July 23, 2008Julie Ball with a potential world record spadefish
Acting on a tip from a friend she found a bunch of spadefish in the 7- to 8-pound range hanging around a nearshore wreck near Virginia Beach the other day. She decided to try to catch one on 4-pound test line. If you've caught a spadefish before you know they are unbelievable fighters because of their shape and because they are all muscle. Ball hooked up with a bunch. She caught a dozen small ones and broke off twice that many. She did get a few into the boat. The biggest tipped the scales at 7 pounds, 6 ounces, which was enough to set a line class record. The application is pending. August 8, 2007A nice king mackerel caught by Julie Ball
August 3, 2007The big red drum from my recent Bay trip
We shot some video that day. The production isn't great as I didn't really take the time to shoot b-roll so the producer didn't have much to work with. But it turned out OK despite that. At a few points you'll hear whistles, which covered up some innappropriate language (not from me). I'm not sure why we couldn't just use the same bleep everyone else uses but, whatever. Next time, no swearing. In the video I say, "I just caught the two biggest fish of my life today." I figured that cobia was close to 50 pounds, and am still surprised it was only 38. So that means it wasn't as heavy as the 46-inch striper I caught (and released) in the Bay about eight years ago. But I caught that striper, which was stout and probably weighed 45 pounds, while trolling with Claude and the only thing I really did was reel it in. I was particularly happy with that cobia and drum because that was a total do-it-ourself trip. You can see the video HERE. July 31, 2007Year after a pukefest, a bay trip turns out much better
This year flounder season was temporarily closed so we decided to try for cobia. And, much to our surprise, we actually caught one -- this 38-pounder. I'm writing about the trip for Friday's Outdoors page in the Roanoke Times so I'm not going to go into too many details here. But I will say we were chumming and chunking at the Inner Middle Ground Shoals near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. After this cobia we managed two more big fish -- that weren't cobia. Again, details will have to wait. Even though it was kind of rough and I was the chief bait chunker (and cutting up menhaden isn't for the queasy) I didn't feel a hint of seasickness. The credit goes to the scopolamine patch I wore. Those things work. I did have one incident over the weekend that made me sick. On the way down to Virginia Beach I got pulled over for speeding near the I-95/U.S. 460 interchange in Prince George County. At the interchange the speed limit on 460 drops to 45. I was doing 57, and there were at least three officers working a special "enforcement" effort in response to a string of fatal accidents this year. So, even though I haven't gotten a speeding ticket in years, I didn't get a warning. And since there's no hoping that the "B" sample is going to come back negative, I'll just pre-pay the $121 and be done with it. June 27, 2007Dr. Julie Ball with a big Amberjack caught off Virginia
If you've ever caught one of these suckers you know they pull like freight trains. Julie said they were fishing at the South Tower with spinning gear and 16-pound test line. A 53-inch amberjack on 16-pound-est line? Now that's a battle. A lot of fishermen release their amberjacks because the fish tend to have parasites. The grubs are harmless, but not exactly appetizing. I'm tempted to keep one next time I get a chance after recently sampling an amazing dish that featured smoked amberjack. It was actually a spread. My friend Terry Tomalin, the outdoors editor at the St. Petersburg Times in Florida, donated it for a cookout I had for some friends on the eve of the recent Outdoor Writers Association of America conference here in Roanoke. Tomalin didn't get here in time to make the cookout so he sent the stuff by overnight mail -- along with baggies of lemon wedges, jalepenos and crackers. Turn-key party food. You gotta love it. It's a good thing I stopped by my office that afternoon because otherwise it would have been sitting on my desk for five days. That could have been ugly. At the cookout there was no shortage of good chow, including some smoked salmon brought by my buddies Bill Monroe and Mark Freeman from Oregon. But I'm kind of spoiled on the smoked salmon front because my dad keeps me fairly well supplied, so I did most of my damage on the amberjack spread. I actually had no idea what kind of fish it was until Terry told me a couple days later. The key, Terry said, is to use a fairly small amberjack. Say, a 20-incher. I've caught them that size in Florida, but I don't even know if fish that small migrate up here with the big boys. I've never seen or caught one. Then again, I haven't exactly been looking for them. January 12, 2007Stripers in the bayI had hoped to get to Virginia Beach this weekend for a day or two of fishing for striped bass in the Chesapeake Bay. The bay season is closed but catch and release fishing is allowed. Most fishermen are concentrating on the ocean fishery – there’s a tournament under way that drew 280 boats -- which means pressure is relatively light in the bay. Unfortunately, for a few reasons, the trip isn’t going to happen. That’s disappointing, but maybe I’ll get down there before the fish have all left the bay. If not, the ocean fishing should be decent for a couple of months. The challenge there is timing a trip when the weather is mild enough to let us get out in the ocean in my buddy’s 24-foot Albemarle cuddy cabin. I formulated my plan for this weekend with the help of Claude Bain of the Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament. Bain said the fish have been concentrated near Cape Charles, along the ledge that runs from around Plantation Light toward the Concrete Ships. The fishing technique is, in Bain’s words, “So simple it should be criminal.” First you find the fish, using sonar or looking for diving birds or hooked-up fishermen. Then you set out four or five rods baited with live eels, hooked through the lips with a 5/0 circle hook. The hook is attached to a 6-foot-long 80- to 100-pound leader attached to the main line with a barrel swivel, above which is 1- or 2-ounce sinker. Set the eels below bobbers at various depths ranging from 10 to 25 feet deep. Drift with the current and hold on. December 27, 2006Flying high
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.
December 13, 2006Huge winner
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.. November 20, 2006Change of pace
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. October 2, 2006Lots of sushi
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." |
About this blog
While growing up in rural Southern Oregon, Mark Taylor developed a passion for the outdoors while he and his younger brother tagged along with their father on fishing, hunting and camping adventures. Graduating from Northwestern University in 1988, Taylor spent four years as an officer in the U.S. Navy based in Norfolk before moving into journalism. After five years writing about the military for a Norfolk-based publishing company, he became the outdoors editor at The Roanoke Times in 1998. He lives in Roanoke with his wife and twin daughters. .....Advertisement.....
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