DATE: Monday, October 13, 1997              TAG: 9710130138

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C10  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY BOB HUTCHINSON, OUTDOORS EDITOR 

                                            LENGTH:   30 lines

WEEKEND FISHING

Recent fishing action was marked by the year's biggest king mackerel for a Virginia angler and some terrific flounder catches in the lower Chesapeake Bay.

Patrick Bannon of Virginia Beach has taken the king mackerel lead in the annual Virginia Salt Water Fishing Tournament with a 36 1/2-pounder, landed on the boat Parrish Pleasure at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.

Meanwhile, Michael Weatherford of Virginia Beach in the past week claimed three flounder meeting the tournament's 6-pound minimum. Weatherford's fish, caught at the Bridge-Tunnel from the Reel Classic, weighed 10-0, 8-0 and 6-8. He was wire-line trolling.

His big flatfish, however, was not the weekend's heavyweight. That honor went to Dennis R. Blazer of Suffolk, who landed a 10 1/2-pounder on the Mrs. Madison, also at the Bridge-Tunnel.

Bob Bois, a retired Virginia Marine Patrol officer from Seaview on the Eastern Shore, landed his fourth citation-winning flounder of the season, a 6-pound, 2-ounce fish pulled aboard the boat B and B, also at the Bridge-Tunnel.

On the freshwater scene, perhaps the top recent catch was a 9-5 largemouth bass pulled from Lake Meade in Suffolk by Billy Green of Suffolk.

Here's a rundown of other recent catches by anglers from Southeast Virginia and Northeast North Carolina:

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