Article by Sue Foster
“I want to catch a flounder!!! And what else is biting if I can’t?”
Most anglers in boats around Ocean City just love to fish for flounder. It’s what we do. It’s what we have always done. And it’s the perfect time of year to do it! Most of the time, if you work hard and move around the bay, you will catch some of these beautiful flatties! But if for some reason they are not biting on one particular day or tide, it never hurts to be prepared to try to catch something else!
“Where should I start in my boat?”
Most anglers who have just put their boats in the water are asking that question. Start close to where you launch your boat! For example, if you were docked in North Ocean City, I would start by taking a few drifts up by the main channel of the Route 90 Bridge. You will be going that way anyway, so stopping for 4 or 5 drifts will never hurt. The main channel on the east span of the Rt. 90 Bridge is where you want to try. Drift on either side, depending on the tide. It’s not real deep up around the Route 90 Bridge, but there are some places that dip to 7 to 8 feet of water, and that is what you want to look for. Start in the deeper water and then you can drift until you get into 4 feet of water before it’s time to take another drift.
Flounder love changes of bottom, so either start in 4 or 5 feet of water and drift into the deeper water, or vice versa. You will always find flounder feeding in these changes of bottom depth.
Whether it is offshore or inshore, flounder sit on the bottom waiting for food to drop from the current. More food drops into the flounder’s mouths in places of bottom depth changes. It’s just as simple as that!
“Is that why I don’t catch many flounder when the tide is totally slack?”
YES! But that total slack tide doesn’t last long, sometimes only as long as 20-minutes. Then as soon as the tide just starts to move, the bite can be very, very good, so you always need to be ready. What I do at total slack tide, is to cast and slowly retrieve along the bottom, or jig, jig, jig that minnow or Gulp! artificial bait. If the current, boat drift, slow idle, wind, or tide is not moving your bait, YOU need to move your bait! It’s as simple as that!
“OK. I drifted around the Rt. 90 Bridge and caught one keeper and a throw-back before the action stopped.”
Next stop would be the Thorofare area that is actually a REALLY big area. If the tide is still fairly high, you can start drifting from Buoy #16 (offshore of Ocean Pines) all the way to Buoy #10 (near the big houses in Captain’s Hill). If the tide is getting lower, I’d go all the way to Buoy #10 and take a couple drifts. Again, drift from the deeper water to shallower water. Drift from the land to the buoy… a little past the buoy, back towards the land, etc. You may go from 15 feet to 4 feet of water in that area. At a couple of places in the Thorofare, close to the houses, water depth may drop to 20 feet or more. Work the changes of bottom depth. Water clarity is important too. If the water is dirty and foamy back there in the Thorofare, don’t stay. Go on up near the Route 50 Bridge!
Tide and current are also important factors around the Route 50 Bridge. When the current is rolling, it can sometimes be too strong to fish near the bridge itself. Anglers start around 14th Street in the main East Channel, off of Harbor Island (gray townhouses) and drift towards the Rt. 50 Bridge. As the tide eases, flounder can really turn on right around the bridge. Just south of the Route 50 Bridge can be a “hot spot” also when the tide is not rolling too hard. Catch the tide here just as it is changing. Water is deep, so it’s a good choice to fish at dead low tide. The last part of the outgoing and the first part of incoming can produce a doormat flounder here!
While you are drifting anywhere near the Rt. 50 Bridge, keep your eye out for diving birds. This time of year, nice bluefish are in the area! You can use your flounder baits, live minnows with a strip of squid or Gulp!, or frozen shiners hooked through the eyes with a strip of squid or Gulp!, but be sure to keep it moving. If you see birds diving, cast their way and let your bait sink to the bottom, then reel in a little faster than you would for flounder!
If the blues really start biting, tie on a lead head or bucktail in the ½ to 2 oz. range and hook on a 4-inch Gulp! Swimming Mullet and cast towards the action. Use a 5-inch Gulp! on larger size bucktails. This is really fun on light spinning tackle and gives you something else to fish for if the flounder bite isn’t great.
Oh, and if you are wondering which days the blues will be around the Route 50 Bridge? Any east wind usually brings them in! So, if you are out there, and the breeze gets a little chilly, and the fog rolls in a little, then the wind has switched to the east and I bet they’ll be some blues!!!!
“OK, so I’ve done the Route 50 Bridge thing. I heard there were some flounder action behind Assateague Island?”
If you launch your boat at the Commercial Harbor or Assateague Boat Ramp, this would be a good place to try.
Behind Assateague Island can be hot or cold, and it’s just one of those places you have to take a cruise, look at the water and decide if it’s worth it or not. The water behind Assateague tends to clean up on an easterly breeze and a straight south wind usually dirties it up. Now Assateague bay has a lot of mud on the bottom, so it’s rarely crystal clear by any means, but if you go down there and start dragging up green and brown slur, and the water is foamy white on the top it’s time to give it up.
The bay behind Assateague Island is a large area, just like the Thorofare. Some anglers do really well drifting around the buoys behind the Ocean City Airport. This is only a hop, skip and a jump from the Ocean City Inlet, so it’s no big deal to try. Some of the really hot spots are further down the bay around Buoys #8 through #14. Behind Frontier Town, Eagles Nest Campground and even further down past Buoys #13 and #14 and past a duck blinds can also produce good action. There are even some good flounder holes around the Assateague Bridge, officially named the Verrazano Bridge.
And while you are down there, you can cast your lead head and 4-inch Gulp! Swimming Mullet around the pilings of the Assateague Bridge for some stripers and bluefish!
Last but not least, there’s still some tautog around, so if you take out some sand fleas or green crabs, you can cast near Martha’s Landing on the west side of the bay or around the South Jetty and give that a try too! It’s usually best on the slacking tide.
Lots of fun, a little variety and hopefully something for the freezer!
Good fishing….
Sue Foster is an outdoor writer and co-owner of Oyster Bay Tackle in Ocean City, MD and Fenwick Tackle in Fenwick, DE.
