THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 7, 1995 TAG: 9508070144
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB HUTCHINSON, OUTDOORS EDITOR
LENGTH: Short : 34 lines
Some terrific billfish action developed over the past week near the Cigar, a seamount about 60 miles southeast of Rudee Inlet in Virginia Beach.
The area has produced four billfish species: Blue marlin, white marlin, sailfish and spearfish.
The last is a rare catch, in Virginia and elsewhere. The fish are about the size and shape of white marlin but are marked by a short, stubby bill, much smaller than the elongated bill on marlin and sailfish. At least two spearfish were caught and released in the area. One was claimed by Lee Bond of Chesapeake on the charter boat High Hopes, the other by David James of Biloxi, Miss., on the Top Pryority.
An overnight trip to the vicinity of the Cigar by the boat Hunky Dorey produced one of the week's top catches. The group released four whites and a brown shark estimated at 10 feet long.
Elsewhere, croaker provided most of the inshore action, with good catches reported most days throughout the lower Chesapeake Bay. Additionally, a few big flounder were boated along the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.
Freshwater action was generally slow, although Leland Smith of Chesapeake boated a 7-pound, 12-ounce largemouth bass at Lake Meade in Suffolk.
A rundown of recent catches: [For a copy of the list of catches, see microfilm for this date.] by CNB