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Ken Perrotte's outdoors column Date published: 2/4/2010
WHITE MARLIN, A total of 5,191 trophy-size fish were caught during the yearlong 52nd annual tournament. This marked the 10th consecutive year at least 5,000 trophy citations were registered. Recreational saltwater success with big fish can be attributed to many factors. Among others, weather, commercial fishery practices and the apparent ebb and flow of predator and prey fish can all factor in. Speckled trout fishing Sixteen percent of the fish registered (849) were trout, with 28 percent of those caught and released. Seven speckled trout weighed more than 10 pounds! Another 45 fish topped 8 pounds. August and early September produced substantial catches of white marlin, but there was a week in late September when sportfishing boats heading offshore ran out of catch-and-release flags to fly on the outrigger lines. The bite was red hot. A record 775 white marlin were caught, released and registered in the tournament, beating the previous best of 728 caught in 1978. As tournament coordinators noted, "Catches would have been much higher if the summer fishing fleet had been in place." Striped bass, that Virginia money fish, lagged just white marlin, with 761 citations recorded. Thirty percent of these were for release citations for fish exceeding the 44-inch trophy minimum. I'm proud to say one of those release trophy plaques will have my name on it. The rest were for kept fish at or above the 40-pound weight requirement. Trophy striped bass catches were down from 2006, 2007 and 2008 levels, a decline some attribute to rapidly dropping water temperatures beginning the second week in December, noted tournament director Lewis Gillingham. Even though trophy numbers didn't meet previous three-year highs, 2009 saw the seventh-highest trophy striper totals in tournament history. Weights were high, with 59 stripers weighing 50 pounds or more, 20 at 55 pounds or more and seven topping 60 pounds.
1. Be respectful. No personal attacks.
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