Article by Capt. Lance Smith
Well, I’m back. Thankfully another fishing season is too. Don’t get me wrong, fish such as striped bass and tautog can be caught throughout the winter out of Ocean City, but now is when things really start to get interesting.
The first flounder was caught on April 8th up by the Route 90 Bridge, and the back bay is currently loaded with small stripers, shad and bluefish weighing from 2 to 12 lbs. or more. So if you haven’t greased up your reels and put fresh mono or braid on them, you’d better get to work. I always liked to have my pontoon boat in the water the first weekend in April, but as I get older it tends to go in more around the 1st of May. Our Sportfisherman is even worse the past couple of years in terms of trying to get everything ready for that first mako or tuna bite. I’m ready this year however. The small boat goes in this week and the big one will splash on May 11th.
While most of us offshore guys are waiting for the 20 to 30 fathom line to hit that magical 64-degree mark for some mako sharks, or a Gulfstream eddy to spin within reach of the fleet for some tuna and marlin action, your best bet for the next two weeks or so will be inshore and in the bay. I personally caught about a dozen small stripers up to about 22-inches off the North Jetty and saw two bluefish over 33-inches caught. One of those bluefish was given to myself and my nephew while we fished. Most fisherman consider bluefish inedible at best, but I will tell you that if they are handled right they are delicious. The first thing you want to do is have a 5 gallon bucket of water on standby. When you catch a bluefish, either cut through or rip through the gills and make an incision to the backbone just forward of the tail on both sides. After the cuts are made, place the bluefish headfirst into the 5 gallon bucket of saltwater and let the fish bleed out. Change the water a few times until it becomes clear. Fillet the bluefish just as you would a striper and prepare for the tricky part. After skinning each fillet, you MUST cut out all of the red meat that you see. When I say all of it, I really mean all of it. Now let the clean fillet sections soak in a marinade of Italian dressing and Old Bay for a day. The fish can then either be grilled, broiled, or coated in flour or your favorite crumb seasoning and pan fried (my favorite).
Alright, now that we have the proper technique for preparing bluefish, let us get back to actually catching some fish. The bluefish can be caught in the surf on cut bait such as menhaden, in the Inlet on lures such as Gotcha plugs and bucktails, and about anywhere else on soft plastics with a leadhead. Also, unless you have a small fortune to spend on lures, use a wire leader when you know the blues are around and never stick your fingers in their mouths. There are plenty of old timers still walking around with half a thumb! The small rockfish I caught along the North Jetty weren’t out in the middle either. They were right up against the rocks in only a few feet of water. They seemed to overwhelmingly prefer a salt and pepper Zoom type soft plastic with a red leadhead (very similar to the now famous Roy Rig but on a smaller scale) and put up a terrific little battle on 12 lb. gear. Casting parallel to the rocks and using a slow retrieve with a few pops of the rod tip seemed to do the trick.
The Oceanic Pier has also seen some very good nights for stripers, blues and shad. This is the lighted pier on the right just past the Coast Guard Station at the very southern end of Coastal Highway before you get to the Inlet Parking Lot. I believe the cost to fish is $8.00 and they have rod rentals and bait and lures. Never forget the Route 50 Bridge either, especially at night. You will see fisherman fishing the deep water (up to about 30-feet deep) around the actual Drawbridge. You will also see anglers spending their efforts on the western side of the bridge in the shallow water catching fish. More on this next week.
Now if you really want to get into some tasty and hard fighting fish we need to discuss the unattractive, but one of my personal favorite fish to catch, the tautog, or blackfish as they are known to our north. The greatest quality of this particular species is that you can catch it from shore in the bay or inlet, from a boat in the bay or inlet, from the Rt. 50 Bridge or up to 20 miles offshore! Obviously the bigger fish are going to be caught offshore and if you don’t have your own boat or aren’t very good at getting the one you have situated over an offshore wreck, there are plenty of headboat and charter boats that can put you on the fish. As for headboats, the “Morning Star”, “Angler” and the “Judith M” are all top notch operations. Just call ahead to make sure they are running trips the day you plan to go and make a reservation. Some of these boats serve food, snacks and even beer so do a little homework on the internet or here in the pages of the Coastal Fisherman before making a decision on which boat is best for you. Besides the headboats, there are also a few charter boats that can put you on excellent offshore togging. The “Fish Bound” with Capt. Kane Bounds actually owns the world record tautog caught off of his boat in January 2015. Capt. Chris Mizurak who runs the headboat “Angler”, also runs charter trips aboard his 28-foot Topaz, “Reef Chief”(that and the 29-foot Topaz being two of my all-time favorite hulls).
There are also plenty of bayside charter boats that can put you on tautog. The “Lucky Break”, the “Get Sum” and “Ocean City Guide Service” are a few that come to mind. These boats also catch black drum and flounder if you wish to try for them.
On to the most sought after fish in the Ocean City bays; the flounder. May is my absolute favorite time to connect with a keeper string of flounder. Keep in mind that these fish have just come in from about 65 miles offshore and are looking to warm up so they can feed. So forget the usual deepwater haunts that produce in August and concentrate on shallow, muddy or sandy flats. The shallows around the Route 90 Bridge, the flats north of the Thorofare and in the bay behind Assateague are the areas which you need to focus your efforts upon. I’ll never forget the day that I casted a Gulp Swimming Mullet into a foot of water off a channel in the Thorofare and a 6 lb. flounder immediately pounced on it.
Now that we know what can be caught in the early spring, my next column will concentrate more on the locations, baits and techniques to catch these semi-urban predators. Till then, get out and explore and please don’t buy your tackle from the big market stores. Trust me when I tell you that you will pay about the same for what you are looking to purchase and the workers at our local tackle shops are MUCH more educated in what is going on and helping you catch the species you seek.
Capt. Lance Smith is an outdoor writer and Captain of his family’s boat, ‘Longfin”. His column appears every other week in the Coastal Fisherman.
