HUGE STRIPERS! Virginia Beach fishing aboard Matador

[capt. jakeg]

Today, I had Tommy Cox and friends for a 3/4 day striper fishing aboard Matador. My usual mate had some serious issues, so Kapoc Mike mated for me. Thanks again, Mike. You did great and way to be there on the spot. We started off at about 9 am at the tube between the third and the fourth of the CBB-t which was productive but crowded. We caught a couple there, with a slot fish or two mixed in, but it was just a nightmare with the crowds. The fish were right on the spines between the tunes and were liking chartruese. The second plan was to go eeling. The bigger fish are just getting here for up north and eeling is just starting to become effective. We tried up by buoy 18 and kiptopeke and there was a big crowd there too and not much going on. I did two quick drifts before deciding this was not exactly what we were looking for, so I slid off to somewhere a little more private. Within 5 minutes at the new spot, we hooked up and caught a nice 49'' skinny 41# fish that earned a citation for the little girl we had aboard, Kimberly. Next drift, another 48''er that was just shy of a Virginia citation at 39#. Every subsequent drift for the next hour we had at least one or two bites. We had a couple mishaps where the line was slacked and we lost nice fish at the back of the boat and a couple short strikes, but for the most part we found steady action until we came home. We ended out catching 3 of the big girls (all were over 48'' but skinny- eels in their bellies. These fish will normally arrive skinny and fatten up shortly after arrival. In a week, a 50'' fish will weigh between 45 and 55#). Back at the dock by two. It was a beautiful slick calm morning, 65 degrees outside, and some bites.
The season here is just getting started and the fishing will get better every day for the next month and a half as more and bigger fish continue to arrive from the north. I still have plenty of dates available for charter. Look me up at www.matadorcharters.com.