Matador 11-8 Virginia Beach nearshore

[capt. jakeg]

On saturday, I didnt have a charter and wanted to go fishing so I made some calls and lined some stuff up, so we headed east on Matador with 3 goals. Crew was John, Paulie, Al, Andy, Shawn, Michelle, and Marc.
The first thing were were out to do was check for a bluefin. We got to the hotdog at sunup where we would begin the troll. Water temp was 59.9-60.3. Water clarity was poor and color was murky pea green. We set out a standard bluefin spread with big ballyhoos on iilanders and looked around. About a half hour into the trolling, we had a small 50# class bluefin air out on our flatline. Didnt hookup but it was a pretty bite. We also had some boils on the rigger baits which missed, but they didnt seem like the larger class of fish we were after. When we got to the NE corner of the dog, there were false albacore everywhere. It was the largest school of false albacore I have ever seen. There were literally square miles of 5# false albacore busting on the surface. The school was so large that when I got into the middle of them, there were so many fish working it that I could not see in any direction an area where they were not busting top. Millions and millions of fish. I put some small spoons out and caught a couple while trolling for bluefins. They were puking up baby sandeels that were less than 1'' long. I did see some big marks there under the albacore and it seems as though there are big bluefins there now, but between the nasty water color out there and the abundance of bait, its gonna be tough to get one of the big boys to bite there. We did not try it, but I bet there are some HUGE makos and threshers around that school of alberts.

Next thing was get some meat. We found a wreck or two that had decent bass on it and managed to catch about 40 bass to 4# to bring home for the table. The headboats have been working the area around the triangles very hard and the quality of the bass has been picked through, even on some of my less well known hangs in that area. I counted 3 or 4 headboats there on saturday. It was very easy to tell which ones had been picked and which hadnt. There were also alot of flounder out there. We only did two short drifts because the conditions were bad for flounder fishing, but we caught 4 flatties.

Last, we went to get everyone on the boat a citation bluefish, and we very easily completed that goal in about an hour. We got to the area and found Ocean Pearl, Jackass, and Healthy Grin working it tightly, so I jumped in a we all four worked a small area pretty efficiently. I released mine. Several other people on the boat released theirs and we did bring back three for whatever reason that were 17#10 oz, 19#5 oz, and 19#7oz. Back at the dock, I watched Ken Neill bring in a 21# 8 ounce fish that will be the new state leading fish.

[cmacdol]

What a day!
I doubt that Big Chopper will be beat this year.

Nice Job!

Les

[Richard Pelletier]

Jake, good to see you are back in the game. See you on the water soon.

Richard

[racn35]

Sorry I didnt answer the radio myself Sir......I had a FISH ON !!!

[CaptBeach]

That was some pretty fishing...did you get any pics? Good job putting them on the Citations...just an Idea but with the big marks below the Fat Alberts do you think dropping a Lucanus or a Butterfly Jig thru the alberts would work or do you think they'd get eaten up first by the FA's?

[Finfever21]

Nice report Jake way to put your crew on some fish...

[striper_on]

WTG Jake good talking to you out there!

[Healthy Grin]

Thanks Jake. Our biggest bluefish was caught per your instructions. You get the credit for that one.

[Fishboy OV8]

Nice report.... must have been a sight to see all that topwater action

[PlaynHooky]

AWESOME DAY Jake, sorry no big blue fin for you..........I heard they got a 80+" out of MHC.........so some bigones have slipped by....also out of Harkers today 10-12 miles out they were thick as theives, but only 80 lb class.....