NEW YORK

Point Lookout

Cod to 15 pounds, lots of ling, some sizeable sea bass and a few bluefish were angled on the party boat Captain Al, Capt. Tom Weiss said. A few blackfish, out-of-season in New York, were released, and New York’s blackfish season is slated to reopen on January 17. But trips will zero in on cod more and more in the next weeks, until focusing on them, and the vessel is one of the closest winter cod boats to New Jersey. But cod were already clocked on the outings, and trips generally fished at 17 Fathoms, though they covered depths from 60 feet to 120 feet. The Captain Al is fishing from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. See More Info.
Call: 516-623-2248.

VIRGINIA

Virginia Beach

The most recent party boat trip to Norfolk Canyon aboard plowed a phenomenal catch, said Capt. Skip Feller from Rudee Inlet Charters. The trip, sailing last week on Monday, piled up sea bass, blueline tilefish and bluefish. Sea bass season will close on Sunday, so trips honed in on them recently. But blueline tilefishing’s been super, and Skip looks for that angling to continue. As the fishing continues through winter, other catches from the canyon can include black belly rosefish, golden tilefish, groupers, wreckfish and more. No trips sailed this weekend because of the holiday, but more are scheduled for today through the weekend. The weather looked rough for today and Wednesday, but looked like a trip would sail Thursday. Friday’s trip might be a blow out, because of strong winds predicted. Sixteen- and 18-hour trips are fishing at Norfolk Canyon this winter. Call: 757-422-5700 or 757-425-3400. Visit Web Site.

Striped bass were docked that poured out from Chesapeake Bay to the ocean, reports on Virginia Beach Fishing Center’s Web site said. The bay’s stripers are always the season’s first to give up action locally, and anglers waited for the migration of bigger stripers to arrive in the ocean from states to the north. “(They’re) all excited to see what the next two to three months bring,” the report said. Large, mature, migrating stripers arrive in the local ocean from the ocean farther north each winter. Essentially the coast’s entire population of stripers parks off Virginia then for some time. During some years, when waters are warmer, they remain through winter, and during other years, when waters are colder, they stay a shorter time, before moving farther south to North Carolina for the rest of winter. The migration could arrive anytime now. The ocean was warm so far this season. Visit Web Site.

NORTH CAROLINA

Hatteras

A few trips sailed for blackfin tuna, smoking the catches, lots, on vertical jigs, a report on Teach’s Lair’s Facebook page said. Seven- or 9-ounce jigs were dropped to the blackfins marked on the fish finder. Then the anglers cranked and jigged the lures like crazy to hook up. The jigging was a blast, and the blackfins will stick around all winter. Yellowfin tuna were caught to the north, and king mackerel, false albacore and amberjacks were around. In the surf, fishing for speckled sea trout was “fickle,” the report said. A few trout were there, but finding them took work, and anglers had to keep moving. The surf was warm or 61 degrees, probably the reason for slow fishing from the beach. Air temps were 70 degrees. Good numbers of toadfish and a few summer flounder were pulled from the southern beaches. Visit Web Site.

FLORIDA

Islamorada

Sailfishing was very good, said Capt. Bruce Anderson from Captain Easy Charters. A trip Monday beat good sailfishing, mostly while pitching live ballyhoos to showering bait in 20-foot shallows. Sails chased bait that looked like rain showers when the bait busted through the surface. But sails were also slow-trolled on live ballys in deeper waters offshore of the edge of the reefs 5 miles or so from shore. Quite a few groupers bit in the past week, and grouper season will close on Sunday. Other fish including yellowtail snappers, cero mackerel and king mackerel – “a little of everything,” Bruce said – also chomped, and a few wahoos began to show up.  Call: 305-451-9578 or 305-360-2120. Visit Web Site.

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