FISHING NEWS

I tagged a tautog on the Westmoreland nearly eight years ago. It was just recaptured on the Cape Henry Wreck. This lucky fish was re-released with the tag still in place. If you can drag yourself away from the rockfish and bluefin tuna, anchor up on the wreck and see if you can this critter again. Tautog are active on structures near the mouth of the bay and along the coast. The further you go offshore, the more sea bass you will have to weed through to get to the tautog. Rockfish are what most are fishing for. This mild winter has kept a large mass of fish up the coast and up in the bay. Catch-and-release fishing for striped bass inside the bay is legal (as opposed to outside the 3 nm line where you are not supposed to target them at all, even for catch-and-release) and some anglers are enjoying this less crowded action. Most of the striped bass in open waters are being found from Rudee Inlet on north with most of the fleet finding fish from Cape Henry to the 4A buoy at the mouth of the bay. Bluefin tuna continue to be caught along the ocean front. Most recent action has been south of Rudee Inlet with False Cape being a good area from 2 to 6 miles off of the beach. Anywhere along the ocean front, especially where you find whales and bait, is a likely location to encounter a bluefin tuna this week. If you venture outside 3 NM for the tuna, make sure that you do not have any rockfish on board. Many specifically targeting these tuna will not keep any rockfish at all even if they are fishing inside open waters as a bluefin hook-up 2 miles off of the beach may find you well outside the 3 nm line by the time you finally subdue the beast. Speckled trout continue to be caught in the Elizabeth River in the Hot Ditch area though the bite is not as hot as it was last month. Boats running offshore are finding good blueline tilefish action along the 50-fathom curve mixed in with the sea bass and dogfish. Offshore boats out of the Outer Banks are finding some yellowfin tuna along with the occasional bluefin tuna. There is some blackfin jigging action out of Hatteras.

The Virginia Striped Bass episode of George Poveromo's World of Saltwater Fishing will air on the NBC Sports Network. The show times are: Friday, March 2 - 2:30 p.m. Featured airing: Saturday, March 3 - 11:00 a.m. Encore Performances: Saturday, May 26 - 11:00 a.m.

The very popular Flounder Bowl will be held on June 30. It will be headquartered at Dare Marina again this year. More details to come.

It is a new year which means that is time to pay your dues for the year. Dues remain $30 for the year.

Save February 24 on your calendars. That is the date of the PSWSFA Awards Banquet. Cost again will only be $10 for adults and free for children 12 and under eating the child's meal. The next regular club meeting will be in March. We will have board meetings in January and February. Over the past year, we have enjoyed Joe and Mimma's for our board meetings. For 2012, the board meetings will be at Bill's Seafood. Club members are welcome at the board meetings.

George Poveromo’s Salt Water Sportsman National Seminar Series will be in Annapolis, Maryland on Feb. 4 as part of its 25^th Anniversary Tour. Instructors will be: Captain John Oughton, Captain "Walleye" Pete Dahlberg, Rick Burnley, Dr. Ken Neill III, "Crazy" Alberto Knie, Captain Jimmy Price, Captain Brady Bounds, Captain Chris Dollar, Bill Carson, Harry Vernon III, and George Poveromo. Topics include: Live-lining for trophy stripers; refined striper trolling tactics; Big stripers on top water lures; Secrets of fishing the Susquehanna Flats; Chunking tricks for striped bass; Flutter-jigging for striped bass and bluefish; Targeting jumbo bluefish; Bluefish on surface lures; Inshore wire-line trolling techniques; How and where to catch more and bigger fluke; Bucktailing for fluke; How and where to catch fluke by the numbers; Secrets for catching big tautog; Can’t-miss tautog tactics; How to locate and set up on productive bottom (for tautog, black sea bass, fluke and spot); Target jumbo sea bass; Jigging for sea bass; No-nonsense weakfish and speckled trout tactics; How and where to locate weakfish and speckled trout; Spanish mackerel the easy way; How to find and use offshore temperature breaks to your advantage; No-nonsense strategies that produce more and larger makos;  Kite fishing tactics that take more sharks and tuna;  Hot methods for catching yellowfin and bluefin tuna; Offbeat tactics that score more yellowfin and bluefin tuna; Can’t miss tuna trolling strategies (includes sub-surface trolling techniques); Live-chumming, chunking and live-baiting for tunas; Trolling for white marlin; Little-know tricks that yield more white marlin; How to create and troll a deadly offshore teaser system (including dredges); Canyon trolling strategies; Secrets of fishing the canyons; plus comprehensive sessions on fishing the upper, middle and lower Chesapeake Bay! For more information on this seminar series, visit: www.nationalseminarseries.com .

Jan. 28-30, we fished for bluefin tuna each day. For the 3 days, we caught and released about 8 rockfish and hooked two bluefin tuna. We had another bite or two that did not come tight. Wes Blow fought one of the tuna and got it to the boat. It was about 130 pounds or so. That fish was on a white Mojo. Capt. JT Hale "fought" the second tuna. This one was full grown. He really just held on the rod as he watched the line disappear from the Tiagra 80W with 30 pounds of drag. That fish broke off at the leader just as we had cleared lines and were stating to chase it. It was on a pink/white Ilander/ballyhoo combo off of the outrigger.

Jan. 29, Capt. Rick Wineman fished for bluefin tuna without a tuna bite. They did catch some rockfish that they released.

Jan 29, Capt. Herb Gordon fished south of Rudee Inlet for bluefin tuna. Fishing right along the beach, they managed to fight and land a nice bluefin tuna. This is their 3rd bluefin landed this winter out of 7 they have fought.

Jan. 28, David Brabrand fished along the oceanfront for tuna and rockfish. They did not catch any tuna and only caught one rockfish. That one fish was worth the trip as it weighed in at 49 pounds.

Jan. 26, Danny Forehand gave the bluefin tuna a try. They did not get any tuna bites. They did catch some rockfish and brought home a limit minus one (try to save that one spot for that really big fish).

Jan. 25, Capt. Rick Wineman fished the VA Beach oceanfront for rockfish and bluefin tuna. They had one tuna on a pink/white Ilander/ballyhoo combination but pulled the hook. They then proceeded to catch 24 rockfish up to 47 inches long.

Jan. 24, Don Crist went fishing for tuna and rockfish. They had one tuna bite but pulled the hook. They caught two rockfish: 48 and 37 pounds. They lost another one at the boat. The big rock was caught on a ballyhoo behind a blue/white Ilander.

Jan. 23, Tricia, Bernie Sparrer and I ran down to Sandbridge where we had left them 2 days prior. Foggy, could not see anything. We got one bite on a parachute in the short rigger but it did not come tight. Trolled up to the Dump Site and got one bite on the stretch on the way. Just bent the rod over, did not stay tight. At the dumpsite, hooked up on the Stretch. Fish bugged out. Had to back through the rest of the lines hard to keep it from spooling us, cockpit full of water. We got the other lines in and turned and chased the fish. Got most of the line back and it took it all back. Chased it again, caught up to it, it went under the boat, and broke off. Tricia was impressed. She says she is going to be sore and she is not sure that she wants to tangle with another one. I guess as long as they keep biting, I'll keep fishing for these stupid tuna. That's 2 out there with my Stretches in them. Weather permitting and if the tuna hang around, I'll be trolling the beach again this weekend. We did not get a rockfish bite.

Jan. 22, Hunter Southall and Wes Blow fished the Hot Ditch. Action was not red hot but they managed to catch a number of speckled trout up to 26.5 inches long.

Jan. 21, Report from Charles Southall: Hunter had a basketball game today requiring us to be home early, Gabe Sava and his dad had the same time constraints and a mutual friend, Greg Scott wanted to close a "Bucket List " item by catching his boat's first Tuna....so we hopped in his newly restored 28 Carolina with a fresh HMS permit and headed to the oceanfront for a half-day Tuna "try". Put out rigged bluefish and the standard blue/white and pink/white Ilanders on some good bait marks that Ken Neill found at the dump site straight off Rudee. A little later, Gabe gets bored and sends my green Stretch 30 (on 300# mono) down the middle. Fifteen minutes after the Stretch went out, we troll over a good BFT mark and the stretch rod bends over. Not a hard bite, just a lazy bend. I picked up the rod and thought it was a striper (made that bad assumption a couple of times this year on these "stupid Tuna"....). Gabe's 64 year-old Dad (whose "Bucket List" had an open line in the bluefin category) agrees to take the striper and save me for the first Tuna. He gets the rod and this "striper" decides he's really a Tuna. No going back now..... Mr. Sava hung onto that thing for a couple hours and handled the fight like a champ, landing his first BFT and Greg's first Tuna on his new boat. Two "bucket list" items down at once! The fish came to the boat just in time for the stretch to break in two as Hunter and I sunk the gaffs. The fish was 70 inches total length and 140 pounds. ....what a year to fish in Virginia!

Jan. 20, Matt Lusk fished out of Oregon Inlet. After a battle lasting an hour, he boated an 83-inch fork-length bluefin tuna.

Jan. 19, Frank Kearney and James Cross fished out of Fox Hill on the Never Done. They hooked up a big bluefin off of the Ramada. After an 1 and ½ hour battle, they had a 252 pound bluefin tuna in the boat. The fish was caught on a Stretch 30 trolled off a TLD 50 wide.

Jan. 16, I've been taking my son, Cameron, out after big rockfish since he was a little thing. My daughter, Casey, had never caught a big rockfish and was not sure she wanted to now. I got her to go when I said that it sure would make a good photo for your Facebook page. We left out of Rudee this morning and put out a spread well away from the fleet. Casey was not sure that she could handle a big rockfish but I was sure she could. The bait was thick and we snagged a couple menhaden then the Stretch 30 gets bit. We get her on the rod and put the boat in neutral as the fish is taking a fair amount of line. Cam and I clear the down rods and she is still not doing anything with that fish. I look at the drag and it is where it is supposed to be. Now I am thinking that maybe she cannot handle a big rockfish. We go ahead and clear the other lines that we were going to leave out and I start backing on the fish to help her out. I cannot catch up to this fish and it finally dawns on me that she is not hooked to a rockfish. She tuffs it out for a good while (she will have no problem handling any rockfish out there), sitting on the cooler some but mostly standing up. She never quit but I went back and checked on her and she could not feel or straighten her fingers. I asked if she would let her brother work on it awhile. I think that is when the fish officially became known as "stupid tuna". Her brother fought the thing for a good while with no belt and we gained on it pretty good. I told Casey that if she wanted to be nice, she would go put her belt on her brother. Later, I went and put a harness on him. During the fight both Brandon Bartlett (mating on the Virginian) and Charles Southall (on his boat) called me and when they found out what was going on, both offered to come over and jump on my boat to help land the thing. We told them thank you but to keep on fishing and we would see what we could do on our own. Cameron fought the thing for an hour and half or so after Casey's time on the fish. He got the wind-on leader on the rod numerous times. I would leave the wheel, jump over a cooler to the back of the boat while Casey handed me the gaff, and then the fish would take off again. This happened at least 6 times and when I finally got a good look at the fish, we had another problem. This one was not as big as the one we caught last week, but it looked to be another "over". We had already kept our one for the year so it looked like this fish would have to be released but dang, after the work those kids had done on this fish, I wanted to be sure. I was not really sure how I was going to manage to measure and either land or release that big tuna with a Stretch 30 in its mouth. A couple more times to the leader and the decision was made for us as the leader popped. It was probably a good thing. I called Charles and told him the outcome and he said that they were now hooked up to a tuna and his son, Hunter, was on the rod. They had it on a little better stuff with more of a tuna crew on board. In addition to Charles and Hunter, they had Larry Horne and Gabe Sava on board. Gabe was the angler on the 305 pound fish we landed last week. This fish was on a tandem rig on a 50. The trailer was a blue/white Ilander in front of a rigged bluefish. The bluefish idea was something that Charles and Gabe had come up with. They thought it would look more like a menhaden than a ballyhoo would. I told him that my kids were done and that we were headed in for lunch. I kept checking on them giving such encouragement to Hunter like "this Rudee burger sure is good" (Hunter loves Rudee burgers). After a stand-up fight of about 2 hours, Hunter brought the fish to the gaffs and now, the Special Kate, has landed their "over" for the year. This is actually the first tuna caught on Charles' boat. One heck of a first! The fish weighed in at 262 pounds. That is Hunter's biggest fish to date but as much as that kid fishes, it won't be his largest for long. Both Charles' and our fish were hooked about 2 miles off the beach in front of the hotels. Charles' crew had caught 2 nice rockfish at Cape Henry prior to their tuna bite.

Jan 15, Ric Burnley described the rockfish action he was experiencing as simply incredible. Birds falling out of the sky, big seas, and big fish, he was in a big boat so the big seas were not a problem.

Jan. 15, Brandon Bartlett has been fishing most every day as the mate on the Virginian. The fantastic rockfish action and the good chance at a bluefin encounter each day is keeping him busy. On this day, they weighed in rockfish up to 51 pounds.

Jan. 13, It was a little sporty out there today. We were trolling for bluefins before first light in a gale. No tuna bites. Sun came out, birds started diving, and we put out some rockfish stuff. Got our limit and got out of there. Nice fish, 30 something pound class. Charter boats all came out, got a quick limit and got out of there also. Good fishing right along the VA Beach oceanfront. Did not hear of any tuna bites but there were rockfish in the 50-pound class caught in the short time we were out there.

Jan. 9, Danny Forehand fished Cape Henry for bluefin tuna. They did not get any tuna bites. They did catch a couple of nice rockfish.

Jan. 7-9, we went out for bluefin tuna each morning. The first morning, within 30 minutes of trolling, we were hooked up to a big fish. After a 2-hour battle, Gabe Sava brought the beast into gaffing range. The fish had an 87-inch fork-length and weighed in at 305 pounds. That was our only tuna bite of the 3 days.

Jan. 8, Brandon Bartlett mated on a rockfish charter. They fished the green can area. They did not catch a lot of fish but boy did they catch some nice ones. They weighed in rockfish of 55, 45, 42, and 40 pounds. They also registered a release citation for a 44.5 inch fish. In addition to the rockfish, they managed to hook and land a bluefin tuna on their rockfish tackle. The tuna weighed in at 134 pounds for another citation. Every angler on the boat earned a Virginia trophy-fish citation!

Jan. 8, Capt. Rick Wineman tried for bluefin tuna at Cape Henry. They did not get any tuna bites. Late in the day, they moved inside of the 3 mile line and caught a 40-inch rockfish.

Jan. 2, We had not planned on fishing today but with all of the bluefin reports from the day before, I talked Charles into going into work later today so we could go give it a morning try. We had plenty of company out there. We pulled bluefin and rockfish stuff and even the rockfish stuff was pulled on heavier tackle. We caught a few nice rockfish and pulled off a few more. We had one bluefin hookup. It ate the trailer bait on a mojo rig. The pressure of the fish screaming away with the 48 oz jig trailing was too much for the leader. We had it on long enough to start clearing all the other lines but did not get the first one in before the leader parted. I heard of about a dozen other encounters like that and one of a 78 inch tuna boated. We were in for lunch. We were fishing between the Ramada and Green Can.

Jan 2, Brandon Bartlett fished the Cape Henry area. They caught 5 nice rockfish.

Jan 2, Zach Hoffman fished Cape Henry. They caught some nice rockfish and broke off a bluefin tuna. Typical report these days.

Jan. 1, Steve Martin fished the around the green can. In a few hours, they caught 7 nice rockfish between 21 and 35 pounds.

Jan. 1, Larry Lusk fished Cape Henry and had a great day catching striped bass in the 35-pound class. He got to watch a couple boats successfully catch bluefin tuna.

Jan. 1, Dr. Bob Allen got into the fish big time off of Cape Charles Lighthouse. They caught about 25 big rockfish, with several in the 40 pound range, and 2 big bluefish.

Dec. 31, My cousins, Keith and Phillip Neill, fished the CBBT for a few hours. They got into the fish. They were eeling but the largest fish, that Keith caught, was caught on a live menhaden. They said that the bunker were thick and big stripers were busting them on the surface all around the boat. "Awesome" is the word that Phillip used to describe it to me.

Dec. 31, Capt. Jorj Head, (757) 262-9004, fished the Plantation area. They only caught one fish but it was a big one at 49.5 inches long.

Dec. 31, Ric Burnley fished near 36A. They eeled up 3 rockfish 44 to 47.5 inches long.

Dec. 31, we spent New Year's Eve finishing up the Chesapeake Bay rockfish season. We only caught one fish but it was a nice one. Roger Burnley caught a 49 inch, 47 pound rockfish. It is his largest to date and his sixth citation of the old year, earning him Virginia's Expert Angler Award for 2011. Talking about waiting to the last minute!

Dec. 30, Capt. Jorj Head, (757) 262-9004, fished the Concrete Ships area. Eeling, they caught three rockfish. They were all large, weighing in the mid to upper 40 pound range.

Dec. 30, Joey Stratton fished with his father and father-in-law. They drifted eels around buoy 18. They only caught two striped bass but they were big ones. They weighed in at 57 and 44 pounds.

Dec. 29, Capt. Rick Wineman spent a few hours at the CBBT. They caught a limit of 4 big rockfish from 47 to 49 inches long.

Dec. 29, Charles and Hunter Southall and David Brabrand started out at the high rise before light. They caught a 45 inch striper and missed another. They went to the Plantation area where the bite was just crazy. They caught about 40 large rockfish and were kind enough to text me about it while I was at work. In some of the photos, I see my cooler of eels. I guess that means that I was sort of there. Just because I could not go fishing did not mean the eels needed to stay home. In addition to Charles' crew keeping me informed of what I was missing, my cousin, Phillip Neill, kept texting me the lengths of the citation rockfish he was catching: 44.5, 45, 46, 48.5….I turned my phone off.

Dec. 29, Matt Rinck fished the Plantation area. They caught 9 rockfish to 45 inches long.

Dec. 29, Danny Forehand ran to the bite at Plantation and his boat broke down. They only got to make one drift while waiting for the tow boat. They managed to catch a 45 inch fish. They missed 5 other bites and then listened to all the catch reports over the radio as they were towed in. The good news is that it was an easy fix.

Dec. 29, Brandon Bartlett ran out to see what is in that warm water along the 100 fathom curve. Where they fished, there was not much. They caught 2 small bluefin tuna and missed one other bite. They stopped on the Chenango and caught a load of jumbo sea bass, some bluefish, and an amberjack. They then stopped in some birds about 5 miles off of the beach. They watched another boat catch a 300-pound bluefin tuna and another boat lose one at the end of a 4-hour battle.

Dec. 27, Chris Boyce fished Cape Henry and limited out on rockfish like everyone else fishing the area. Chris also hooked up with a bluefin tuna. He fought it for an hour and a half before breaking it off. He got to look at it and estimated it in the 200-300 pound range. He said there were several other boats in the area that also hooked up with big tuna.

Dec. 27, Zach Hoffman fished the Elizabeth River and caught speckled trout up to 30 inches long.

Dec. 27, Capt. Jorj Head, (757) 262-9004, has been having great success eeling large rockfish in the Plantation area. This morning his charter eeled 6 big rockfish at Plantation including 57 and 45 pounders.

Dec. 27, Matt Rinck got a 41 pound rockfish near Plantation before the wind blew up and chased him home.

Dec. 27, Scott Elford got a couple rockfish just under 40 pounds in the morning before the blow. He was eeling the Plantation area.

Dec. 26, at the CBBT, about the 12 mile mark, my cousin Phillip fished the ocean side, incoming tide, anchored up, drifting eels, absolute mayhem. He has no idea how many big stripers they caught. Most were over 44 inches. Some they could not stop. Birds were working the light-line hard there.

Dec. 26, 16-Year-old Hunter Southall has been having tremendous action with speckled trout. Last week, he weighed in one just shy of 10 pounds. His last trip resulted in ten specks between 24 and 29 inches plus about 40 lesser fish. Rockfish is off the hook right now but Hunter's dad, Charles, and I decided to leave them alone for a day and join Hunter for this epic speckled trout bite. To sum it up, Hunter kept saying that we should have come last week (Charles and I were both at work last week). It was slow for us. We caught 5 speckled trout between 17 and 21 inches long. It was not slow for others. We did get to see some nice specks. Brandon Bartlett and Zach Hoffman fished the morning near us. They tagged and released speckled trout up to 27 inches long. Capt. Craig Paige, www.paige2charters.com , came in the afternoon and his charter started catching right away. They caught specks up to 28 inches long.

Dec. 24, I joined Charles and Hunter Southall for an early morning Christmas Eve Rockfish run. Eeling, we caught a 44 and a 48 inch fish. We missed a number of other bites.

Contact Ken Neill with fishing news.

E-mail Ken Neill with fishing news.

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