Losses and Gains
When stripers migrate in winter, Jersey's loss is Virginia's gain.

By Mark Marquez II
Posted 12/16/09

That's true for striped bass fishing in Virginia.

And how!

When Jersey’s striper fishing begins to fade in late autumn, Virginia’s is about to take off like no other.

Although Jersey’s fall linesider catches are some of the best, Virginia’s in wintertime are the best.

Capt. Perry Romig from Topless Fishing Charters, Capt. Steve Richardson from Backlash Sport Fishing and Capt. Bob Robinson from Fin Seeker Sportfishing all agreed.

They all charter for the rockfish from Virginia in winter.

These are big stripers
that park off Virginia’s coast during the cold months.

Anglers can expect to catch
35-pounders on average days,
and they can luck into 45- and
50-pounders on many days,
Capt. Steve from Backlash said.

He’s racked up some trips that clobbered limits of 16 rocks that weighed
50 pounds apiece, but that’s rare, he said.

Why are the stripers so much larger on average than anyplace else?

Capt. Bob from Fin Seeker believes the reason is because stripers caught from states farther north are a mix of non-migrating, younger, smaller bass and mature, adult, bigger migrators.

But most of the bass schooling off Virginia’s coast in winter are the entire population of fully mature, migrating, large stripers that poured down the Eastern Seaboard in fall to spend the winter off Virginia, he said.

He also noted that adult stripers from Chesapeake Bay, the world’s best-known bay that holds the linesiders, swim out of the bay during the cold waters of winter and gather in the ocean off the Virginia Coast.

That only adds to the population.

The migrators first arrive off Virginia near Chincoteague Inlet, north of Virginia Beach. 

Capt. Perry from Topless, running from the inlet, is poised to intercept them first.

But the stripers move up and down the coast from Chincoteague to
Virginia Beach, and surrounding waters, from roughly Thanksgiving
through February.

All three captains pretty much follow the schools wherever they happen to be during a given stretch of those days.

The fish can be located as far
north as Ocean City, Maryland,
or as far south as North Carolina through the period.

But the coast from Chincoteague
to Virginia Beach is centrally located in the thick of the action
for the most part.

The schools follow the bait, mainly adult bunker, and different factors can influence where the bait goes.

Water temperatures, influenced by air temperatures, are the main factor,
of course.

During stretches of warmer days, the fish might school north, and vice versa.

Fishing for them is a matter of being networked, following good reports or, more reliably, sailing with a charter captain who knows where the bite’s located.

When March approaches, the bass shoot up Chesapeake Bay to spawn, and the ocean fishing is finished for Virginians for the season.

These coastal boats turn their attention to other fishing then, some of them sailing for big game off North Carolina and then back in Virginia later.

Although the bass will migrate to the Northeast in spring after spawning, the Virginia boats never really catch them in the ocean on the return migration.

A double-header on a trolled
umbrella rig. Photo from
Topless Fishing Charters.

Apparently the stripers,
after spawning in the
Chesapeake, swim offshore,
in federal waters, or beyond
3 miles from land, where fishing
for them is closed, on the
return.

So no Virginia anglers can go
after them then.

Each of the three captains mostly troll for the fish, but their anglers will also cast to the stripers with lures and jigs if they want.

They each troll different set ups, usually umbrella rigs, everything from simple rigs with soft plastic lures and Mojo’s to more complicated, custom-made rigs.

A Mojo is basically an oversized bucktail jig to sink the rigs deep. It's a hooked, lead weight shaped like a fish head, painted with eyes and bright colors, dressed with feathers and hair.

Describing each of the captain’s custom rigs and trolling spreads can be an article in itself.

But Capt. Perry from Topless described his custom rig as including
Mojo's with big, 14/0 hooks and a combo of 9-inch Sassy Shads and
7-inch Atomic swimming plugs that were originally made for salmon
fishing, for example.

One of the captains said that when a new mate hops aboard the boat, the mate has to learn all about the captain's custom rig.

But the idea is that the custom rigs are something the fish never saw before, so when charters fish on the boat, they catch more and bigger bass than the average Joe, of course.

During some years the fishing is best late in the season, toward February.

During other years the angling is best earlier and shuts off by February.

Water temperatures that hover in the high 40s, close to 50 degrees, are ideal. The temps usually remain in this range through January or so off this area of the coast, but the exact timing is unpredictable.

But one thing’s for sure.

Virginia’s wintertime striped bass fishing has been the best in the world in the past years.

And that season is now.