Dr. Julie Ball dropped me a line recently and said that spring is in the Virginia Beach, Virginia area. She said that they have a mix of both spring and winter species. Expect this assortment to last for a little while longer, but with a few more warm days, the winter patterns will be long forgotten.
She said that hook and line catches of croaker have now been confirmed in the lower Bay and rivers, with good catches of nice fish coming from farther up the rivers, such as the Rappahannock. The Ocean View Fishing Pier is reporting scattered catches of hardheads up to ¾-pounds on squid and shrimp, with a few keeper flounder also making a debut. Striped bass to 15-pounds are also offering pier anglers a thrill with some good catch-and-release action.
Flounder are starting to attract more interest with several reports of keeper fish rolling in from the lower Bay area. She reminds anglers about the new regulations — you can only keep five fish per person this year. Flatfish are also adding variety to a mixed bag of puppy drum and speckled trout coming from Rudee Inlet this week. Puppy drum up to 26-inches are hitting finger mullet and grubs, while nice speckled trout ranging to nearly 6-pounds were also boated in the same vicinity. The Hot Ditch area of the Elizabeth River is still yielding scattered speckled trout, but anglers are more interested in the great gray trout action lately, with fish ranging to 4-pounds taking baits intended for specks.
Boats are targeting tautog on lower Chesapeake Bay structures and coastal wrecks when they can find a weather window allowing them to hold onto structure. Although the tog action is faring moderate at best, some fish to 10-pounds were pulled from the CBBT proper on blue crabs this week. Expect better results when anglers can finally reach more inshore and nearshore wrecks.
Striped bass interest is falling off, but anglers still have until the end of the month to stock up. Scattered pods of decent fish are cooperating along the coast, but they are steadily making their way to the spawning grounds farther up the rivers within the bay. Trollers are scoring with scattered fish to 45-pounds off Cape Henry, while anglers floating eels near the 4A buoy are also finding some cooperative schools of fish. The High Rise section of the CBBT is also a giving up rockfish to 48-inches for some great catch and release.
Jumbo black seabass will take offered baits on deeper water wrecks, while blueline tilefish and a few grouper are available along the ocean floor and near the edge of the Norfolk Canyon.
For more information, go to Julie’s website at www.drjball.com.
