Article by Larry Jock
Last weekend was miserable in Ocean City and with the possible effects of Hurricane Florence, next week doesn’t look very good. Let’s hope that she doesn’t veer to the north or it might get really ugly. Otherwise, it looks like just a bunch of wind and rain.
Although it was a horrible day on Sunday, we still saw 42 anglers fish in the Bahia Marina Flounder Tournament. With rough seas making fishing around the South Jetty impossible, most boats opted to stick around the Rt. 50 Bridge and behind Harbour Island and Bahia Marina. As we have recommended in this report in prior weeks, live bunker was the bait of choice and was used to fool the top three fish in the tournament. The first and second place fish were caught in the middle of the Rt. 50 Bridge and the third place flattie was hooked behind Harbour Island. Overall, anglers in the tournament reported very slow conditions and a lot of throwbacks to deal with.
Prior to the tournament we saw a decent flounder bite in the bay, primarily in the East Channel but the better bite has been underneath the Rt. 50 Bridge. You have to be careful though, and having one person at the wheel while the other tosses the rig underneath the bridge is definitely advisable.
This is the time of year when we typically see flounder stacking up in the East Channel and around the South Jetty, preparing for their easterly migration. Although we haven’t seen many flatties caught around the Jetty, it is probably time to turn up the pressure. The rocks along with wall on the north side of the Jetty is also a good spot this time of year.
Most of the flounder that came in last week were caught on ocean structure. The Old Grounds, although it is a good run from the OC?Inlet, is still the top-producing spot, but local headboats had a couple of very successful days fishing in deeper water. Remember, at the beginning of the season the best ocean flounder bite was coming in 100 to 120-feet of water. This may also be the case right now.
The top baits for ocean flounder have been Gulp, squid, clams and cut bait. In the bay, as mentioned earlier, live bunker is the go-to bait for the top snipers, but white Gulp Swimming Mullets are still producing good catches.
Anglers in the bay are also finding snapper bluefish hitting bucktails, swim shads and anything shiny being tossed around the Rt. 50 Bridge pilings and at the North and South Jetty.
The strangest sight in the bay last week was a 24-inch baby sailfish that swam right next to Rich Daiker’s “Delicious”. I received a lot of questions about this sighting, and I assure you that Rich knows a sailfish when he sees it.
Only one to three miles off the coastline, cobia reappeared last week after a short absence. Early in the week, Kyle Mooney found a 46-incher swimming around a school of bunker off 26th Street that went after the bucktail he threw at it and teased with a fast retrieve. Kyle said there were several cobia cruising around the school, but after hooking one, Kyle decided to call it a day. On Wednesday, cobia addicts Chris Trovitch and Patrick Coomes found fish around schools of bunker straight out from the Ocean City Inlet. Chris and Patrick were accompanied by Sarah Ostrowski who ended up boating the 60 pounder you saw on the cover of this issue. Chris and Patrick captured 2 other cobia weighing 30 and 41 lbs. All were fooled with live bunker.
Offshore, the white marlin bite up in the Hudson Canyon had local billfishing fanatics all excited, and a few of them even made the 157 mile run to get in on the epic bite. The “Makara” made the trip and ended up going 50 for 78 during their 2 days of fishing.
Closer to home, the billfish bite last week wasn’t as good as what we saw in prior weeks, but anglers were still able to come home with flags flying after fishing in the Poor Man’s and less so in the Washington.
We did see a few wahoo caught, with 2 caught at the Hot Dog on the “Scuttlebutt”, another at the Hot Dog on the “Island Time” and a 57 pounder hooked in the Washington Canyon on the “Finominal”.
Dolphin are all over the ocean, or so it seems, with fish caught in as close as Fenwick Shoal and out deep in the Poor Man’s and Washington Canyons. Most of the fish are small bailers, but Mark Ensor on the “Primary Search” did catch a 50 pounder just below the Baltimore Canyon.
Upcoming Tournament
This weekends Challenge Cup has been cancelled.
The next tournament on the schedule is the Chesapeake Bay Sportfishing Association Summer Flounder Tournament with weigh-ins at Atlantic Tackle in West Ocean City. The tournament is on September 15th and 16th. For more information log on to www.cbsfa.club.
Until next week, our last week, I’ll see you at the scales! .
