Article by Larry Budd
This Week Last Year
• The first white marlin of the season was caught on May 23rd and was the earliest on record. Actually 2 were caught the same day, but it was angler Carl Sauer on the “Reel Escape”that took the title and $11,000 in prize money from the Town of Ocean City and Fisherman United Ocean City.
• Mahi were showing up at the dock with the first one on May 23rd from the “Reel Fin Addict” south of the Poor Man’s Canyon.
•”Full Service” brought a 217 lb. whopper of a bigeye tuna to the scales from the Poor Man’s on May 27th.
•”That’s Right” and “Blood Money” had limit catches of yellowfin tuna from the Baltimore Canyon in 800 fathoms.
The weekend was a washout with a strong nor’easter moving through the area from late Friday through Sunday. This kept everyone in the slip for those days and even caused the cancellation of the Ocean City Marlin Club Franky Pettolina Memorial Day Tournament. The 12th annual instantiation of this event would have given us the first large scale view of the offshore action, but fortunately for us several boats did go out last Friday and a couple on Monday with nice results.
Tuna Tuna Tuna!! As you can tell by the cover and pictures in this week’s issue, the tuna have fully arrived. While the E Dock boys from “Hot Lick” found the first bluefin tuna of the season two weeks ago by running over 90 miles south, this week’s bigeye, bluefin and yellowfin tuna were found closer to home on the outside of the Poor Man’s Canyon. “Blood Money” with Capt. Anthony Pino got his anglers onto not only the first bigeye tuna of the season (angler Pete Gudiatis), but also the first yellowfin (angler Bill Pino). They headed out last Friday and started fishing a little inshore looking for white marlin and hit a lot action on undersize bluefin. As they moved further out, they found an eddy of 66° water and 800 fathoms connecting with their first of seven bigeye tuna at just past 8 in the morning using Squidnation spreader bars. The bite was so hot that when they paused for lunch, they put out hookless bars and just watched the blues and bigeye hit them! By the end of the day the bluefins were hitting 5 to 8 at a time. The “Restless Lady II” took a 30 hour overnight trip on Thursday and also found the hot bluefin bite keeping their headboat limit of 6 and releasing many more. Not to be left out, the “Hot Lick” was also in the news for the two nice bigeyes they brought in weighing 150 and 138 pounds that they caught on a custom wood lure. This gave angler James Hammond the current Heaviest Fish title for now! The “Marli”, “Ro Sham Bo”, “Reel Escape”, “Wrecker” and “Magic Moment” also found hot bluefin action in the Poor Man’s Canyon using Sterling Tackle Crazy 8 Chains and spreader bars with skirted ballyhoo. Fish Down Sea Tuna Flares were also very effective.
Before the bad weather we continued to see good tilefish reports mainly with the bluefin tuna trips going for tiles after getting their bluefin limits. Capt. Mark Hoos on the “Marli” had two trips to the Poor Man’s Canyon where his anglers hit their tilefish limits early in the morning. Capt. Jeremy Blunt on the “Wrecker” also reported limit tilefish action on his trips last week.
Shark fishing is also picking up. We got our first report of a keeper mako from Capt. Zach Brunner on the “Hot Line”. Angler Michael Eid caught an 85” male mako in 20 fathoms at the Fingers using a dead mackerel that weighed in at 187 lbs. at the Ocean City Fishing Center. The “Restless Lady II” on that overnight trip had several undersize mako releases as well as a tiger shark release. The first thresher shark in DE was also reported by Hook’em & Cook’em at the Indian River Marina from the Capt. Ike II. The 309 lb. shark was found at the 20 fathom line and took a whole bunker and bunker chum.
We have still not had reports of mahi or white marlin within 100 miles from the sea buoy, but with the season now in full swing and reports of many boats headed out this week we expect them soon!
Upcoming Tournaments
- This weekend is the 25th Annual Mako Mania Tournament at Bahia Marina. This event was cancelled last year due to the pandemic so there is a lot of excitement building up. Registration starts at 4PM Thursday with the Captain’s meeting at 4PM. Weigh-ins will be held at Bahia Marina from 3:30-7:30pm Friday through Sunday.
- Tuna & Tiaras Ladies Tuna Tournament is on June 18 & 19 being held at the Ocean City Fishing Center. Registration is June 17th from 2-8pm.
Until next week follow us on Facebook and Instagram and I will see you at the dock!
