Aug. 16, we fished around the Norfolk Canyon for billfish. We were practicing for the Virginia Beach Billfish Tournament and trying to deploy a pop-up tag in a blue marlin. We never saw a blue. We saw 4 whites. Two just looked and we missed a double. We need more practice. We did catch a bunch of dolphin. The largest weighed in at 27 pounds 4 ounces, large enough to earn Gabe Sava a citation.
Aug, 17, we headed back out after billfish. We did not see any. We caught a few dolphin and then stopped to deep-drop for an hour. It never works out that way. We caught some yellow-edge grouper. Steve Martin caught the largest. We caught hake, wreckfish, tilefish, sea bass, and some new fish. It turns out that it is a Darwin’s Slimehead. Chris Boyce caught it. If approved, it will be his second all-tackle world record and it will add to Virginia’s already impressive list of world records. This would be the 11th all-tackle record for the Healthy Grin crew and our 5th different species. This one is a little different. We did not know what we had caught but that is not new. What is different is that if approved, Chris’ fish will establish the initial world record for this species.
Aug. 18, I took Tricia and Cameron down to the South Tower. This was Cameron’s first amberjack trip. It did not take long to show him that these are a different creature than the striped bass he is used to catching. They did not catch any big ones but they caught a bunch of 40-44 inch fish. Tricia also caught a barracuda.
Tomorrow it is back to billfish for the rest of the week during Virginia’s big billfish tournament.
