VIRGINIA

Virginia Beach

With Rudee Inlet Charters, the weekly party boat trip to Norfolk Canyon was weathered out this weekend, Capt. Skip Feller said. When the trips sail, good fishing’s almost always a lock-in for blueline tilefish. The trips usually then push deeper, tackling black belly rosefish, wreckfish and barrelfish, and sometimes a few golden tiles. That’s if enough bluelines are caught, and they usually are, and seas allow the trips to move to the deep.  The unique trips sail 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. every Saturday each winter. Call: 757-422-5700 or 757-425-3400. Visit Website.

Striped bass fishing remained slow on the ocean from Virginia Beach Fishing Center, a report on the marina’s website said. The fish “aren’t biting,” it said, and reports from the marina previously this winter said stripers schooled beyond 3 miles from shore, where fishing for them is closed, but not within 3 miles, where angling for them is open. The reports recently didn’t mention whether stripers still schooled beyond 3 miles. The rockfish winter off Virginia, migrating south to there from the entire eastern seaboard. Speckled sea trout can be hooked behind Rudee Inlet throughout winter. One angler checked-in a 5-pound 12-ouncer. Visit Website.

FLORIDA

Islamorada

Lots of king mackerel, some sailfish, a few wahoos, and mutton snappers were angled with Captain Easy Charters, Capt. Bruce Andersen said. The kings, sails and wahoos were trolled along the offshore edge of the reef, a few miles from port. The muttons were cranked-in from the bottom along the reef. Farther from shore, a couple of trips still deep-dropped at wrecks, like trips did before, covered in previous reports here. That fishing landed queen snappers, blueline tilefish and other catches like that. Call: 305-451-9578 or 305-360-2120. Visit Website.

On traveling charters to the Florida Keys with Jersey Cape Guide Service, Sea Isle City, N.J., anglers on Monday first sight fished for sharks on the flats of the bay, Capt. Joe Hughes said. Several bonnethead and lemon sharks were caught and released. Then the trip fished the bay closer to Islamorada, reeling up big jacks and some mangrove snappers, hogfish, Spanish mackerel, cero mackerel, yellow snappers and more. On Sunday a trip fished the back country or the Everglades, beating more speckled sea trout than could be counted, including some big ones, a couple of snook and some jacks, ladyfish and snappers. Then the anglers fished the bay closer to Islamorada, picking up large jacks and mangrove snappers, releasing two tarpon and pulling the hook and breaking off four more. On Saturday, at least 10 bonnethead and lemon sharks were released during sight-fishing on the flats of the bay, and several broke off. In the afternoon on the bay, the anglers pasted jacks and mangrove snappers and pulled the hook on a tarpon. Fishing was very good, Joe said, and weather was perfect or calm and warm.  Check out a video of permit fishing from a trip the previous weekend. The traveling charters fish each year from Christmas to Easter, mostly on weekends. One option is to arrive on a Friday, fish all day Saturday and part of Sunday, return on Sunday evening, and be back to work on Monday. That can be a mini, fish-filled vacation. Visit Website. Call: 609-827-3442.

COSTA RICA

Los Suenos

Sailfish and dorados were latched into daily on the Dream Girl, Capt. Pete Wagner wrote in an email. That’s the boat that Pete, from the Hyper Striper, Highlands, N.J., runs from Costa Rica each winter. He also included a photo of a good-sized wahoo that Bob Centemore took on a trip this past week. Striped bass charters should be booked now on the Hyper for this spring. <b>***Update, Tuesday, 2/18:***</b> Bill Snyder fly-rodded and released a 280-pound blue marlin from Costa aboard last week. Visit Website.

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