
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, June 20, 1994                    TAG: 9406200157 
SECTION: SPORTS                     PAGE: C6    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: BY BOB HUTCHISON, OUTDOORS EDITOR 
DATELINE: 940620                                 LENGTH: Short

SEASON'S FIRST WHITE MARLIN, SAILFISH BOATED OFF VIRGINIA

{LEAD} The recent hot weather apparently contributed to some hot fishing along the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina, including the season's first Virginia white marlin and sailfish and the year's biggest Virginia bluefin tuna.

White marlin were released at Norfolk Canyon and near the Cigar seamount, while the latter area produced the sailfish.

{REST} Jim Wright of Virginia Beach took the bluefin tuna lead in the annual Virginia Salt Water Fishing Tournament on Sunday with a 131-pounder boated about 50 miles southeast of Rudee Inlet. He was aboard the High Hopes, skippered by David Wright. The same trip produced a 91-pound bluefin for Bruce Wright of Mount Pleasant, S.C.

Inshore, the hot item remained the run of big black drum around the islands of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.

Ray Temple of Virginia Beach, skipper of the Pursuer out of Rudee Inlet, had the No. 2 yellowfin tuna in the week-long Big Rock marlin tournament at Morehead City, N.C., where the winning blue marlin weighed 649 pounds and brought the crew of the Salty Fare a record $256,510 in prize money.

Temple's fish weighed 96 pounds and was caught by C.T. Brinson of Pennsylvania. The winning tuna catch, made on the Reel Attitude out of Ocean City, Md., weighed 110 pounds.

by CNB