You will find things like how to rig a swordfish bait, tie a Bristol knot to connect braid to mono, rig ballyhoo on a circle hook and more. Check them out at: http://igfa.org/About/IGFA-Article-Archive.aspx

Saturday, went over to the Eastern Shore with Capt. Blake Hayden of Right Tide Charters. Saw plenty of tarpon. Had baits in two. Did not get a hook in them enough to get them to jump. Both fish just came to the surface enough to show themselves and the hook pulled out. These were not as big as two we had jumping last summer while fishing with Blake. Didn’t catch them either. Those were pushing 200 pounds. Saturday’s fish were 60-80 pounds. Starting to think that the proper way to fish for these critters is with a shotgun.

Sunday, headed the Healthy Grin offshore. Heard more boats catching blue marlin than anything. Few tuna by the fleet. We had a blue come in an attack a teaser. Had another blillfish tailing beside the boat. Had a big bait cut off right behind the hook, probably wahoo. Had a tuna dump most of a Tiagra 50 wide very fast before the hook pulled. I believe that was our bigeye bite. Stayed around trying for a bigeye wham. Looked good, never another big bite. Ended up with 5 yellowfin, missed a few other bites. We were around the Norfolk Canyon.

Happy Independence Day!

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

2011 Flounder Bowl Results

Some of the areas best flounder anglers gathered together to determine who would be crowned this year’s Flounder Bowl Champion. They also came to have a good time. The event began on Friday, June 24th at Dare Marina and Yacht Sales with registration and a big barbeque. The event ended Saturday night with a seafood cookout and party. There was a little flounder fishing in-between.

111 boats competed in the event. The combined weight of each team’s top 3 fish determined the winners. Prize money was paid to the top six teams. There was an optional big-fish Calcutta in which the single heaviest fish won. 60 boats entered the Calcutta. In addition to the regular tournament, there was a Sponsors Challenge competition where sponsored boats competed to win a large trophy that their sponsor gets to keep for the following year, until the next Flounder Bowl. There were awards for the top fish weighed in by a lady, a youth, and a member of the host of the tournament: the Peninsula Salt Water Sport Fisherman’s Association. On top of all of these prizes, all boats that did not place in the top six were entered into a drawing for a Lucky Dog award.

The Winners

The top boat this year was the Paige II captained by Craig Paige. Their 3-fish stringer weighed an impressive 25.23 pounds.

Second Place was the Healthy Grin captained by Ken Neill and sponsored by the office of Dr. K E. Neill. Their stringer weight was 21.28 pounds.

Third Place was the High Point captained by Chris Bently with a weight of 19.82 pounds.

Fourth Place was Relentless Charters with Capt. Kenny Jarvis. They weighed in18.67 pounds.

Fifth Place was the Mulch Man captained by Clifton Rowe and sponsored by Mercury Mulch. They weighed 18.06 pounds.

Fatty Flatty, captained by Barry Bradley, rounded out the top six. Their stringer weighed 17.61 pounds.

The big fish Calcutta was won with a monster, 12.24 pound flounder. Hunter Gray fishing as part of the Paige II team caught this fish.

The top lady angler was Tricia Neill. She caught a 5.25 pound flounder while fishing on the Healthy Grin. She won $100 plus a pair of Costa sunglasses.

The top youth angler was James Dearnley. He caught a 5.99 pound flounder while fishing on the Outnumbered, sponsored by Pankoke Marine Construction. He won $100 plus a pair of Costa sunglasses.

The top fish weighed in by a member of the PSWSFA was a 11.59 pound flounder caught by Ken Neill fishing on the Healthy Grin. He won $500.

The Healthy Grin, sponsored by the office of Dr. K. E. Neill, won the sponsors challenge trophy.

The Lucky Dog really was a lucky dog. The rule is that you must be present to win. The first boat drawn had already left the party so another team was selected. This year’s Lucky Dog is Tyler Blanks. He received a prize of $500.

The total payout for the tournament was $17,450 plus merchandise.

Cash payouts per team

Paige II: $11,000

Healthy Grin: $2,600

High Point: $1,500

Reelentless Charters: $1,000

Mulch Man: $500

Tyler Blanks: $500

Fatty Flatty: $250

Outnumbered: $100

Each team received door prize tickets as part of their registration. These tickets were used to give out the many prizes donated by the sponsors of the tournament. We had one raffle for a flounder artwork donated by Mountain Breeze Taxidermy.

The many volunteers that worked very hard to make this event happen are too numerous to mention but we do have to recognize Capt. Jorj Head, the tournament organizer. This tournament is his idea. Without him and his large circle of friends (that he somehow gets to help) there would not be a Flounder Bowl. This is all volunteer work and I have no idea how many hours he puts into this event each year. We are done with him for a little bit so if you would like to charter a fishing trip call him at (757) 262-9004.

The other folks that have to be mentioned are Mike and Christy Hanna and the entire staff at Dare Marina. They put an amazing amount of effort into this event. The comments that I kept hearing were about how great this place was and how friendly all of the staff were. They really are good people. If you are in the market for a boat, want to sell yours, need boat work done or a place to keep your boat, check out Dare Marina. They will treat you right. www.daremarina.com

The sponsors are everything. They are the reason this event has become such a large success. Besides all of the prize money and merchandize prizes that were given away, we went through: 150 pounds of barbecue, 200 pounds of fried fish, 80 pounds of scallops, 5 bushels of steamed crabs, a couple hundred hot dogs, 15 kegs of beer, and whole lot of other food and drink. We had an unexpected donation of a large amount of margaritas, Long Island iced tea, and rum punch. That all disappeared also. The anglers must have been thirsty. The sponsors provide all of this stuff from the team buckets to the $5,000 1st place prize money.

Saturday, we ran down to the South Tower (A Tower) to try and jig up some amberjack and to look for cobia. We also had ballyhoo on board to do a little trolling in the area. We did not have any live bait and I had a report from Brandon Bartlett that the jacks were real tough to get a bite on even with croaker the previous week. We got to the tower early. We did not get a bite on the jigs. We were leaving when Capt. Rick Wineman showed up with live baits. They ended up catching 5 amberjack. Rick is a nice guy and called us on the radio and offered us some croaker but we did not need any where we made our second stop. We dropped our jigs at the B Tower and the dolphin came out. Steve Martin and I had dolphin jumping all over. Charles fish was pulling harder and he thought that he might have a really big dolphin. His turned out to be an amberjack. The rest of the morning was the same. Very aggressive amberjack and the dolphin kept showing up. At first, the dolphin bit the jigs. Then they stopped that and we found that amberjack chunks suited them just fine. The dolphin were all gaffers. They became so after we broke off a couple trying to make them slingers. Most of them were in the 10-12 pound range with the largest at 22 pounds. The amberjack were 46 to 49 inches long.
 
We got tired of cranking on those amberjack so we decided to just put out some ballyhoo and troll around the B Tower as there were obviously dolphin in the area. Boats were seeing some marlin to our east. We also wanted to dive inshore and cruise up along the coast to look for cobia. Well, we would troll some circles and then decide on which way to go. Soon after we got baits out, the temperature alarm goes off on the starboard engine. You have got to be kidding. We had the same thing happen a couple of weeks ago. Carter Machinery never found anything wrong with the engine and my diver did not find any obstructions outside of the boat. The engine had been running cool since then. We shut the engine down and checked things out while trolling towards home on the port engine. Well, we knew the engine is fine, checked the water strainer, clear. Charles just cycled the thru-hull valve a few times and presto, good water flow. The long rigger is going off with another gaffer jumping around. Well, close the engine hatch before you bring that thing in the boat. The overheating issue was fixed and we had another dolphin in the box but our minds were made up. Let’s go inshore and look for cobia in case it happens again and this time we cannot get the water flowing (it did not happen again and the boat is running fine but I guess it is time for some fitting work).
 
We stopped back at the A Tower. Did not see any cobia but did find an amberjack willing to bite a jig, another 49 inch fish. Ran on in and got close to shore around Corolla and worked our way up the beach to Rudee. We saw a lot of bait and rays. Some turtles and a single cobia that entire way. It was small and we did not get a good cast on it. Box of dolphin, sore arms from the amberjack, and we came in on two engines….good day.
 
We had decided to just sleep in the next day but then Wes Blow called. His boat is at Dare Marina getting worked on and he wanted to know if we were going to be fishing. Charles and I talked about it both feeling pretty tired. We decided that we would take his boat cobia fishing and that he would call Wes back and that they would pick a time (late as possible). Somehow, that turned out to be 5 AM. Next time, I’m picking the time. Something about having to be at the right spot, with the right tide or we would miss it. After 6 hours on a chum slick, I asked is it the right time yet?  We were at Stony Lead, no action at all (did have one 12-inch cobia follow a bait up). Finally got tired of that, pulled in the chum pot and cruised around looking for them for a couple of hours. Again, plenty of stuff to see other than cobia.
 
Pretty weekend on the water. I don’t know where the cobia are. We were back in both days prior to the thunderstorms.

Normal people get excited about reports of big fish. The reports of sub-legal size tuna in the Washington Canyon last week got us going. Particularly the bluefin tuna though there is some interest in obtaining DNA from the smallest yellowfin possible from different regions of the world.

We caught the young-of-the-year bluefin tuna last September. These one-year-olds will be 20 something inches now. There are some scientific reasons for wanting to obtain samples of different size fish (when they start crossing the Atlantic and so on). 2 and 3 year olds (30 something and 40 something inch fish right now) are pretty easy to get samples from (they are legal to keep and people fish for them). Anyway, Dr. John Graves asked if I would go after the little ones. I said that I would give it a try but that there were no reports of the babies in the past couple of days and I came in on one engine last weekend.

That last part was taken care of by Carter Machinery. They have always been very good at getting the Healthy Grin back out on the water in the shortest possible time. The boat ran great. We did not do so well with the little bluefin.

We ran up to the Washington yesterday and fished the area with spreader bars and daisy chains of mini-cedar plugs that Bob Manus had made. The skipjack loved those things and we caught a bunch of them. We had 9 or 10 tuna bites. Due to various factors, we only boated 3 of those. They were all yellowfin tuna in the 31-35 inch fork-length range: wrong color and too big. They went in the box. One of our little mishaps cost us our one mini natural cedar plug chain (and the tuna hooked to it). Replaced it with a full-size chain and got a lot fewer bites. There were some dolphin around. We jumped off a couple and caught a couple of gaffers. We actually had a fair amount of action, just not by what we were after. If anyone gets into the little bluefin again, please let me know.

For Immediate Release
June 1, 2011
Snowy Grouper State Record Broken

Roger Burnley of Virginia Beach, Virginia has established a new state record for snowy grouper with a 70-pound, 7-ounce fish caught May 22, 2011. The record fish was weighed and certified on an Ohaus digital scale at the office of the Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament, located in Newport News. The digital scale registered 70.48 pounds but the weight was converted and listed as 70 pounds and 7-ounces as the state record. The record-setting grouper bested the existing state record, set by Jere Humphrey of Norfolk, Virginia, on August 17, 2008, by nearly 2-1/2 pounds. Burnley is filing an application with the International Game Fish Association (IGFA) for acceptance of his catch as the IGFA All-Tackle Record for snowy grouper. Humphrey’s 68-pound snowy grouper currently holds the IGFA All-Tackle Record.

Burnley caught his grouper “deep-dropping” near the Norfolk Canyon in 98 fathoms of water while fishing aboard the private boat Healthy Grin, skippered by Ken Neill, III, of Seaford. The fish had a length of 48 inches and a girth of 37 inches. The record fish was caught on a Shimano Trevala rod, mated with a Daiwa Saltist LD40 reel and spooled with 70-pound test Daiwa Saltiga Boat braided line. The record-setting grouper hit a custom made two hook bottom rig baited with squid and cut fish.

Snowy grouper was added to the list of species eligible for state record recognition by the Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament Committee at their fall meeting in 2006 and carried an initial qualifying weight of 38 pounds. Roger Burnley of Virginia Beach registered Virginia’s first qualifying snowy grouper, at 49 pounds, 9 ounces, on April 29, 2007. Burnley’s record was eclipsed within days, on June 10, 2007, by Bob Manus of Ark, Virginia, with a 65-pound, 8-ounce grouper. Manus’ record status held until Chris Boyce of Hampton caught a 66-pounder later that year December 2007. Boyce’s record grouper lasted for 8 months before Humphrey landed his 68-pounder. The last three fish were later certified as IGFA All-Tackle Records for snowy grouper. The four prior record snowy grouper were caught in the general vicinity of the Norfolk Canyon “deep-dropping” in over 50 fathoms of water and using either whole or cut fish for bait. Additionally, five of the six state record grouper were caught aboard the Healthy Grin skippered by Ken Neill.

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

After last week’s trip, the guys wanted to go out and do it again (and see if they could beat Roger’s pending record grouper). Roger could not go and said that he was going to put a hex on us. He would not even let us take his lucky, blinking light thing. We started at the Eureka and hopped our way out. We never found any good concentration of sea bass. We caught some nice ones and Michael Hurst caught his first citation-sized sea bass. We decided that we had had enough of the little stuff and we were going to run up to the canyon and break Roger’s record. Lost an engine on the way. Roger was serious when he said that we were not allowed to break his record. He must have some type of GPS device hidden on board that activates if we get too close to his grouper spot. We limped all the way back in on one engine: trolling speed. I said that we are supposed to be looking for small bluefin tuna for VIMS (27-inch class) so we should put out some spreader bars. Bluefish like spreader bars. We would have one bluefish on the hook bait and several others trying to get the other squids. Lost one bar that got bit off. The guys were in tuna mode and had the gaff out. I asked if anyone wanted these fish, “oh yes”. OK, well some of these are pretty long (skinny), you might want to think about a release citation. After they gaffed the third one that looked long enough to me I said would someone please put a tape on that fish and see what size you are gaffing? It was 36.5 inches long. After that, they stopped gaffing them and we never got another long enough. The bluefish kept us very entertained from Wayne’s World to the Spring Chicken. From there to the Light Tower, we did not have a bite. No more grouper trips unlesss Roger can go.

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

We ran out for the re-opening of Virginia’s sea bass season yesterday. We caught a nice class of bass with a number pushing the 5-pound mark.

In addition to the bass fishing, we did some deeper bottom fishing in the area of the Norfolk Canyon. We had a good day catching: 5 Golden Tilefish, a Pollock, Blackbelly Rosefish, 12 or so Hake, Blueline Tilefish to 17 pounds 5 ounces, and 2 Snowy Grouper.

Steve Martin caught both our largest golden and blueline tilefish.

Roger Burnley caught both snowy grouper but he owes a shout-out to Wes Blow. We would have already come home but Wes has a thing about battling sea monsters and wanted to do “one more drop” for 2 or 3 hours after we were ready to quit. By the time Roger caught his second grouper, only he and Wes were still fishing. After this fish, Roger quit also. It was worth the extra effort. His first snowy weighed 50 pounds. We weighed his second fish at the VMRC building this morning. The digital scale read 70.48 pounds, which will be 70 pounds 7 ounces (2 hundredths short of an even 7-8). That is a lot of fish to crank up from 600 feet. The whole crew is dragging today.

We are going through the state and IGFA World Record processes. If approved (and it should be), this will be the 6th All-Tackle World Record Snowy Grouper caught on the Healthy Grin. It will be the 10th All-Tackle World Record caught on the boat overall.

Roger Burnley previously held the IGFA Snowy Grouper record and he established the initial Virginia State Record for the species (on the same trip Jeff Dail established the initial state record for golden tilefish).

We went drum fishing again yesterday afternoon. This time we fished the buoy 10 area. We used chowder clams, sea clams, and hard crab for bait. We caught 18 black drum. The Miss Jennifer came and anchored next to us late in the afternoon and got in on some of the action. That makes 22 black drum in 2 afternoons of fishing. Looking at the clouds in the sky now, deciding if I have another afternoon in me. I’m little sore today.

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