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- FLUKE RULES -- 2008
Virginia has fared better than some other East Coast states as far as flounder fishing, 2008 style, is concerned. The rules: 19-inch minimum; 5-fish per person daily bag limit; season opens March 1; season closed July 21-28; open for remainder of the year.
- Cherrystone Family Camping Resort's weekly fishing reports are compiled by Bob Hutchinson, retired outdoors editor for hunting and fishing for The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot. They will begin in early April and continue at least through mid-October, later if fishing conditions warrant.
- Bob Hutchinson is a seasonal camper on site # 143 at Cherrystone Family Camping Resort. He can be e-mailed at: bobhutch36@aol.com
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HUTCH FISHING REPORT WEEK OF MAY 5, 2008
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Cherrystone Family Camping Resort will update this fishing report weekly through mid-October, later if conditions warrant. It is compiled by Bob Hutchinson, seasonal camper site #143. Hutch is the retired outdoors editor for hunting and fishing for The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot. Find out the latest on fishing at Cherrystone.
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This week's big news is that good concentrations of big black drum have debuted in the lower Chesapeake Bay, where the season should last into June, with a historic peak of action between May 10 and May 25.
The hottest action nhas been in the vicinity of buoys 13 and 16, just inside (northwest) of the high-level span of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.
As usual, most fish have been tricked by chunks of clam skewered to 9/0 or similar-size hooks, including some circle hooks. The baits are fished on the bottom, usually in between 20 and 30 feet of water, on sliding sliding "fish-finder" rigs.
Chris Bait & Tackle reports registering about 15 big drum for citation awards from the free Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament. Among those scoring release citations have been William Lewis, Cape Charles, 52 inches; Andy Booy, Townsend, VA, 50 inches; and professional BASS fisherman Woo Daves of Cedar Grove, VA, 49 inches. It takes a 48-inch drum to qualify.
Flounder (fluke) action has been steady on both sides (Bayside and Seaside) of the lower Eastern Shore, at least when the weather cooperates. Rossie Baker of Suffolk, VA, boated a doormat-size flatfish that weighed 8-pounds-4. It was caught out of the Seaside village of Oyster, VA, 4.5 miles east of Cherrystone Family Camping Resort.
As usual at this season, the best Seaside flatfish hauls are being made on falling tides, after the water has had a chance to warm in the shallows. And most of the better hauls are being made along the edges of inshore channels and creeks.
Speckled trout are also available in Seaside waters, where they are being tricked by MirrOlures and other artificials cast into waters between three and six feet deep.
Ronnie Crumb of nearby Eastville, VA, earned a citation award by releasing a behemoth 27.5-inch speck, while fishing partner Bernie Rolley of Cheriton, VA, scored with a 24.5-inch speck release.
Big red drum, also known as redfish and channel bass, are hitting chunks of cut bait tossed into the surf of the Eastern Shore Barrier Islands, with some schools also showing in in the shallows at the mouth of the Bay as well as inside Magotha Bay.
Bottom bouncers working Chesapeake Bay waters are getting a mixed bag that includes bluefish, gray trout (weakfish) and croaker. But overall action has not been fast.
It's about time for schools of spadefish to show over coastal wrecks and around the submerged remains of the old degaussing (demagnitizing) cell marked by Chesapeake Bay buoys WT2, about eight miles north of Cherrystone Family Camping Resort.
Some big blue crabs are being taken in the shallows off Cherrystone. But the overall fishery, which has been off, should improve with warming water temperatures.
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