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Julie Ball submitted this shot of Harry Huelsbeck of Norfolk with a 44-pound striper he caught last week near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.

Considering how many 50-pounders are being caught, this fish is a relative shrimp -- until you consider that Huelsbeck caught the thing on a fly rod. In fact, according to Ball, who is the Virginia Beach representative to the International Game Fish Association, this striper is a pending line-class world record. The fish hit a big Clouser minnow fly, which has always been among my favorite patterns for coastal stripers.

The fishing off Virginia Beach actually has slowed down, thanks in large part to the commercial menhaden fleet. With their season winding down they rolled into the area last week and scooped up huge schools of the menhaden. The bait fish gone, the big stripers left to find more food. It's like the premise of the movie "Happy Feet," except with stripers instead of penguins.

There are still a ton of smaller stripers around the CBBT, and also some larger fish. That fishery closes -- for anglers who want to keep fish -- at the end of the year. It won't be long before the ocean fishery gets good again.

Jay Honse Jr. of Fincastle sent in this shot of his son, Jay Honse III, a former resident of the Cave Spring area who now lives in Richmond. This 49.05-pound striper, which was 47 inches long, won the CCA Dare Marina Rockfish Tournament this past Saturday in Yorktown. Honse was fishing with cousins Al and Norman Pulliam at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.

This weekend was awesome for huge stripers in Virginia's coastal waters. In addition to this fish, several fish over 50 pounds were reportedly caught by anglers who weren't registered in this tournament. With water temps still around 50, and the current mild temps, the big fish should be around for a while..

Virginia Beach fishing guru Julie Ball sent out this shot of a big bluefish she caught on a mild-for-November Veteran's Day weekend off Virginia's coast.

Julie and friends were hoping to catch one of the big bluefin tuna that are in the area but the trips produced just one hook-up and the fish pulled off. Fishing around the Triangle wreck they managed to catch a number of big bluefish, flounder and sea bass.

In a report toward the end of last weekJulie reported that the great speckled trout fishing is continuing in the lower Chesapeake Bay. A few 40-pound stripers have been caught, but the best is yet to come.

You can find Julie's current fishing report, along with shots of other catches, on her site at www.drjball.com.

Here's a shot of Dr. Julie Ball of Virignia Beach with a nice yellowfin tuna caught this past weekend off Virginia Beach.

Anyone who follows Virginia saltwater fishing has heard of Julie, the Virginia Beach representative to the International Game Fish Association. A dentist in the Coast Guard, she's one of the state's top saltwater trophy anglers, boating loads of citation-sized fish annually. She also does a weekly fishing report and I plan to keep posting highlights here.

Here's what she wrote about Saturday's trip:

"We headed offshore with Capt Jake Hiles onboard the Matador. Our crew, Howard, Robin, Eric, and Steve. We left the dock around 4:30 out of Rudee. Lines in near the Norfolk Canyon in 100 fathoms. The seas were calm with a slight chop. We ended our trip with tuna to about 60-pounds, dolphin to about 12-pounds, and a cooler of tilefish and seabass."