Article by Julie Ball
The summer fishing scene is almost as hot as the weather lately, and the Independence Day week was a great success, with flounder and cobia drawing the most interest.
Flounder are a good bet most anywhere in the lower Bay. Folks working the Bay Bridge Tunnel with jigs and live bait are finding the biggest fish with quick limits of flatties averaging up to 5 and 6 lbs. The 1st Island area and the 3rd Island tubes produced best last week. Drifting with well-presented strip baits is scoring nice keepers for many boats at the 1st Island, Thimble Shoal Channel, off Kiptopeke, off Willoughby and Ocean View and inside Rudee Inlet.
Cobia hunters continue to chum on the lower Bay shoals, such as Latimer Shoal and the Inner Middle Grounds, where anglers are finding mostly medium-sized fish, with a few pushing over 50 lbs. At least two fish tipped the scales at close to 100 lbs. recently. Sightcasters are intercepting dozens of cobia in open water along the lower Bay channels, but most fish are in the 20 to 30 lb. range. Don Schnare of Virginia Beach from Ocean’s East 2 Tackle, was surprised with a nice 58 lb. cobia when the fish inhaled his flounder rig while fishing at the CBBT recently.
King mackerel, made its presence known last week as observant boaters reported aerobatic displays of skying fish along the oceanfront. These fish are known for their speed, making them a prized sport fishing target.
Spanish mackerel continue to provide excellent action for trollers from Cape Henry to Sandbridge. Captain Steve Wray, skipper of the “Ocean Pearl” out of Lynnhaven, tells that his best luck is occurring in about 20 to 25-feet of water, with planers. Most of these fish are a nice class, with a few 3-pounders in the mix. Pier anglers are also enjoying the Spanish activity, with well worked Gotcha plugs getting the nod on the Little Island Fishing Pier last week. Tailor bluefish are always around these areas, and some sizable sharks are also taking baits off the oceanfront.
Spadefish are still available at the Chesapeake Light Tower, but more boats are targeting these fish on inshore wrecks and at the CBBT. The 3rd Island is still the top spade producing location where anglers are also bailing nice 2 and 3 lb. triggerfish.
Sheepshead are still biting along the tubes, islands and pilings of the Bay Bridge Tunnel, with some fish topping 10 lbs. caught last week. Try fiddler crabs, blue crabs, sand fleas and clam suspended near structure for a sheep nibble.
Red drum are still available around the shoals off Fisherman’s Island and along the Nine Foot Shoals. Most of the fish caught lately are taking baits intended for cobia. Several sightings of schooling reds near the CBBT are providing excellent top water opportunities.
Some large croaker are lurking around the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel and the Cell, while the hardhead run in Oyster kicked off last week with fish ranging to around a pound filling coolers.
According to the folks at Chris’ Bait and Tackle, tarpon are off to a good start with a few hook ups and boatings, and plenty of sightings reported recently.
Amberjack are available at the Southern Towers, but few are interested with the outstanding tuna bite going on lately. Jigging is also an effective method for jacks when your livewell runs dry.
Few are bothering with deep dropping lately, although the fish are there. Blueline tilefish, grouper, golden tilefish, black bellied rosefish and scattered sea bass are awaiting offerings along the floor at the Norfolk Canyon. Most folks making the long run to the deep are concentrating on offshore trolling species right now.
The offshore bite off Virginia is very good. Most anglers are looking for tuna, and finding them. The Virginia Beach Tuna Tournament was a success again this year with some nice bigeye tuna pushing to over 200-pounds making it exciting. The top boat was the “Marlin Maniac” with a combined three-fish weight of 445 lbs. Nice yellowfin tuna are still around, with some boats having good success with chunking lately. Trollers can also expect a good number of billfish, a nice class of dolphin and scattered wahoo rounding out catches.
For more information, go to www.drjball.com.
