Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 25, 1995 TAG: 9506260101
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
When we threw our lures to the fish they would strike with force, like a hammer against an anvil, often biting off the tails of our plastic grubs. There weren't many of them, and they were less than a foot long.
You don't have to be an old-timer to remember when bluefish were the star attraction of the bay. Big bluefish. Glutinous bluefish. Thousands of them, their bellies crammed with bait, yet still eager to strike. Endless bluefish, or so everyone thought.
Anglers from Western Virginia would travel by the thousands to places like Reedville and Deltaville, on the east side of the bay, and board charter boats that would dock at mid-afternoon with 150 fish that weighed at least 6 to 14 pounds each.
It was an ideal fishery for mountain anglers, a chance to savor saltwater breezes within a four-hour drive and load up with the kind of fish that would bring envy to the eyes of buddies back home. You could do it without spending an enormous amount of money, too.
Catching blues was about as sure a bet as could be found in fishing. The only thing that could spoil it was a nasty wind.
Then the decline came, starting about a half-dozen years ago. Every season, fishermen hope the turnaround has arrived, asking, ``Is this the year?''
But it only gets worse.
The number of bluefish citations registered in the 1995 Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament is two. Last year at this time, there were 14 citations, awarded for fish weighing 16 pounds or more. And last season was a poor one.
The annual bluefish tournament at Deltaville this spring was won by an angler who entered a fish that weighed less than 2 pounds.
The Reedville Bluefish Derby did better. Bobby Warren of Reedville won it with a 16.16-pound blue. Several fish were entered that weighed better than 10 pounds. Some people were saying it was like the ``good old days.''
Maybe they couldn't remember when a single boat would load up with 10-pound-plus fish a decade ago, and do so nearly every outing.
Maybe they couldn't remember when bluefish moved about in wolf-like packs, always hungry, eager to rip and cut, chop and swallow.
Maybe they couldn't remember how a big blue would fight all the way to the boat, then wrench itself from your grasp to flutter across the deck. Or how it would try to clamp down on one of your fingers with its toothy, steel-trap mouth when you tried to recapture it. Or how it would glare at you with contemptuous eyes when you finally pinned it down.
What happened to that fishery? Overfishing? Greed? Plunder? Technology? Toxic waste? A natural cycle? The resurgence of striped bass? Weather?
Probably a little bit of all of those factors. For sure, back when anglers could dock with 150 big fish, they shouldn't have. There is a daily limit of 10 now, but did it come too late?
If there is a lesson in the crash of the bluefish population it is this: Even an endless ocean of fish can be exploited.
Fishermen can hope that limits and self-imposed conservation along with a natural up-cycle will return this great sport fish to the prominence it once enjoyed.
Could those small blues we ran across in the bay be the seed to accomplish this? They didn't look all that promising.
by CNB