Eighty-one teams fished the Virginia Beach Billfish Tournament last week. Cash awards totaling $785,250 were handed out. That’s a lot of dollar bills for the big bills – the blue and white marlin. It’s the peak season for them right now.
As a rule, the billfish action gets hot and heavy from now until the first big Atlantic hurricane passes by. Then it slows down considerably, but for now, this is the time to hook up with a big marlin or a feisty sailfish. The offshore boats are also finding yellowfin tuna and the wahoo action is picking up.
Elsewhere in Virginia saltwater, the Spanish mackerel bite picked up between the 2nd and 3rd islands of the CBBT this week. Some bluefish were in the mix. King mackerel have moved in along the oceanfront, look for some smokers to soon show up at the scales.
The flounder bite is still good on ocean wrecks and has been increasing at the CBBT. Cobia are starting to exit the Bay. Look for them near channel buoys and along the oceanfront. The sheepshead are still biting along the CBBT. Spot numbers are picking up in the Bay and along the oceanfront.
The Virginia Beach Fishing Pier is seeing catches of spot, roundhead, pompano, rays, spades, small blues, small flounder, and puppy drum. One angler reported seeing a real manatee swimming close by. Wow!
The Cell has been a hotspot for nice croakers, blues and whiting. Inlets and bay tributaries are holding speckled trout and puppy drum. The best trout and drum fishing is September through November.
Deep droppers are catching mostly tilefish. Rudee Tours runs trips, but you need to book early. Their website shows most trips sold out in advance.
OBX
The Nags Head piers reported pompano, spot, croakers, sea mullet and some spadefish. Surf fishermen beached sea mullet, pompano, spot and a few red drum. In the sound, it was drum, specks, flounder and stripers, plus some nice sheepshead caught around the bridges. Boats trolling nearshore caught Spanish, false albies, blues, ribbonfish, king mackerel and some cobia. The blue water fleet scored with yellowfin, blackfin and big-eye tuna plus Mahi, Wahoo and tilefish. There were a number oof billfish releases reported.
At Hatteras Harbor, a few big boats slipped out on Thursday and did well with Wahoo, dolphin and limits of tilefish. Some grouper and blackfin were also boated. Boats fishing closer to shore had a good day with red drum and bluefish. Hatteras piers had good catches of Spanish mackerel, and bluefish.
Freshwater
Extreme heat has slowed the freshwater fishing, though the smallmouth action in the rivers picked up a bit with recent rainfall. Bright spots have been good striper fishing at Anna in the early hours and some very nice crappie are being caught at Buggs Island in 15 to 25 feet of water.