Virginia Beach Fishing Report, Hatteras Offshore Deep Drop Fishing

Crew was Mike, Wally, Tony, Adam, John, and Paulie.

Thanks to Mike for the report on Tidalfish:

Got a very late start but short ride out and we are jigging. Water was shoved out and cold at the 230 rocks. Current was minimal and the winds light which made for great jiggging and deep dropping but with the cold water the fishing was slow. Caught some small to medium AJs and Tony catches one lost blackfin there. The sharks were terrible. If you didn't get your fish up fast enough, it became dinner for a big shark. We would either come up with just the head, no fish, or sometimes getting the jig too.
Moved out to the ledge at 100 fathoms. Water warmed to around 66 and the current still minimal making for good deep dropping. Found bluelines mixed in with small snowey groupers. I've never caught these 2 fish in the same spot out of Virginia. Fishing out of Virginia, I've always caught bluelines in completely different water than the grouper but in this spot out of Hatteras, they were in the same spot.
I had what I think were several nice grouper on but got sharked each time. The last time I was getting close to the surface and wammo, line pulls hard and back down, then nothing. That's fishing out of Hatteras this time of year when the sharks are thick I guess.
The jigs tipped with a little Fat Albert seemed to out fish the traditional double bottom meat rig. And with the minimal current, a 300 gram jig was holding bottom. Seems the jig would get hit faster than just a bottom rid. But with the sharks, a lot of jigs were lost. No need to jig fast for this kind of fishing, just a slow lift and drop back down was a good technique that worked well.
Good with fish on the Matador again. Great crew and great weather. Thanks to Wally for driving Tony and I down and back making it a relaxing day of fishing. The new Matador rides and and fishes great. We didn't set the world on fire with the fishing Friday but we caught some of the best bottom eating fish so fresh fish for the grill tonight.