Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament News

triple tail

Tripletail eligible for a state record in 2020

Dr. Ken Neill, III

The VSWSFT Committee met last night. No changes were made to minimum lengths or weights for 2020. The only change was the addition of tripletail to the program as a species eligible for a state record. The initial minimum qualifying weight will be 8 pounds.

Tripletail was not added to the citation program yet.

There was a brief discussion about making striped bass a release-only citation as current regulations require all striped bass over 36 inches to be released. As we are expecting the regulations for 2020 to include some ability to keep a limited number of trophy fish, the weight citation was left alone at 40 pounds for 2020.

Youth fishing initiatives were discussed. Claude Bain had done research on what the other states were doing and even on down to the fishing club level. The VSWFT has a Junior Angler Award and the Recreational Fishing Advisory Board funds numerous children’s fishing clinics with our fishing license fees. VSWFT Director, Lewis Gillingham and Chief of Fisheries, Pat Geer both had a number of ideas. I expect we will see more youth oriented programs coming from VMRC in the future.

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