Friday, July 08, 2005
Ace of Spades
Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor's Outdoors column and notebook appears regularly in The Roanoke Times.
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EXMORE -- Bill Hall didn't like what he saw.
"One, two, three, four ... looks like we have a crowd," Hall said, looking at the boats surrounding the small navigation tower. "This place is only good for a few boats."
Still, Hall had made the short run off the Eastern Shore's western shoreline to get in on the excellent spadefish action taking place throughout Virginia waters.
This tower had a reputation for holding big fish.
So Hall motored around the pack for a few minutes. He observed how the boats were positioned and how the current was running. Some boats had tied tight to the structure -- a no-no -- narrowing Hall's potential avenues.
With fishing buddy Marty Bull on the bow with the anchor at the ready, Hall finally made his move. A steady northeast breeze worked against a diminishing tide, making it difficult to get the boat into position.
But after a couple of tries, the boat settled into a fishable spot. It was time to tackle some spadefish.
Few are better at it than Hall.
A lifelong resident of the Eastern Shore, Hall jokingly refers to himself as the "King of Spades."
It's a moniker that fits.
Hall holds the International Game Fish Association 20-pound line-class world record with a 12 pound, 14 ounce spadefish caught last year. That fish broke the 20-pound-test world record Hall set in 2002 . Also in 2002, Hall set a 16-pound-test world record that since has been broken.
Each year, about the end of May or beginning of June, Hall searches for bigger fish in hopes of topping his mark.
He wants to break the world record of 14 pounds. That fish was caught in 1986, just a few miles north of the tower where Hall was fishing late last week.
"Virginia has the biggest spadefish in the world, and now is the time to get the bigger ones, before the smaller ones move in," Hall said as he cut chowder clams for bait and chum. "It gets tough to get to the big ones when the small ones move in."
On this June afternoon Hall didn't take long to show off his abilities. Most of the other anglers around the tower were sitting too tight to the structure, and every fish they hooked schooled them on the line-cutting powers of barnacles and steel.
Other anglers were simply having trouble getting bites.
Hall, however, was tugging spadefish after spadefish away from the tower, showing the small crowd just what a drag-pulling, line-singing, rod-bending fight a spadefish puts up.
Hall said its important to get the strong fish quickly turned from the structure and into open water, where the angler can enjoy one of fishing's most memorable battles.
"If spadefish grew to the size of a blue marlin, there wouldn't be tackle strong enough to fight them," said Hall, 44 . "They are likely the most powerful fish, pound for pound."
Hall would know, having fished for everything in just about every corner of the globe.
He professes to have no favorite species to target.
"They're all so different and pose their own challenges," said Hall, a Bloxom resident who works for the Accomack County school system's food services division. "For relaxation, I like speckled trout.
"But I've fished for just about everything. I've been very fortunate."
Hall is one of Virginia's representatives to the IGFA, the organization that keeps world records for a variety of species. He also works on the boards of several fishing organizations, including the Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament. He writes for several publications and has done TV and radio shows.
As an IGFA representative, Hall is charged with verifying potential world records caught in Virginia waters. The position also places him on the judging board of several tournaments.
"It's a big honor," Hall said. "I'm the first IGFA representative from the Eastern Shore."
Hall grew up fishing from Eastern Shore beaches with his father. By the time he was 8 years old he was pedaling his bike 4 miles each way to fish the Bay's waters.
Success was destined.
"I seemed to catch more and bigger fish than everybody else," he said. "I fished more than everybody else and seemed to like it more.
"Instead of cartoons on Sunday mornings, I was watching a fishing show."
Last week, Hall was watching the bobber that danced on the Bay waters around the tower.
Some anglers were fishing deeper, but Hall's bobber method was out-producing everybody.
Hall concentrated on the small, round float as the current sent it just past the tower's edge. As the bobber came into the structure's shadow line on the water, the bobber stopped suddenly before disappearing under the surface.
Another Hall spadefish. This one sent him back and forth along the transom as it first tried to get back to the tower and then out to open water.
"They sure do fight," Hall said as an 11 -pounder was netted. "There's nothing like these big spadefish."
