Bay Rockfish Season Closing, Ocean Season Opening

Virginia Beach Report

Craig Irwin with a nice 55 pound striper!

Big rockfish continued hitting the scales last week. Most of the action was coming from the eastside of the Bay, between Cape Charles and the ocean. Many fish have topped the 50-pound mark, one topped 66 pounds. The majority are being caught using eels, but a few are falling to Mojos.

Kenny Bruce & Gary Culpepper landed this 66.6LB, 50 incher. Gary was on the rod!

The Chesapeake Bay fall striper season comes to an end December 31st. The Virginia coastal season opens January 1st and runs through March 31st. The ocean season minimum size limit is 28 inches with a possession limit of 1 per person.

Dr. Ken Neill with a nice seabass!

Our offshore wrecks are holding sea bass and maybe a few flounder. The triangle wrecks are loaded up with hungry sea bass, some in the 6-pound class. The Rudee Headboat will be running 12-hour, Saturday sea bass trips starting February 2nd. The open recreational sea bass fishing season closes December 31, 2018 and reopens February 1, 2019 through February 28th.

This time of year there are usually bluefish around the wrecks and where there’s bluefish there could be a bluefin tuna or two.

On North Carolina’s outer banks surf anglers are finding small puppy drum, small trout, dogfish and black drum at the Jetties in Buxton. Several nice puppy drum were caught near ramp 55.

VIRGINIA UPDATE 12/31/2018 – Bluefin Report

On a recent sea bass trip Dr. Ken Neill ran into working birds, porpoise and bluefin tuna. The tuna appeared to be in the 100-pound class. They were about half way between the South East Lumps and the Cigar. A commercial boat also reported bluefin tuna near the Chesapeake Light Tower. Ken wasn’t rigged up for them that day, so he returned Sunday rigged and ready. He found lots of birds, bait and some porpoise at the the South East Lumps, but no tuna. He trolled out to 20 fathoms and down to the Cigar with no luck. On the way in he stop on a wreck and came back with another box of sea bass.