Capt. David Wright and crew aboard the charter boat, High Hopes, had an awesome day last week. They caught a limit of blueline tilefish, four of which were citations. They also landed some beautiful black sea bass, and then topped the day off with two swordfish, one 78 pounds and the other 201 pounds. I’d call that a good day’s fishing.
Elsewhere in Virginia’s saltwater, speckled trout and puppy drum fishing is great just about everywhere. Some big reds continue to be caught in the Bay and along the coast. Large sheepshead are biting on Bay structures and tog’ fishing is picking up day by day.
There have been good numbers of king mackerel along the Virginia Beach oceanfront the past few days. Coastal wrecks, like Triangles, are producing sea bass, flounder and a few red snapper. Anglers fishing off the Virginia Beach fishing pier are picking up small spot, small black drum, small trout, roundhead and few puppy drum. The water temp is 65 degrees.
Surf anglers fishing near Sandbridge continue to land big reds from the beach. Offshore swordfish catches have been very good.
Capt. jack Beck at Knot Wish’n guide service enjoyed quality speckled trout fishing inside the inlet last week. He said it’s still a bit hit or miss depending on the day and tides, but there are plenty of nice size fish around. His ocean trips got in on the hot king mackerel bite. The kings have been skying through menhaden bait balls regularly he said. There are still some Spanish mackerel lingering and there are lots of bluefish.
Rudee Tours offshore deadbeat. has been great! Numerous citation blueline tilefish have been landed with weights up to 17 pounds. Their inshore trips are picking up seabass, triggerfish and red drum. The bluefish are starting to show up on the inshore wrecks as the water temperature is starting to cool down.
Capt. Nolan Agner at Aquaman Charters said they have been deep-dropping for sea bass and tilefish. They’ll be running sea bass trips through end of year.
Dr. Ken Neill spent a couple of days wreck fishing inside the bay and trolling along the oceanfront. At night, he fished from his dock. Small sea bass and oyster toads were a problem at times, but he managed to also catch sheepshead, tautog, pufferfish, pigfish, pinfish, porgy, flounder, bluefish, king mackerel, red drum, perch, speckled trout, and gray trout. Nothing big. He said there’s a good amount of bait around and he saw a number of whales, as many as a half-dozen at a time. It should be a good whale-watching season.
OBX
On Wednesday, surf anglers reported sea mullet, bluefish and blow toads scattered on Hatteras Island. The northern beaches produced puppy drum, trout and puffers.
In the sound, the Little Bridge on the Nags Head/Manteo causeway reported slow fishing with a few drum and trout.
The piers produced trout, drum, mullet, small blues, a few spot and puffers.
Nearshore trolling boats caught Spanish and bluefish. An Inlet charter caught trout and anglers fishing in the sound landed good catches of trout and drum.
Offshore charters had a big dolphin bite with limits on each boat. Yellowfin and blackfin were plentiful and some wahoo were also caught.
Lovely weather for the past week or so came to an end on Thursday with the heavy rains and wind.
Freshwater
The upper James was in ideal shape and giving up some great smallmouth until Thursday. Now it’s a mud hole. Bass fishing has been excellent at Buggs, Anna, the Chick and Chick Lake. A 29-pound of bass was weighed in a recent tournament on the chick River. Down at Gaston, spotted bass have been biting. Stripers are scattered in the big lakes as baitfish are widespread. Crappie fishing gets better and better as fish are still relatively shallow
Trout fishing has been excellent in both the stocked and native streams.