Virginia Beach Fishing Report, Virginia Light Tackle Striper Jigging

Monday I had Micah Souder and some of his buddies from Richmond aboard for a day of striper fishing. They said they wanted to try to catch a bigger fish than a schoolie and were willing to give it some time to try to catch one. I figured it might be a week or two early, but it might be worth a shot to soak an eel and see if we couldnt catch our first big cow striper of the season. We got to cape Charles and found just wrong conditions for eeling. The water was too warm and too dirty after the storm, but we decided we were there and might as well do a drift or two. We did a long drift and we did get some bites, just the wrong kind of bites. Doggies. I was hoping the dogsharks weren't gonna be here yet, but even in the chocolate milk water at cape charles, they are already in force. After a couple eels came back all chewed up, we packed in the eels and went to spend the rest of the day light tackle jigging and casting. I will catch my first cows of the year when I get back from Florida the weekend after Thanksgiving.

We started off throwing plugs and jigs at the ocean side of the fourth and were immediately catching a couple here and there. Nothing exceptional, but a good steady pick at 20-24''ers. After a while there, the outgoing tide got right and we really started catching them good around the spines at the third and fourth island. The best was at the first half of the outgoing where we caught about 50 fish up to 31'' all on the light spinning gear. Best lures were blue yo zuri glass minnows, blue windcheaters, and smaller storms in any color. We didn't have any over slot fish in the box at the end but we had several fish in the 27-28'' range for the grill.

These fish may not be the fourty pounders we will see next month, but they were really sporty on the light tackle and after a little bit of instruction, the guys enjoyed getting to cast, hookup, crank, and land their stripers all by themselves. After they got the technique down, they even wanted to experiment with different baits, made some friendly wagers with each other, and competed with each other to make the best casts and catch the most and biggest fish.

These guys were a blast to fish with and couldn't wait to go again so they booked me for a late December eeling trip for the big girls. For booking info and current reports, check my site at Virginia Beach Fishing, Va Beach Striper Charters Rockfishing Virginia. We are currently booking eeling and trolling trips in december and january and night time bridge tunnel eeling trips in december. Prime dates are beginning to fill up. Call me at 757-749-6008 or send me an email from my site for booking.
Thanks, Capt. Jake Hiles
Matador Sportfishing Charters