Sharks Are Biting – Fishing Lures

By Jim Brewer For the News & Messenger
Published: August 7, 2008

If you can’t be fishing in salt water, the next best thing is hearing how others are doing – pretty good as it turns out, especially if you like catching sharks.

I chatted this week with Reese Stecher, a skipper on the Outer Banks out of Nags Head, and he reports that lots of sharks are hooking up just off Oregon Inlet.

“We caught 5 cobia and 6 sharks on one trip,” Reese said, “The next day we caught 11 sharks and one cobia. Some of the sharks were blacktips, some were hammerheads and some were sharp-nosed sharks.”

One of the most exciting saltwater sport fish of all is the blacktip shark. These fish are genuine acrobats – they fight in and above the surface like a billfish.

Compared to great whites and other sharks, blacktips are relatively small fish, seldom exceeding 6 feet in length. A typical blacktip at 66-inches in length would weigh about 68 pounds. The blacktip shark is one of only a few sharks that will hit an artificial lure with any consistency. They will even hit a saltwater fly if given the chance. Stecher can put fly fishing purists in position to catch these powerful fish, which generally hang out within a mile or so of the beach. A blacktip shark on a fly would be an impressive accomplishment.

Cobia, which resemble sharks in that they are not scaly fish and have elongated bodies, are also powerful fighters – and one of the best eating fish that swims. Cobia average about 30 to 50 pounds as adults, but can reach weights of 100 pounds and more. Right now is prime time for cobia, Stecher says.

Reese also reports catches of triggerfish, flounder and sheepshead. The live finger mullet action should produce some nice rockfish beginning around the first part of September. For more information on the Nags Head fishing scene, contact Capt. Stecher at http://www.beachbumfishing.com.

From Hatteras comes this good news: they’ve opened up some more of the beaches to fishermen and they’ve catching drum.

“They have also closed some more of the beach,” said a spokesman at Red Drum and Tackle in Buxton. “They closed Ramp 34 at Avon and part of Ramp 49 access near Frisco. But they opened Ramp 44 to The Point and more beach at Hatteras.”

In addition to yearling red drum (28- to 32-inch fish), Spanish mackerel and bluefish have been keeping surf fishermen busy in the early morning hours and again near dusk. Sea mullet, flounder and croakers are biting in the surf while speckled trout and flounder are hitting back in the sound. There were also reports of some huge pompano biting in the surf. Talk about good eating – there is no finer table fish than a pompano, sometimes called butterfish. Some of the pompano were running well over 12-inches. To keep up with the action at Hatteras, go to http://www.redrumandtackle.com.

In Virginia waters, it’s cobia, gray trout, drum and some nice flounder near the Bay Bridge Tunnel with spot, croakers, and flounder hitting bottom rigs all over the bay and up into the tributaries.

The billfish bite is just starting out of Virginia Beach and Oregon Inlet and should pick up considerably in September. Blue water boats are also catching wahoo, tuna and king mackerel.

Most Virginia saltwater anglers are chomping at the bit in anticipation of the fall striper season – already underway in Maryland waters. As a rule, smaller stripers from 20- to 28-inches bite early in the season, then the big boys move in when the water temperatures drop in November.

So the salt water fishing report looks good. If you’re heading towards saltwater between now and Labor Day, odds are good you’ll catch some fish.

Got a Cork? Lake Mitchell in Fauquier County has apparently sprung a leak. The 10-acre impoundment is losing water at the rate of about 6-inches per day. It could well be dry in a few weeks. Biologists and Game Department officials are at a loss to explain the mysterious leak, but have been frantically removing the smallmouth bass from the lake and are transporting them to the Department’s Front Royal Fish Hatchery to serve as brood stock.

VDGIF will monitor the lake level and dam as the water continues to drop and will conduct additional assessments to evaluate potential long-term repairs. I suppose when the lake finally dries up they’ll know which hole to put the cork in.