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.
Contact
Ken Neill with fishing news.
E-mail
Ken Neill with
fishing news.
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