Fishing for black sea bass, VA

Black sea bass season started on May 15. I signed up for a fishing trip with Rudee Tours in Virginia Beach. We checked in at the departure point at 7:30 am to find that most of the other fishermen/women were already on the boat. The boat looked full, almost all of the spots were taken. We departed right on time at 8:00 am, it took about 2.5 hours to get to the first fishing spot. There was quite a bit of wave action, I am not prone to sea-sickness but I did take an anti-seasick pill earlier in the morning just in case. The weather was fantastic, sunny and warm but not humid.

The captain reminded us that no GPS enabled equipment including cell phones were allowed on the boat, to prevent secret fish locations from being captured. Most people obeyed and kept phones inside their bags to avoid having them confiscated. After what seemed like a long time (which I spent reading on my kindle on airplane mode), the captain got the boat to a stop and gave the green light to drop our lines which were baited with fresh squid. Almost immediately most of us had fish on the hooks. It was pretty exciting! I had a spot at the bow of the boat (the coverted spots at the stern were all taken by the early birds) and found it difficult to pull my catch up from the higher elevation. I had to ask the mate for help to pull up my first catch, two sea bass on the line, one of which was definitely a keeper, it was way bigger than the 13 inches minimum.

I knew I could not pull up heavy fish from where I was, and found another spot that provided better leverage. It was hard work reeling fish up from deep water when you don't have a lot of arm strength. That was why my friend Jane brought her new electric reel. All around me, people were pulling up fish. The three mates had their work cut out for them, running around helping people get fish off the hook, measuring them and throwing back the undersized ones. The captain moved the boat around a few times to find the best place for us to fish.

After a while with arms tiring, I baited only one hook on my line so that I did not have to pull up two fish. Well, that did not work because I kept catching two fish, even on the hook with no bait. I started to slow down after fish no. 7. Fortunately some people around me had caught their limit of 15 sea bass and went around the boat asking others if they want any fish to make up their quota, before putting them back into the water. Six donated fish later and having caught the last two myself, yes on one line with one hook baited, my ice chest was full. I understand now why they told us to bring a large ice chest! I was happy to stop fishing although shortly after that the captain announced that we needed to head back.The mate helpfully went around the boat putting ice into the chests to keep the fish fresh. Everybody on the boat (there were about 40 of us) caught or were given, the limit of 15 fish each.

I spent most of the 2+ hour journey back swapping fish stories with three gentlemen inside the cabin. We had a great time, the best story was from one of the guys who told us about his trip targeting king fish in Florida. Nobody in their boat were able to land a fish intact because sharks circling their boat chomp on their catch before they could pull it in. Their captain tried to move somewhere else but the sharks followed: they were definitely not going to give up on an easy lunch.

We reached the dock right at 5 pm, everyone was happy, loading heavy ice chests into their vehicles. It took me over 4 hours to get home from Virginia Beach, stopped on the way to off load 3 fish to my friend Meenu. By the time I cleaned the remaining fish and put them in the freezer, it was almost 2 am. What a day!