Article by Larry Jock
Well, it was another week of nasty weather along the Delmarva coast. Rain almost every day with high enough winds to make the seas a little nautical.
The star of the show last week had to be striped bass. Whether you were fishing in the surf off Assateague Island, soaking in the suds off Ocean City or drifting around the South Jetty, striper fishing was excellent. Surfcasters off Assateague absolutely smoked the stripers last week and the fish were big. I ran into Dave Swenson, one of the top surfcasters on Assateague, and he said that last week he landed 37 stripers with most measuring 40-inches or larger. He caught a pair measuring 45-inches, another pair at 47-inches and a monster 49-incher. In addition, Dave muscled in a 40-inch black drum. His best bites were at first light, in the afternoons and at the end of the outgoing tide. It was a steady bite on most days but he said that you had to reach the edge of the Outer Bar. Half of his bites were on sand fleas and the other half on bunker. Big congratulations to Dave on a great week. He really puts in his time, just like a good number of surfcasters, and it is great seeing them having a great spring run.
This season, we are seeing a good number of fish coming in from anglers fishing the beach in Ocean City as well. Rich Bell was fishing in North Ocean City and caught a 38-incher, a 39-incher and a 41-inch linesider. I don’t remember seeing as many big stripers caught in the Ocean City suds as I have seen this year. Just like on Assateague, fresh bunker, peeler crabs and sand fleas were the top producers.
In addition to the stripers being caught in the surf, good size black drum are also being caught in addition to the first red drum we have seen this season. The redfish was caught early in the week by Kirby Short who was fishing the suds on the Maryland side of Assateague Island.
If you were drifting around the South Jetty, you probably hooked into some short stripers. James Coats ventured out to the rocks at daybreak on Tuesday and reported hooking at least 40 throwback stripers and 1 keeper while fishing the incoming tide. James said that once the tide switched, the bite died off. James followed that trip with another one on Thursday morning and caught a lot of throwbacks right at sunrise. The fish were in the 20 to 26-inch range and were hooked on bucktails tipped with Bass Assassins or curly tails. James said that they couldn’t get any linesiders to hit their eels.
Stripers were also caught around the Rt. 50 Bridge at night. A 47-incher was hooked on Wednesday night and several other big fish were caught throughout the week by anglers tossing lures.
Also in the Inlet and around the Rt. 50 Bridge, big bluefish were hooked by anglers tossing lures. The gators were running hard during the outgoing tide. Big Bird Cropper stopped by the office on Thursday, still shaking after a great day catching choppers just north of the Rt. 50 Bridge. As usual, Big Bird was tossing his Roy Rig (jighead tipped with salt and pepper swim shad) and hooked into his largest of the day, a 10.5 pounder, during the outgoing tide. Bird said that he would toss the Roy Rig out to the side and let it swing around before it got nailed.
On Thursday night, Rusty Daub reported a large school of chopper bluefish making it’s way through the OC Inlet around 6:00 PM chasing shad. This is consistent with other reports we received of folks seeing big schools of bluefish pushing baitfish right up onto the beach on Assateague Island.
If you didn’t want to tangle with the big boys, you could also find good numbers of snapper bluefish around the Rt. 50 Bridge at night.
Flounder fishing in the bay last week was spotty, but mainly due to the poor weather keeping anglers at the dock. On Thursday, Gary Avery caught a 21-incher by the Assateague Bridge where he found 60-degree water at the end of the incoming tide. Also on Thursday, Gary German was drifting minnows across the flats north of the Thorofare when he caught an 18-incher in 55-degree water during the outgoing tide. We haven’t seen any flounder come in from ocean structure, but anglers on the headboat, “Judy V” picked up a couple on Friday.
Although they may not be catching flounder, anglers that ventured out in nautical seas (except on Friday when it was nice) had a very good week catching sea bass. Those fishing on the headboats, “Morning Star” and “Angler” along with anglers on the charter boat, “Fish Bound” had limits of knotheads caught on clams and squid. Most of the fish were in the 2.5 to 3 lb. range. The heaviest fish of the week was a 4 lb. 3 oz. sea bass caught by Kevin McCabe at the Jackpot.
On Friday, the first thresher shark of the year was caught by Chris Stafford on the “Reel Nauti”. Chris muscled in the 411 pounder while fishing in 55-degree water at the Jackspot. With sea bass fishing being so good at this spot, no doubt the threshers are in there feeding on knot heads.
Also on Friday, the nice weather allowed boats to venture off to the canyons where the “Boss Hogg”, “Talkin Trash”, “Marli”and the “Wrecker” all returned with catches of yellowfin tuna. The action took place around 1,200 fathoms outside the Rockpile with fish in the 30-35 lb. range being hooked on trolled ballyhoo and spreader bars. The “Boss Hogg” ended up 5 yellowfins for the day followed up by the “Wrecker” with 3 and the “Talkin Trash” and “Marli” with 2 each. The “Talkin Trash” also had a pair of mahi weighing 8 and 15 lbs.
A few mako sharks were released last week but blue sharks dominated shark fishing last week, similar to what we saw last season.
This weekend is the first tournament of the year in Ocean City. The Marlin Club will hold their Memorial Day Tournament on Saturday and Sunday with weigh-ins at Sunset Marina from 4:00 PM to 6:30 PM. In addition to the Heaviest Bluefish Division, anglers can also participate in the Heaviest Meatfish Division.
See you at the scales!
