Va. Beach is good for fishing - and dining, too

Virginia Beach: The home of towering oceanfront hotels, conventions and golf packages. The city is noted for fine seafood restaurants, young men cruising Atlantic Avenue and pristine beaches.

It's also one of the great places in Virginia to wet a line and catch fish.

I was in Virginia Beach last weekend on a combination business and anniversary outing, but any possibilities of fishing were blown away with small craft advisory warnings. Rocking and rolling in a boat facing 25 to 30 mph gusts is not my idea of fun -- even if the fish are biting. So my bride of 42 years and I stayed in port, enjoying the ocean views from the warmth and calmness of our seventh floor room at the Cavalier Inn.

But when it's decent, the fish are biting off the coast of Virginia Beach.

My buddy Reese Stecher recently moved his boat from Oregon Inlet up to Rudee Inlet to take advantage of the striper bite underway off the coast. While the striper season is closed in the Chesapeake Bay and tidal tributaries, you can still creel fish in ocean waters out to the three-mile limit. Beyond that, it's a no-go for stripers, though bluefish are still live-well material.

Stecher said that stripers were within the three-mile limit on three of the past four days he fished. He noted that the schools were concentrated about halfway between Oregon and Rudee inlets -- and big fish at that, up to 30 pounds or more.

Depending on the weather and location of bait, stripers have been known to winter right off Virginia Beach, so close that boat captains can smell sausage patties frying in the local restaurants. This has been going on for the past six or seven years.

It seems that in times past, stripers would move out of the bay and hang around Cape Henry until the first bitter cold spell, then head for Carolina. More and more, the big rockfish are staying put, sometimes off Virginia Beach and sometimes just south. They're there right now if you can luck into a decent day.

Two other choice spots to fish at Virginia Beach this time of year are at Rudee and Lynnhaven inlets -- that is if you like to catch speckled trout. And is there a saltwater angler who doesn't relish a fight with these beautiful game fish? Specks are certainly one of my favorite opponents at the end of a Penn rod and reel.

They're catching specks to 7 pounds on trolled lures and cast bucktails. Occasionally, a puppy drum will intercept a lure as well.

In April, the bottom fish, like flounder, return to Virginia Beach and the croaker bite picks up in May.

Charter captains working out of both Rudee and Lynnhaven marinas are readily available. Stecher can be reached at 252-449-0232. His Web site -- with up-to-date fishing info -- is www.beachbumfishing.com.

If cabin fever has set in, think about a trip to Virginia Beach.

Worst case, you can watch the waves from your hotel room and eat some pretty good seafood.

Good eats

There is something like 20 or 30 pages of restaurants listed in the Virginia Beach Yellow Pages. But from personal experience, I'd like to recommend three of my favorites. First is Bubba's Restaurant, located at the mouth of Lynnhaven Inlet. These folks know how to cook fish. I have had gray trout sandwiches so good that I went back day after day to order them. The owner of Bubba's is a commercial fisherman and catches a lot of the seafood he prepares.

If you order striped bass, odds are good it was caught that very day.

Another place we discovered last weekend is Fish Bones Restaurant on Atlantic Avenue and 13th Street. This isn't a Bonefish Grill, but a locally-owned seafood restaurant. It is an unpretentious place, but the fried seafood is outstanding. I had fried oysters and flounder that were heavenly. If you want a breakfast that will stay with you for much of the day, try Pocahontas Pancakes. This Atlantic Avenue establishment was recently named one of the top 10 restaurants in the country by a national magazine. In summer, lines can be long, but in the off season, you can generally get a table right away. It's a breakfast and lunch kind of place, and shuts down at 1 p.m. Great breakfasts include pancakes stacked high and smothered in maple syrup -- the specialty of the house.