By Lara Kelley

Two hundred and eighty-six teams competed recently in the 2008 Virginia Beach Rockfish Shootout. This considerably large number of entrants was due the three different days of fishing. Teams could enter to compete one, two or all three days using different names each day.

Nearly all of the teams in the top seven prize winning spots fished all three days, four of them earning a spot on the leader board in more than one day, including Chesapeake Angler Magazine I and II, Marlin Maniac I , II and Happi Daze I and II, and Right Hook I and III. These four teams maintained their status on the leader board on day three and finished in First, Second, Third and Sixth.

Calcuttas are a big part of this tournament, which explains Team Marlin Maniac, Captained by David Nova of White Stone, VA came away with more prize money for his second place grab than the first place winner. Nova and his crew gambled all three tiers of the calcutta while King and his team opted for one tier. By the way, those Maniacs finished twice in the final top seven, plus entered in the ASA (American Striper Association) division earning them $106,410 in cash and prizes.

Never-the-less, the Chesapeake Angler Magazine Team, Captained by Max King of Chesapeake, VA walked away with new Contender boat, which is valued at $50,000, and over $15,000 calcutta money. The boat was donated by high level tournament sponsor CONTENDER BOATS. In the end, the tournament paid out more than $227,170 in prizes and calcutta money. Now, this is why the Mid Atlantic Rockfish Shootout is called the Richest Striper Tournament on the East Coast.

ABOUT THOSE EELS
Seven out of ten teams in the top 10 fished live eels in this year’s Shootout.

Tournament director Mike Standing announced at the awards ceremony that there would be no eeling allowed next year, then sent out an official announcement later that there would be two divisions next year, one for eelers and one for trollers.

Much talk has been made on
message boards recently of the

trolling both times.

It is has not been announced at this early time whether the two division change will lower the prize money in each category, or if The Richest Tournament on the East Coast will live up to it’s slogan .

Most of the eeling community seems to be unfazed by this rule change. “We can troll, too,” said Whit Blankenbaker of Team Marlin Maniacs. He’s not lying either, because the Maniacs landed their 7th place win while trolling this year. They, like all fishermen, change techniques depending on the weather, temperature and other variables.

Greg Nunn of Hapi Daze will most likely adapt equally well. His team is native of New Jersey they often fish in the ocean or Delaware Bay. Up there they mostly live line bunkers, yo-yo dead bunkers and troll while “snapping wire” and they live eel in a similar way, but not exactly the same as Chesapeake fishermen do. Actually, he did adapt to the Chesapeake Bay

way of eeling, taking third just behind the Maniacs.

Sammy Fisher of Team Right Hook was eeling on the day his team reeled in their 6th place and trolling during their 10th place win. He has had a note worthy year winning a MSSA rockfish tournament and another MSSA tuna tournament, which landed him MSSA Captain of The Year for 2007. Fisher says it makes no difference to him that the rules have changed.

Max King was the Chesapeake Angler team captain two years ago when they captured first place and last year when they placed both 4th and 7th. He says that they were eeling, however he appears to have the same come-what-may attitude of Right Hook and the Maniacs. “If the eeling bite slacks, you can bet I’ll be trolling,” said King.

Duby Lowery of Anna Lynn Charters, who fishes out of Reedville, VA much of the year, placed in the money in 2007 and earned calcutta money worth over $8,000 in 2008. Duby was