Virginia Beach Fishing Report, Contender Cup Striped Bass Fishing

12/20/08 - Fished saturday in the contender cup. Weather was gorgeous on the ride out with almost calm conditions. When we got to the nautilus, wind kicked up out of the north. We fished a huge spread of almost fifteen eels and the bite, for lack of better words, sucked. we fished all over nautlis for a couple dirfts, then moved to the buoy 18 area. We started fishing at 7 am and didnt have the first bite until 1230. We started catching at the nautilus in the heavy north winds and mananged 4 fish, with our biggest- a 38.68 pound fish coming in the boat at 2 minutes before lines out. Our fish was good enough for second place in the calcutta, but I am not impressed. I feel we got lucky and there were much larger fish in the tournament, including a 55# fish that won by over 13#. That fish was caught by a little girl and all I can say is WOW. Great job. It was really cool watching that little girl at the dock at the weigh in. She was really proud and excited and it made the whole thing worth while watching that the excitement that young lady and her crew had. I feel as though my crew worked especially hard to maintain a huge and demanding spread and I have been much better rewarded several times this season with much less effort out there. Thanks guys. All of you did a great job. If I was hard on you I apologize. It is mentally nerve racking fishing a tournament and not getting bites when I know we are doing it right. Congratulations to all the winners. Thanks to VB contender for putting on a first class event. We will see you next year. All of our bites were on the beginning of the incoming and aparently they like the sound of running diesels because all four of our bites, which turned into four fish caught, were either on free lines or floats right under the boat. Thanks again. Jake.