Today, we welcomed The Fredericksburg, VA Fishing and Hops Advocates Club led by Club President "Ace" Laserna. Their meetings are held at The Hard Times Cafe in Fredericksburg, VA. The weather and sea conditions today started out good, deteriorated, and then the sea and wind conditions went slick calm ("pronounced "slick cam") again in the afternoon just ahead of a wicked front coming in from the south. Due to this front coming through, we will not be able to go out tomorrow (Thursday, March 17th). The predicted high winds and heavy seas in the Atlantic Ocean have, unfortunately, cancelled our trip for Thursday.
But it was nice to get out again today with six intrepid anglers who were eager to try Long Range Atlantic Ocean Deep Drop Wreck Fishing for the first time. Normally, I don't recommend this kind of trip for "newbies" but today turned out absolutely fantastic! "Ralph", "Earl", and "The Car Salesman" were out in full force during the choppy period, including a quite impressive arched power thrust hurl that is definitely our 2005 Spew of the Year so far.
The 1st two wrecks we stopped on were deep drop wrecks and after the crew got the hang of it, they did very well catching 98 huge Black Sea Bass, releasing 2 hideously ugly Conger Eels, countless DAWG Sharks, released 2 "Carpet" Sharks (if that's what they really are), and quite a few undersized Black Sea Bass.
The crew caught two VA weight Citations (a 5 pound 4 ouncer and one 5 pound 11 ouncer) and had several "near misses" that were just shy of 5 pounds. The 5 pound 11 ouncer is headed for a wall mount for Ace and his brother! The water out there near the edge of the canyons is so blue and clear, it's quite a beauty! the Ocean Porpoise (or are they Dolphin?) play in the wake of the boat and swim up as if to see who is visiting their uncharted and undisturbed domain.
The crew wanted to see what TOG fishing was like, so I pulled off of the deep drop wrecks with an excellent catch already and headed back ashore to try two of my favorite TOG wrecks with no success. All that we caught at these inshore wrecks were DAWG Sharks (released). Unfortunately, the only TOG that the crew got to see today was the beautiful TOG mount of Dr. Julie Ball's 22 pound 9 oz. BEAST that proudly hangs in the Long Bay Pointe Bait & Tackle Shop. The water temp. on the inshore wrecks is a frigid 41 degrees, so we need some warming before the TOGGIES get hungry.
But the big news is that on the way in, we spotted a school of Atlantic Mackeral, jigged on them, caught a few and also some Ocean Herring! This is the first time I have ever encountered these fish personally, as I have heard many stories of them. Just another example of the wonders of the Atlantic Ocean.