Thursday, June 18, 2009
Spadefish an easy mark or frustratingly finicky
Bill Cochran
Recent columns
This 14-pound, 14-ounce spadefish caught by Ronald Murphy is headed toward world and state record status.
The rotund spadefish that Ronald Murphy caught in the Chesapeake Bay the past weekend was so big that when he held it up for picture taking it appeared that he was heaving a spare tire chest high.
For certain, Murphy is destined to get a lot of mileage from this catch. The 14-pound, 14-ounce fish taken north of Cape Charles is a candidate for both world and state record status.
Murphy’s fish underscored several truisms about spadefish. One, the biggest of them are caught late May and early June which is the beginning of the run. Two, the Cell, where Murphy landed his fish, is a major hotspot for this species, having previously produced at least four records that I am aware of.
Add to that, Murphy experienced the raw power of this species. He is quoted by Julie Ball as saying “the fish put up a gallant fight for over 20 minutes, taking me around the boat, back and forth, under the boat, around the motor, almost wearing me out before wearing it out.” Ball, from Virginia Beach, is a representative of the International Game Fish Association, the word record keeper.
Murphy was fishing aboard the Kingfish, whose captain is Allen King and first mate Sherie King, all from Fredericksburg. They had caught several spadefish and lost a bunch more when a rod bent over and Murphy grabbed what he knew was no ordinary catch.
His fish was examined by Virginia Institute of Marine Science official Jon Lucy; thus, it appears to have clear sailing for record status.
The current world record is a 14-pound tie between Geo Brace and Mark Ottarson. Brace landed his fish May 23, 1986 in the Virginia portion of the Chesapeake Bay. Mark Ottarson of North caught his on June 6, 2007 at the Cell.
Now here’s where things get complicated. There also are two 14-pound fish tied for the Virginia record, but one is a different fish from the world record tie. Ottarson’s fish is both a world and state record, but the other state record is credited to 17-year old Austin Edwards of Powhatan who landed his fish at the Cell on June 17, 2006.
One thing Murphy’s fish is going to do is save some ink and confusion in both the world and state record books.
The 2009 spadefish season is just beginning, with many of the initial catches coming from the Chesapeake Light Tower a dozen or so miles off Virginia Beach. The tower probably is Virginia’s top spadefish spot as far as number of fish produced from a small area, but when things are going well, swarms of spadefish can be found along most any structure, from buoys, to bridge pilings, to rock piles to wrecks.
The Cell is good because of the clutter on the bottom from former Navy degaussing efforts and from artificial reefs composed of old tires set in concrete.
The traditional method is to set an anchor within a cast of the fish, chum with some clam bits then bait with a small piece of clam on a small hook with a split shot or two above it. Let some bait go deep and work others about three feet deep under a float just like bluegill fishing.
When things go right, spadefish action can be fast and furious. On one trip last year, I watched a boat catch spadefish after spadefish while our boat 30 yards away caught nothing. The anglers in the other boat finally had a case of sore arms from landing so many fish, and they buzzed off. We moved into their spot and began reeling in spadefish, enjoying our best fishing outing of the year.
Last week, we were back on the same spot. But this time there was not a fish to be had. Or if they were there, they weren’t revealing their presence. Meanwhile, just a few miles away Murphy was pulling in his record.
That’s spadefish for you, either an easy mark or frustratingly finicky.
