Thursday, June 28, 2007
Fishing: for rays; via the Web; at the tower
Bill Cochran
Recent mail
BILL: We used to catch a lot of rays when we did a lot of shark fishing in the early '80s (see last week’s Cochran column). Cow nose, eagles and atlantics mostly. Fun fight. Really broke up the boredom on a slow night.
They have a wonderful strip of white meat down each side of the body trunk, but it was a lot of work to get it, and it was a pain to handle those slimy suckers in a boat. They don't have any handles. We tried the wings, but didn't care for the texture of the meat.
Always respected the tail. Lots of memories.
PENN RIGGS
BILL: Some time ago you wrote about a retired outdoor writer who now does a fishing report on the coast of Virginia. I have misplaced that information and wonder if he still is reporting on fishing conditions?
C.L.
C.L.: You are referring to Bob Hutchinson, retired outdoor editor of the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot. Bob spend most of the warm-weather months at Cherrystone Campground on the Eastern Shore and provides a weekly fishing report for the campground Web site. I think it is one of the best reports available for saltwater anglers. Bob doesn’t just write about who caught what, but also provides information on techniques.
The Web site is Cherrystoneva.com. Go to the bottom of the site and click “Hutch Report.”
BILL
BILL: Although we had plans to chum for cobia in the Chesapeake Bay Sunday, once I saw the incredible forecast, we had a change of plans. We were heading for the South Tower for some amberjack action. The South Tower is a navigational tower maintained by the Navy approximately 60 miles southeast of Virginia Beach.
Luckily, Long Bay Pointe Bait and Tackle had the perfect sized live bait, and plenty of it. Armed with four-dozen frisky spot and croaker, we headed out of Lynnhaven by 6:30am. With a beautiful flat calm ride! We pulled up to the South Tower with one boat just leaving to head offshore. We had the tower to ourselves.
In no time, I was hooked into my braid harness and gear. I dropped a spot with my Shimano TLD 30 into the school of jacks. Within seconds, I felt the bait become nervous and the line begin peeling off the rod.
“There he is,” I said, engaging the drag. The battle was on. I fought him for about 15 minutes, landing a brilliant 50.5-incher. Nice fish.
The captain says enough practice, and hands me a spinning outfit strung with 16-pound test. Here we go. No way to strap into a harness, so it was all me. I hooked up my second jack with no problem, and off he goes. I battled him for about 20 minutes. Around and around the boat he went. Finally, I baby him up and we land my 53-inch amberjack, caught on 16-pound test line. No record or anything, but we played with the jacks on 16-pound test for a little while longer, and never lost a single fish.
I did lose plenty of spadefish, though.
We left the amberjack biting and headed back to Virginia Beach. A beautiful day on the water.
DR. JULIE BALL, Virginia Beach
