Off Cape Charles
SOUTH BOSTON, Va. -- Editor Forest and Stream: While many articles are published in your columns in regard to fishing and yachting, very few, if any, seem to reach you from this mecca of locations for yachting. Virginia, with its Chesapeake and broad expanse of sea shore, has few yachtsmen, nevertheless there are many who enjoy a very pleasant sail and more who enjoy fishing of which Northern fishermen never dreamed.
The Newport News Fishing club consists of about twenty members, and it has been their custom for a number of years to celebrate the Fourth of July with a fishing cruise and to invite a few guests to enjoy the day with them. Sometimes they charter a schooner, but as a rule find it more convenient to go on a tug, and then they can tell just when they will return home in the evening. This year I had the pleasure of being a guest of the club, and one of a party of eighteen all told. At 7:30 A. M. lines were cast loose at the C. & O. dock, and the tug Hinton headed for Cape Charles. About five miles off the cape anchor was cast at about 9:30, and fishing began in earnest. The sea was rather rough, and for the sailors there were barrels of fun; but you can imagine how the staid landsman felt when our vessel rolled and pitched. Nevertheless it did not interfere with fishing, and by 11:30, when a halt was called to prepare dinner, at least 200 fine fish had been landed.
Soon after dinner a squall was seen coming across the bay, and the landsmen a-coming for the rail; but alas! many never reached it. Our summer squalls never last long, and fishing was soon resumed. When the anchor was hauled aboard at 5 o'clock the party had over 500 fish to their credit, mostly croakers, with a good sprinkling of trout, spot and hogfish. Two sharks were caught; one a hammerhead, which is a very curious object, and the other a dogfish. Among the curiosities of the day was the catching by one fisherman of a croaker and a spot at the same time; none here have ever heard of such before. Mr. H. L. Edmunds made the record catch of the day, landing eighty-one. Many caught over twenty-five; the party would average over that number, though some were seasick and were not able to fish at all. I am a landsman pure and simple, and this was my first experience at open sea fishing; but give me my choice, I should spend all of my spare time boating and fishing. The man who has never tasted of the briny deep does not know what life has in it for him.
The club presented their commodore, Mr. C. B. West, with a handsome remembrance, showing their esteem. I shall tell you of some of the pleasures of sailing on the Chesapeake Bay.
H. P. W.