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.
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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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