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Like many others "up here", we have been waiting for some good-looking water, and decent weather, to make our first offshore run of the year. It appeared that both were coming together, so we went for it yesterday. Crew was Cathy, Chuck, Deanne and Mark. In addition to the usual pelagic gear, we took gear for deep-dropping.
Departed Little Creek at 0345, headed east for the warm water at the 50-fathom line. Found snotty seas with a crisp NE breeze, so kept the speed down and just kept going. Water temp was 74* in the bay and for a few miles offshore, then dropped to a steady 66* for over 30nm. Accompanied by a big pod of dolphins for about five minutes, just after sunrise - beautiful animals. Put the spread out just after 7am, in moderate seas at the 40-fathom line a few miles south of the Norfolk, then trolled east looking for warm water.
Couldn't call it a "break", certainly not a dramatic one, but the water went from 66* to over 73* in couple of miles of blended water. Then nice, clear, blue water - a few birds, some whales, some small slicks, but no bait, no marks, no knockdowns.
Got a call from a friend who had overnighted in the Norfolk. He indicated a poor troll on Friday and the same early Saturday, so was headed for his deep drop spot. He called again about a half-hour later with three blueline tiles in the boat, so I got his position by DSC and we started trolling in that direction.
Pulled in the trollling gear about 1/2-mile from him, took position about 100yds upwind, and dropped three lines into the 300-foot blue water. All three had "fish-on" within one minute and, after cranking them up, we had two doubles and a single! The action continued that way, with numerous fish on each drift. Lost track of how many were in the box, so had to pull them all out for a head count! Had a few to go, so made one more drift - one single and two doubles. Rigs were simple double-hook bottom rigs, with 32-oz weight and braided line. One TLD-25 and three 330GTi level winds. Bait was simple chunks of white squid.
It was not yet noon, so we put the spread back out and headed southwest. The wind had laid down in mid-morning, so it was a beautiful day out. Had a couple of knockdowns that didn't come tight, then finally landed a nice gaffer. Mark used a hand-gaff and made a beautiful headshot. One more gaffer hooked up, but lost on a jump due to a rig failure - my fault..
Heard talk on the radio of good sized YFT busting the surface and some nice hook-ups, but it was in the wrong direction and we had to get home. Picked everything up about 60m from Cape Henry and headed back. Ran at 26-28kts most of the way, then 30-32 from just outside Cape Henry. Put her in a slip at Cobbs (next to Mark & Deanne's Albemarle) to clean fish and the boat, then back to our slip on Pretty Lake.
Didn't get everything we wanted, but a good first trip - saved by the deep drop! We will now always take the deep drop gear when he head for the deep.
Deanne had the big fish of the day, an 11lb-2oz that earned her a citation.
Here are some photos, including the traditional "first kiss"..
Many thanks to the great crew!
Brian
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Originally Posted by capt. jakeg
