Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 3, 1994 TAG: 9401050174
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BY BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A flurry of excellent white marlin fishing helped boost the citation total to 2,931, which made it an above average season for the state-sponsored contest which dates back to 1958.
White marlin topped all categories in the tournament's 24 divisions, with 658 entries, representing nearly one-quarter of the citations,
``This was the fifth highest total for white marlin in the program's 36-year history,'' said Claude Bain, director of the tournament.
What's more, every white marlin entry was released alive, Bain said.
Catch-and-release has become a common practice in the tournament, with 49 percent of all entries given freedom during the 1993 competition.
``There were no entries for killed white marlin, sailfish, striped bass or tarpon and only one blue marlin was killed,'' said Bain.
It was a season of record catches:
Gary Lohr of Apex, N.C., wrestled a 275-pound bigeye tuna from the Norfolk Canyon on July 10, beating the old record by eight ounces. The previous record was caught the same day in 1988 at the Norfolk Canyon.
Craig Owens put the first-ever barracuda in the Virginia record book with a 27-pound, 8-ounce fish taken at the GA Buoy, which marks the location of the Triangle Wreck artificial reef.
Everett Cameron of Atlantic Beach, N.C., entered a 9-pound, 13-ounce Spanish mackerel, the third year in a row that a record was set for the species.
Charles McCaskill of Virginia Beach caught a record 48-pound, 12-ounce crevalle jack at the Chesapeake Light Tower.
Amberjack ranked second to white marlin in total number of entries, with 398 citations. Tuna were in third spot, with 342 citations, the best in the tournament's history.
The excellent tuna action was fueled by the development of a ``chunking'' fishery in the late summer off Eastern Shore, Bain said.
Chunking is a method where anglers scatter chunks of fish in the water to attract tuna. About 70 percent of the citations were taken that way, Bain said.
Fishermen after dolphin also enjoyed a fine season. The 241 citations for the species was the second largest number even recorded.
Other species that did well were tautog, with 236 citations; speckled trout, 189; and cobia, 164.
One of the biggest surprises was the 154 black drum citations. Only 10 were recorded during the spring fishery off Cape Charles, which normally is Virginia's hot spot for the species. Then in the summer the big fish showed up along the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, where 141 citations were taken.
On the down side, only one spot and one croaker made the citation list, and there were just two gray trout. The 51 bluefish citations represented nearly a doubling over the previous year, but that still was well below the 10-year average of just over 200.
by CNB