Healthy Grin Sport Fishing

We have lost one of the great ones. Irv Fenton, Jr. passed away in his home Sept. 16. Irv was a lifetime member of the PSWSFA. It was an honor and a pleasure to know Irv. He always had a kind word for everyone. Talking with Irv was always educational. I am convinced the man knew everything about fishing. When we had “discovered” the blueline tilefish, Irv sat with me at dinner one evening. He pulled out a pen and started drawing on a napkin. You line up this tower with this lighthouse, run this course for so long….and so on. Then he started drawing bottom contours and said that big sea bass will be here and the tilefish will be on this side. Back then, they were trying not to catch the tilefish. I kept the napkin, and he was right. Even further back, when I had “discovered” the technique of rigging dead eels to troll for rockfish, he showed up with the heads he had made for that 50 years ago. Irv was always making some fishing contraption. He told me where, when, and how to troll those eels for the largest rockfish and again he was right. He did tell me I only needed the front hook on those eels (I was rigging them with two hooks). I went fishing with him one time and he pulled out a large eel. He had the thing rigged with 3 hooks. I mentioned that he had told me that I only needed the front hook. He said that was right, that was all I needed but he was using 3. Irv still holds the state record for albacore tuna. We will miss Irv but we sure were lucky to know him.

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dailypress/obituary.aspx?n=irvin-fenton&pid=145428813

We went out on one of our science trips this past weekend. Our target was young of the year bluefin tuna. These critters were born in the Gulf of Mexico during the oil spill. Seems like they survived just fine. We were scheduled to take some scientists back after them next week but we found plenty and caught all they wanted this weekend. I guess we will have to go back after billfish next week instead. While catching the bluefin, we caught a lot of blackfin, false albacore, skipjack, and bullet tuna. We only caught 2 dolphin. We had a couple of wahoo on but did not boat either. After we had caught all of the bluefin, we just stayed out there. We heard the boats catching billfish around 50 fathoms. The day before, a boat had released 45 whites out past the 1000 fathom curve. We ran over fish to get out there to find a small fleet of boats picking some fish to finish their day. One had a Allison tuna. Some boats had double digit bills but the bite was not what it was the day before. We spent the night with about 5 other boats. All of those little tuna critters we had caught (other than the bluefin) make some good baits. We did not see any swords but some large blue sharks showed up. We hooked up with six of those during the night. The largest was about 10-feet long. At first light, we got on the troll and went 2 for about 10 on billfish. We caught a white and a roundscale spearfish. That is the 4th of these we have caught this summer. They definately fight a lot harder than whites. All 4 have whacked the boat when we got them in close. This one broke the tip of its bill on the boat. The weather turned nasty and driving up top was getting cold and wet so we left the fish and made the 100 nm ride back to Virginia Beach.

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

Capt. Jerry Thrash

Queens Creek Outfitters

Patriot Charters

804-725-3889

www.queenscreek.com

Jerry@queenscreek.com

Fishing Report 9.13.10

Rain fell non-stop on Sunday keeping just about everyone off the water. Saturday did produce keeper flounder in the Cell area and at Cape Charles.

Croaker are still available in the creeks.

Puppy drum are being caught over hard bottom in the shallows.

Pan sized Gray Trout have made showings in good sized schools off Gwynn Island.

Spot are being caught off Gwynn Island, Butlers Hole and the Spike.

No reports of Spanish Maceral this weekend but bluefish were caught from Windmill Point south to Wolftrap Light.

Speckled trout are starting the fall bite near New Point light and in the Ware Neck area. The Piankatank should start producing specks in the next couple of weeks.

Citation:

Red Drum 46.5″ caught and released 9/7/10 at Cape Charles on cut croaker by Michael Newhouse of Dutton.

Tight Lines,
Jerry

I will be on this week’s “The Weekend Fisherman”.

from Herb Gordon:

Great think this one you helped with will be a good one too, will send you a DVD once I get my copy, it will air this Sat. on WTVZ at 5:30AM channel 33/channel 2 on Cox cable and then again at 11AM on cox channel 11 ok. Will air all week on the OBX channel 12.

It was gorgeous weather and we caught 4 white marlin. Not a bad report and good way to finish the Labor Day weekend….except that the billfish bite is crazy. Before hurricane Earl ran through, fishing was great with the top boat releasing 57 marlin in a single day. After Earl, it has not slowed down a bit. I think 57 still stands. Boats reached into the 60s this weekend but on overnight trips. For day trips, the highs were “only” in the 40s. Decent numbers of blue marlin, roundscale spearfish, and sailfish are mixed in with the hoards of white marlin making for some interesting slams.

We started just south of the Norfolk Canyon in 500 fathoms. That is where we caught our fish. The fleet (Ocean City, Virginia, and Oregon Inlet) were 15 miles SE of us around 1000 fathoms. We saw fish right away and ignored the calls on the radio (please turn right, we have 6 hooked up…stuff like that) but when we had a lull, I could not stand it and had to make the run. We got there to see an armada of sportfishermen going backwards with marlin jumping all over the place. It was an impressive sight. We promptly missed about 6 fish. The afternoon bite was slower but what a morning they had. The weather looks good all week. I expect they are catching them right now. Might be a good time to just take off work and see if your favorite charter guy has an opening.

Check out these reports and they do not show it all. At my marina, Inlet Station, there are a couple of 20 flag boats right now.

http://ocsunsetmarina.com/fishing_report.php
http://ocsunsetmarina.com/fishing_report_detail.php
http://www.fishpiratescove.com/fishing_report/
http://www.oregon-inlet.com/journal/article.cfm?article_id=2529
http://www.virginiafishing.com/FISHING%20REPORTS/September/September%2006.htm

We ran out of Virginia Beach and looked for cobia on Sunday. We did not go far. We fished from the beach on out to the CB buoy line. We had plenty of company doing the same thing. The photo of Capt. Jorj Head’s boat shows you where we were. We found cobia on buoys and out in the open, around the schools of baitfish which were everywhere. It was a very short trip. We caught 4 cobia. We pulled one off, twice. Thought we had him but the hook pulled, cranking it back with the eel still on the hook, the cobia did not like the eel getting away, and it started all over again. This time the cobia got the eel. We broke two fish off. One was on a buoy which happens. The other was out in the open. Our young angler got a little anxious when the fish was almost in gaff range. He clamped down on the reel spool in order to horse that fish the last foot and the line popped. We call that a teachable moment. His more experienced father was fighting another fish at the same time. He calmly let the drag do its job and his fish was successfully netted while he explained proper boat-side fighting techniques to his son. When Hunter broke his fish off, it did not leave. It went right to the one that Charles was fighting and stayed with it until we netted Charles’ fish. It had no interest in eating again. Steve Martin released a 50-inch fish for his first cobia citation. Our largest fish was 54 inches long. We went in early to get things ready for an offshore trip for the next day.

The marlin bite is red hot so we went fishing for baby tuna on Monday. This is something we do every year. We go searching for young of the year bluefin tuna for the scientific community. We do not find them every year. It is a big ocean and we are just one little boat looking for them. This year is a bit more important. The fish we are looking for are fish which were spawned in the Gulf of Mexico this spring. That is where out western Atlantic stock comes from. Well, with that little oil spill and all of the chemical dispersants used, there was a real concern that we may have lost an entire year-class of bluefin tuna. Usually, I get a good number of volunteers for these trips. Being a Monday and the school teachers of my crew were back at work, a lot of my regulars could not make it. Dr. John Graves and myself can really handle just the little bluefin, it is all of the bycatch that you really need help with. We found a good group who could get off work to go: JT Hale, Blake Hayden, Steve Martin, and Brandon Honeycutt. We started inshore in the Cigar area. We pulled Spanish mackerel stuff off of the transome and normal offshore stuff off of the riggers. I think the total was 12 different species of fish caught. The short of it is, we found baby bluefin so we did not lose this year’s class of bluefin tuna which is really good news. We did not catch a lot and after awhile, John asked if I wanted to run and try somewhere else. I thought that the Washington Canyon sounded pretty good since the guys up there were bailing marlin. It was a bit far so we just headed east. A lot of life in 500 fathoms. We caught a lot of dolphin, jumped off a white marlin, and then hooked up a 300-pound blue marlin on a TLD 30. Steve Martin fought the fish. The fish put a hurting on him but he got his first blue marlin release (Steve said that it would be his last blue marlin release). We also caught little blackfin tuna and a few baby bluefin out there in the deep. They seem to be scattered over a wide area. I expect that we will do a couple more of these baby bluefin trips this year but while we were doing this, one of the boats to our north, released over 50 white marlin.

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

Capt. Jerry Thrash

Queens Creek Outfitters

Patriot Charters

804-725-3889

www.queenscreek.com

Jerry@queenscreek.com

Fishing Report 8.30.10

Flounder fishing picked up significantly this week. Although we saw no citations this week, several customers reported catching fair numbers of keeper fish.

Croaker are still available in the Rappahannock and in the creeks. Puppy drum are making a showing as well.

Spot are being caught off Gwynn Island, Butlers Hole and the Spike. Red tides seem to have diminished.

Spanish Maceral and bluefish were found from Windmill Point south to Wolftrap Light.

Citation:

Speckled Trout, 26″ caught 8.29 at New Point on a bottom big baited with cut spot by Kristie Link of Onemo while fishing in 3-4′ of water from a canoe. Her husband, Aaron, also caught a 18.5 inch puppy drum in the same area.

Catch of the week (maybe of the year): James (Butch) Allen, of Hudgins and the Richmond area, caught this extremely unusual fish while bottom fishing from his dock with his grand children on Lane’s Creek off Milford Haven on Friday evening. . Shown is a 20″, 5 lbs Tripletail, a fish normally found in the ocean along the Georgia and Florida coastlines. As typical for this fish which often swims on his side, the fish went airborn when hooked. The fish is excellent table fare despite its unusual appearance.

Tight Lines,
Jerry

I had booked off this past week to fish the Virginia Beach Billfish Tournament. It is a great event and we have fished it every year. I lost an engine and had to go through a rebuild. I did not think that I would have a boat so we did not enter the tournament. My crew went back to work. Dare Marina did the yard work, Carter Machinery did the engine work. They combined to do some kind of record rebuild and got me back fishing in no time. Then I had an electronics issue and Ayers Marine Electronics fixed it in a day. Having boat work done is never fun but when you are dealing with good people, it takes a lot of the pain out of it.

I still had the week off and my boat was fixed. Early in the week, we fished an overnight trip offshore and caught marlin, grouper, and stuff. In the middle of the week, we caught cobia sight fishing. At the end of the week, there was a possibility of still fishing the billfish tournament. I had been asked about fishing a company boat but then they did not enter the tournament. I was invited to fish on another boat but I had already made plans to do something I have been thinking about for years. I went tarpon fishing.

Not knowing a thing about tarpon fishing in Virginia, I chartered Capt. Blake Hayden. I knew of him by reputation and I fish with some guys who have fished with him. They all speak highly of him. I booked him for two days. Charles Southall has been talking about doing this for a long time, so he split the charter with me.

Friday

We ran to the Eastern Shore and set up in one of Blake’s spots. We saw tarpon rolling right away. I have caught tarpon in the 100-pound class in Florida. These were bigger. Different spots are favored for different tides, wind direction, and time of day, and when in the season it is. Stuff you could figure out if you spent years over there. You spend most of your time catching sharks and rays. The fishing is really pretty easy, basically red drum fishing on the shoals. Early in the morning I hooked up and it was coming to me easy. I said shark. Then it swam past me and started to pull drag pretty good….ray. Then it turned back very swiftly and came up fast. Uh-oh, a big tarpon comes straight up right at the back of the boat. Blake estimated 150 pounds. It looked larger than that to me. The hook came flying out. When we looked at the circle hook, the point was rolled over. Later in the day, a tarpon rolled over where Charles had a bait on the bottom. The fish made a sharp u-turn and dove down fast and Charles’ line started going sideways. He engaged the reel and the tarpon comes skying out of the water. It does a back flop and Charles’ line breaks. It looked like the fish landed on it. We had a couple other hook-ups with fast drag pulls that came loose before we could see what they were. They felt tarponish. No photos of the tarpon even though Ric Burnley was along just to take photos. He did not have his camera in his hand for either jump. Things happened fast.

Capt. Jorj Head sight fished for cobia inside the 4th island. They caught 13 cobia.

Brandon Bartlett fished the billfish tournament. Saw fish around the 400 line. Caught a blue marlin and missed some whites.

Saturday

We met with Capt. Blake Hayden at the base of the CBBT. Also waiting there was Carl Herring. They were fishing the club challenge. While he was waiting for his crew member, Carl told us of his Eastern Shore tarpon catches. I think that guy has done it all. Blake said that if the wind was blowing one way, we would go back to where we were or if it was blowing another way, he had another spot. When we got there, the wind was not blowing at all. We went back to the same spot. We saw even more tarpon rolling than the day before but did not have any tarpon hook-ups. We did catch some impressive southern stingrays though. I snagged Charles’ hook as I was bringing my bait in to check it. I told him that I had him and he said that I did not. Sure enough, I had his rig from the day before: hook, leader, sinker, shock leader, and about 30 feet of main line. It looked like a sharp cut. I don’t think this fishing is for everyone but we had a blast. Capt. Blake was a lot of fun and we have already booked him for another trip.

Capt. Jorj Head sight fished for cobia inside the 4th island again. They caught 17 cobia including 5 release citations.

Brandon Bartlett fished the billfish tournament at about the 350, 50 to 100 fathoms. They saw about a dozen fish but did not get many bites. They caught a spearfish right before lines in.

Sunday

We went billfishing. I went to get some ice and there was the Gee Daddy tied up with a rigger full of flags. We were just getting started and those guys were still up celebrating their big tournament win. I went over and congratulated them and asked where I should go. The guy told me to go to the 150 in 50 fathoms. Thanks Gee Daddy. From the 160 to the 140 in 50 to 70 fathoms, we saw marlin everywhere. Free jumpers, balling bait, cutters, at one time I had ten fish tailing on one side of my boat. I looked to the other side and there were another ten. I have no idea how many fish came in the spread. At first I thought we were still tarpon fishing. We had a couple of one jumps and gone. Then we pulled one after a good fight. We plain missed 3 more. We finally caught our 7th bite. A lot of the fish were coming in and tapping a bait and leaving. We would drop back and nothing. The bait would look untouched. We still had plenty of others that did eat. We ended up catching 4 white marlin and a spearfish. We should have caught 15. I am sure one of the good charter boats would have had a 20 fish day there yesterday. Billfishing is very good right now.

Larry Lusk fished the Fingers. They found plenty of dolphin and a nice wahoo.

Monday

I did not fish today. I got a call from Brandon Bartlett. He wanted me to call Zach Hoffman. It turns out the cobia fishing just continues to be red hot. They had Ken Braddy on board. Ken holds two junior world records for cobia and they said he had another. I met them at Dare Marina with an IGFA certified scale. His fish weighed 92 pounds 8 ounces. His current record is 86 pounds so a pending world record for Ken! He caught his fish sight fishing near the Baltimore Channel.

Capt. Jerry Thrash

Queens Creek Outfitters

Patriot Charters

804-725-3889

www.queenscreek.com

Jerry@queenscreek.com

Fishing Report 8.23.10

Flounder fishing was hit or miss again this week.

Croaker are still available in the Rappahannock as illustrated by a 3 lbs, 2 oz citation caught at the Whitestone Bridge on Friday. Anglers caught croaker to 18″ along with small gray trout, spot and puppy drum.

Spot averaging 1/2 lbs. are being caught off Gwynn Island, Butlers Hole and the Spike. Red tide patches are still in the river.

Spanish Mackeral and bluefish were found from Windmill Point south to Gwynn Island and the Hole-in the Wall, but the best mackeral fishing was between MH1 and Wolftrap Light.

Tight Lines,
Jerry

I had some very good cobia reports from this week. We ran out today to sight fish for them between the Baltimore Channel and York Spit. Conditions were bad. Cloudy with light rain. Our day was cut short when approaching thunderstorms sent us packing. Seeing the fish was very difficult. We still managed to see a few and caught a couple of nice fish. Wes Blow weighed the largest at 60 pounds 4 ounces. The other was maybe 40 pounds. We saw a very large fish that we did not get a cast on.