FISHING NEWS

Virginia Game Fish Tagging Program Annual Tagging Awards 2009

The Virginia Game Fish Tagging Program is managed jointly by the Virginia Marine Resource Commission and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. The program relies on a group of dedicated and well-trained volunteer taggers. Each of these volunteers should be commended for their contributions to fisheries science and conservation. Each year, awards are given in a number of tagging categories. Ed Shepherd won awards for: Most Tagged Fish, Most Recaptured Fish, Most Tagged Black Sea Bass, Flounder, and Red Drum. Bill Knapp won the award for the Most Tagged Black Drum. Capt. Jorj Head won for Most Tagged Cobia. "Kayak Kevin" Whitley won awards for the Most Tagged Sheepshead and Spadefish. Sheldon Arey tagged the Most Speckled Trout. Ken Neill won the award for Most Tagged Tautog. Rob Collins won the award for tagging the Most Triggerfish.

Young PSWSFA member, Brandon Bartlett, tagged the second most Sheepshead. Congratulations to all of these dedicated anglers!

Great bluefin tuna action is still keeping anglers busy out of Hatteras and Oregon Inlets. Last year, Virginia's first citation bluefin was caught on the Healthy Grin on March 8. This year, fish have been caught as far north as the Point but they have managed to stay south of the Virginia fleet. Offshore bottom fishing has consisted of catching a lot of spiny dogfish, throwing back big black sea bass, and if you fish hard enough, some blueline tilefish. Inshore, tautog fishing is good and getting better. The largest fish have been caught at the Triangle Wrecks. Water temperatures have risen enough that structures inside the bay have started producing some tog. Puppy drum and some nice speckled trout are being caught in the Elizabeth River.

Virginia Beach's Ocean's East II tackle shop will be the site of the next IGFA Observer Training class (OTC) and will be presented on Saturday, March 20, 2010 at 9 a.m. The class instructs experienced anglers, boat captains and crew members as observers for fishing tournaments held across the globe. Over the years, billfish tournaments have transformed into big business enterprises. Many prestigious tournaments now have enormous calcuttas and purses as well as large numbers of participating anglers. With huge purses and egos on the line, concern often arises whether all participants are adhering to the letter of the rules. This causes turmoil for tournament directors and, at its worst, prevents tournaments from adopting release formats. An obvious solution is to have observers on boats to ensure a level playing field. But how do you know if observers have been properly trained and where do you go to find them? The answer is simple; IGFA.The International Game Fish Association's Observer classes began as a conservation initiative to allow offshore billfish tournaments the option to go to a 100% release format with trained and experienced observers on board to verify catches and educate anglers about IGFA angling rules. With the decline of many billfish stocks, the importance of release formats in tournaments has increased. As release tournaments become more common and cash payouts increase, unbiased observers become vital in reporting rule infractions as well as for identifying billfish species. Observers can often benefit anglers by preventing inadvertent rule infractions before they even happen. Having observers that are trained to identify billfish species under frantic tournament conditions virtually eliminates the need to bring back dead fish to the dock for official scoring. Observers also raise the prestige level and credibility of tournaments while contributing to conservation efforts with the safe release of tournament billfish. The IGFA OTC covers topics such as species identification, IGFA saltwater fishing rules and tackle regulations, safety at sea and boating etiquette. Space is limited to 40 people and IGFA OTC applications are available online at http://www.igfa.org/PDF/COP_Application2008.pdf.  Pre-registration is required and the $150 fee covers the cost of the training class, course materials, and a one-year IGFA membership. Please contact IGFA Conservation Director Jason Schratwieser at 954-924-4320 or email: jschratwieser@igfa.org  for additional information.

Mar. 8, we ran offshore to fish for bottom fish and to keep our eye out for some bluefin tuna. No signs of tuna but we never made it out past the temperature break. On the bottom, we found spiny dogfish everywhere. When we got out of them, we got into some beautiful sea bass which we had to release. So, we turned the trip into a science trip, tagging and releasing a bunch of large sea bass.

Mar. 8, Barclay Shepard ran out to the Triangle Wrecks. They caught some really nice tautog up to 15.5 pounds.

Mar. 7, Charles Southall spent a couple of hours on the Cape Henry Wreck. They brought home tautog for dinner. They had a seal swimming laps around their boat.

Mar. 7, Ric Burnley road out on the Big Tahuna out of Hatteras. They caught bluefin tuna trolling and jigging. They then broke out a topwater plug, without hooks, and had fun with big fish exploding on it.

Mar. 1, a group of us drove down to Hatteras to fish on the Big Tahuna. We all have our own boats, which we fish offshore in, but it is sure nice to go out on one of those big Carolina boats on occasion. Plus, every time we fish with one of these professional crews, we always learn something new. The Big Tahuna is one of our favorite boats: www.bigtahuna.com . They know their stuff, are super friendly, and pretty much let us do whatever we want to do. We went down there this time to catch some tuna of whatever species. We thought we would be jigging for blackfin or trolling for bluefin and yellowfin. The bluefin bite is hot right now so that is what we headed out for. The mate brought out the big tackle, typical bluefin stuff. Then he said that these fish were biting everything and that if we wanted to, we could skip the trolling gear and just catch them on jigs. Being young and studly, in our minds, we decided that we would catch these fish on the light stuff. Those jigging rods look like bass tackle. We actually did pretty well with them. The fishing action was great. We would look into a wave and see 15-20 bluefin riding the face. There were acres and acres of 100 to 200 pound fish. Our one kept fish had a fork length of 71 inches. Charles caught that fish, in about 15 minutes, on that little tackle. Multiple hook-ups were common, but they did not work out too well, resulting in break-offs. We did better fighting one fish at a time. We had one reel freeze up and we had one rod snap but considering what we were doing with it, the tackle held up well. Then someone had the genius idea to bring out a spinning rod. When Stevie saw the mate bringing that out, he told him that you are on your own with that. Unfortunately, I did not hear that. We all have a history with bluefin tuna and spinning tackle. It is one of those things you do once and then talk other people into doing it. Some tackle rep wanted to have the rod tried out on these big fish. We all stuck to the conventional tackle. Kenny, the mate, picked up the spinning rod and started casting to those tunas in the wave face and worked the jig really fast, on the surface. It was fun watching those fish explode on it but then he hooked-up. Now he wanted someone to crank it in. I told him that he might as well give it to me because none of the others were going to take it. The last time I fought a bluefin on a spinning rod it was 6.5 hours before I landed the thing and that was when I really was young and studly. This fish was larger than that one but the fight was much shorter. This is only because I called for help. We all took turns on that stupid spinning rod. It turned out to be the largest tuna of the day. We had a blast and are looking forward to our next trip on the Big Tahuna. We may just try and sneak that spinning rod off the boat before we leave the slip next time.

Feb. 28, Wes Blow fished the Hot Ditch area. He caught two speckled trout, each 22 inches long.

Feb. 28, Jody Linthicum fished the Hot Ditch area. He caught a couple of speckled trout in the 20-22 inch range.

Feb. 27 and 28, Ric Burnley fished out of Hatteras. Fishing was slow the first day with a couple of bluefin and a yellowfin caught. On the second day, they found the mass of bluefin tuna. They kept one that weighed in at 160 pounds.

Feb. 21, Rick Wineman went out to the area of the Norfolk Canyon to do some bottom fishing. They caught plenty of dogsharks, blueline tilefish to 8 pounds and some really nice sea bass which they had to throw overboard. They kept moving around to try and stay with the tilefish and out of the sea bass but the sea bass were all over the place.

Feb. 21, 13-year-old, Zach Crum has been having great success fishing the Elizabeth River the past couple of weeks, releasing a number of speckled trout over 24 inches. This time, he caught his personal best. His big fish measured 29 inches long and weighed 8.5 pounds on the boat scale. This excellent young angler released this fish also.

Feb. 20 and 21, Ric Burnley fished out of the Outer Banks of North Carolina. They caught rockfish one day and went out and caught bluefin tuna the next. The bluefin were in the 150-200 pound range. Some of the boats targeting rockfish hooked up with bluefin tuna has a big surprise.

Feb. 15, Rick Wineman fished the Elizabeth River. They caught a 38-inch striped bass on their speck tackle. They also caught a couple of speckled trout to 24.5 inches.

Feb. 15, after getting my kids off to school (snow make-up day and Tricia slept in as a Valentine's gift), I went and picked up Charles Southall's kid. Charles had to work but 14-year-old Hunter was off for Presidents Day. Charles was not exactly happy working while his son went fishing. He thought that it should be the other way around. Steve Martin joined us and we headed out to the Triangle Wrecks for tautog. It was a nice calm day on the water for a change. Fishing was slow and unlike our last trip, no citation-sized tog were caught. We did catch some fish. Steve kept a few for dinner. We released 11 others with tags in them.

Feb. 3, Wes Blow fished the Elizabeth River. He caught 3 speckled trout up to 23 inches long.

Feb. 1, Rick Wineman fished the Hot Ditch. They caught a 22-inch speckled trout and some puppy drum.

Feb. 1, Roger Burnley and I ran out to the Triangle Wrecks. We caught tautog and a few small sea bass using clam for bait. I weighed in one citation tog at 9.25 pounds. We tagged and released most of the fish. We caught on tog which already had a tag in it.

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