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FISHING
TIDEWATER, JUNE 2010
By Don Lancaster
Hopefully by this time of year Mother Nature
has exhausted all her attempts to totally disrupt every aspect
of our spring fishing around the Chesapeake Bay. The early angling
news was beginning to fire up local anglers, only to have a series
of super cold snaps, terrible winds, and even snow dampen all
the spring fishing fires.
SPECIES NUMBERS
The speckled trout bite in and around the Elizabeth River in general
and the Hot Ditch in particular, caused the early 2010 crowd to
become enthused. I even made a trip to the Elizabeth River and
had a good day casting small plastic grubs. The first Virginia
Salt Waster Fishing Tournament report, which was distributed the
last of February, showed 114 captures (weight citations) and 98
releases. An indication of how the season progressed, the totals
for the latest report (5 May) showed 183 captures and 173 releases.
The tautog bite was a series of peaks and valleys in so far as
the bite went. As the water temperature climbed and fell, the
tautog were at first actively feeding and then they developed
lockjaw like the rest of their cousins. As the season closed on
May 1 the bite had really turned on and many reports of limits
were received. (The limit is 4 fish per person per day, with a
minimum length of 14-inches.) One week after the season closed
I received reports from a couple of tautog experts, saying they
had limited out each of the last three days of the open season.
The numbers on the first report of 2010 show 4 captures. On the
5 May report, there were 46 captures and 10 releases. When the
season reopens on June 25, I know a lot of the “hot spots”
will be covered with anglers who want to get back on the tautog
trail.
The flounder bite began to heat up around the last of March with,
for the first time in several years; numerous reports of keeper
flounder were received. In the past few years, most of the early
season reports were loaded with about a 10 to 1 ratio of throw-backs
to keepers. The new flounder regulations for 2010 are a 5 fish
possession limit and a minimum length of 18-1/2 inches. The first
2 capture reports for flounder were reported on the Saltwater
Tournament report of April 14. The May 5 report shows 5 captures
and 0 released.
A little side note, before I continue to discuss the totals for
additional species, the Black Sea Bass season, after being closed
for the last 4 months of 2009, remains closed until May 22, when
the season will reopen and remain so until October 11, with an
additional open period of November 1 through December 31. Sea
bass, for several years, has been a bonus for the deep dropping
trips out of Virginia Beach. Since the season closed, the deep
droppers landing sea bass have had to release them, even though
they were dead, after being brought up from water 300 feet deep
or deeper. There are great hopes among the charter boats, that
when this season reopens, the sea bass enthusiasts will return.
The second of two species which makes the statistics for citations
for 2010 close to previous years, is the striped bass (rockfish).
With striper season open from 1 January to 31 March, the capture
and release reports were very close to those of the speckled trout.
In the late Feb. report there were 113 captures and 53 releases;
on the March 31 report there were 163 captures and 57 releases;
and as of the 5 May report, there were 166 captures and 60 releases.
The total number of captures on 5 May was 427 and the total number
of releases was 252. Those seem like pretty good numbers, until
you compare them with this same week in 2009.
The figures totaled 959 captures and 270 releases. These figures
are what really got my attention. 1,229 total citations for 14
species in 2009 and 679 total citations for 9 species.
THE LATEST FISHING NEWS
CROAKERS
The best fishing news for the past couple of weeks has been the
croaker bite. Anglers working both the James River and Buckroe
Fishing piers are loading up on medium to large croakers. As of
this writing there has been only one citation croaker reported
although most reporting stations report catches of coolers of
croakers weighing up to 2-1/2 pounds. With the high croaker fishing
traffic on both the piers and from the boating anglers, there
have probably been many more fish, weighing 3 pounds or better,
caught but not reported. I was at the Sunset Boating Center when
the “Sally T” cam in from a morning’s charter trip
to Hampton Bar. True to the general reports received, most of
the charter folks had coolers full, or almost so.
SPECKLED TROUT
The speckled trout bite has been fairly steady with the Elizabeth
River and the Hot Ditch being the biggest hot spots. Recent reports
have some nice fish being caught in and around Mobjack Bay, and
other top secret locations.
FLOUNDER
The flounder bite has been a series of peaks and valleys. The
Buoy 36A area, as usual, has produced some good fish as well as
the area around the High Rise of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel
(CBBT), the rocks around the tubes at the 1st and 2nd and 3rd
& 4th Islands, and the area around Wachapreague.
RED & BLACK DRUM
Early season reports have good numbers of red drum shoeing around
the breaker line of both Smith and Fisherman’s Islands. Kayakers,
surf anglers, and anglers anchoring around the breaker lines are
all reporting good catches of big red drum. Black drum, weighing
35 pounds, plus, have been caught but the brute fish have started
arriving, just in time for back to back weekend black drum tournaments.
IN CLOSING
Hopefully by the next edition, I will have some aging data on
black drum and cobia from the Fisheries Management folks at the
Virginia Marine Resources Commission. This is the type of information
needed by the fisheries managers which enables them to make the
necessary decisions concerning size limits, possession limits
and seasonal closures if necessary.
Get out on the water and catch some fish. Catch all you want,
but keep only those you intend to eat.
Tight lines, sharp hooks and strong knots.
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