Article by Julie Ball
The summer fishing season continues to pick up momentum. With good weather, warmer days and cooperative fish, this trend should continue.
Cobia are still the big news, and with good reason. Cobia hunters are happy that the season has been extended (in a sense), which is better than nothing. Although Federal waters will close to cobia fishing on June 20th, inshore anglers can keep one fish per angler at 40-inches or longer, up to two fish per boat through August 30th. Only one of the two fish boat limit can stretch to longer than 50-inches and cobia can no longer be gaffed.
Since the cobia arrived early this year, folks have wasted no time searching for their share. Sightcasters are having the best success while cruising the lower Bay and Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel areas. Boats using the chumming technique are also having good results from the Buckroe area off Hampton to the Inner Middle Grounds and the Nine-foot Shoals closer to the mouth of the Bay. Some larger fish made an appearance last week, with most fish still weighing around 20 to 30-pounds. Local pier anglers have also landed a few small cobia lately.
Red drum are still providing plenty of action right now. Depending on the conditions, boats are releasing bulls to over 50-inches from the seaside of Fisherman’s Island and the Nautilus Shoal areas while bottom fishing or casting to roaming schools of big fish.
Black drum are still taking clam offerings, mostly near Buoys 13 and 16 off the Eastern Shore, with most still averaging under 30-pounds. These fish will begin moving to the islands of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel (CBBT) soon.
The flounder bite is still improving, with more anglers reporting limits of bigger fish. Some flatfish pushing close to 7-pounds are taking drifted minnows and cut bait near the islands of the CBBT. Anglers jigging and working live bait along the pilings and over the tubes of the Bridge Tunnel are also catching fish, with the 1st and 2nd Islands being the most productive lately. Lynnhaven and Rudee Inlets are still giving up above average numbers of keepers, with many flatties averaging to around 20-inches last week. Both the Bayside and seaside areas of Oyster, the Cell and the Buoy 36 area are producing better flounder numbers for drifters recently, with a few doormats also in the mix.
The first catches of the season’s Spanish mackerel happened last week off the Virginia Beach oceanfront. Reports of some speckled trout and puppy drum continue to come from mostly within Lynnhaven Inlet and Mobjack Bay.
Nice bluefish and medium-sized croaker are available all over the lower Bay. Bigger snapper-sized bluefish ranging to about 6-pounds are still lurking inside Rudee Inlet recently. The HRBT, Hampton Bar, the Monitor-Merrimac, the James River Bridge, Little Creek, and the southern small boat channel at the CBBT are providing decent action on a range of sizes of hardheads. Sea mullet are also hitting along the oceanfront, where pier anglers had a good run of small to medium-sized fish this week. Respectable spot are also hitting within lower Bay inlets.
Sheepshead action is also heating up, with a few nice catches reported so far from the CBBT area.
Spadefish are appearing on the Chesapeake Light Tower and inshore wrecks, with a few fish already boated. Most fish are ranging around 3 to 5-pounds.
Although interest is waning with so many other species becoming available, striped bass are still biting, with good reports coming from the islands of the CBBT, the Monitor-Merrimac Bridge Tunnel, the James River Bridge and the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel lately. Many of these rockfish are ranging to around 32-inches.
The open sea bass season is drawing some boats to deeper water off the coast, where folks are finding good catches of big fish when they can get out. Deep droppers are also hauling in big sea bass along with a good variety of blueline tilefish, golden tilefish, some big grouper and blackbellied rosefish.
Offshore, warm water is now within reach from Virginia, where excellent catches of nice yellowfin tuna, scattered bigeye tuna, larger mahi and mako sharks are rewarding boats making the run. Most of the yellowfin tuna are in the 40-pound range, with a few pushing to over 60-pounds also around.
Dr. Julie Ball is the I.G.F.A. Representative for Virginia Beach, VA. For more information, go to drjball.com.
