# 56613: Subject: 21 and 22 fathom fingers offshore from VA Beach, Virginia

Submitted by Loring Safford (ip 205.156.36.109)

• Fished on 8/4/2007

• Report received: 8/14/2007

Water Temperature: 81.5
Water Clarity: clear down to 20 ft.
Seas: 1 - 3
Weather: Beautiful. 10 kt winds from the south that shifted to the southwest late in the afternoon. What a day to be out on the water!
Fishing_for: tuna
Boat: Sugar Cookie
captain: Loring Safford

Report:
We headed offshore to the 21 and 22 fathom fingers from the launch ramps at Lynnhaven Inlet. It was approximately 43 miles to the 21 fathom finger. Seas were 1 – 3 ft and we were able to comfortably cruise at 28 – 30 mph on the way out.

We trolled frozen ballyhoo on Sea Witch skirt ballyhoo trolling rigs. At about 10:30 A.M., we had a double hookup of sailfish. We were able to get both fish to the boat and got one in the boat for “Kodak moments.” One fish was 10+ ft long. We were able to release both sailfish unharmed. We caught the sailfish just south east of the tip of the 21 fathom finger.

Then we trolled south east to the 22 fathom finger and farther east. We had 1 small dolphin hookup between the time we caught the sailfish and 3:30 P.M. Then we found a weed line about 20 ft wide and about a 1/4 mile long. I positioned the boat at the top of the weed line, cut the motors, and while we drifted along the weed line we used light tackle and cast cut pieces of frozen ballyhoo. When we drifted to the end of the weed line, I started up the motors and positioned the boat back up to the beginning of the weed line and we drifted and fished again. We caught about 5 small dolphin and put 2 in the boat in about an hour.

The color combination for trolling that got hits for us was blue and white. We varied our trolling speed between 8.5 and 10 mph. We were going 9.6 mph when the sailfish hit.

My sea surface temperature sensor read 81.5 degrees. It must have been too warm for yellow fin and blue fin tuna. They must have moved north or are farther out.

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