Article by Sue Foster
“I want to take the youngsters fishing!”
When grand pop takes the grandchildren fishing it’s not about catching dinner. He wants the kids to have some action so they get interested in fishing and have a good time.
Summertime is a great time to prove that fishing is fun!
“We’re taking out the pontoon boat; where should we go?”
It’s the time of year that croaker and Norfolk spot are schooling in the bay. If you drift near the channel of the Route 90 Bridge, you’re almost always guaranteed to catch some sort of scrappy little fish casting near the pilings with a combination of bloodworm and a little strip of squid on size #6 hooks. Norfolk spot, sand perch, croakers, blowfish, small porgies, even grunts (pig fish) and small trout all seem to like this area. You can either drift or you can anchor and cast out.
These same types of fish tend to hang out in the mussels beds in the Sinepuxent Bay behind Assateague Island from buoys #8 to #10. The water is deeper there and you are even more likely to catch some bigger fish. I once caught a 7 ½ pound flounder there while I was fishing with a size #6 hook and a strip of squid! I’ve hooked black drum, nice trout, in this hole, along with tons of baby sea bass you can hardly keep off the hook!
Croaker! Croaker are grand pop’s answer to entertaining the kids! It’s no wonder anglers anxiously wait for them to come into our bays every year. Sometimes they stay for weeks, and other years, they come and go quickly. Every year is different, so hopefully they’ll still be here by the time this hits the press.
Croaker generally show up in the Assawoman and Sinepuxent Bays around Ocean City, Maryland the last week of July and bite into around the third week of August. Then they begin to migrate out into the ocean where anglers can catch them into the fall.
Though Route 90 Bridge will always give you some action, larger croaker tend to bite in deeper holes. Anglers take the drift from the Route 90 Bridge towards the Thorofare in the west side of the bay and can get into the action. The Thorofare itself can be teaming with croaker in 9 to 15 foot of water. Drifting from the Thorofare towards Drum Point can be a great croaker drift.
Other spots? The deep hole just offshore of 33rd Street in the East channel almost always holds some good sized croaker, along with flounder, spot, blues and even trout. The drift close to the entrance to Harbor Island generally has croaker as well as flounder. Some nice giant sea robins can be caught around here!
Sometimes there’s good croaker fishing in the Inlet, and sometimes not… Just around the corner and outside the inlet on the South side holds croakers, kingfish, flounder and spot.
The bay behind Assateague, also called the Sinepuxent Bay is a great place to catch croaker,
spot and flounder. Just as you turn and go into the bay, drift along the houses there and you can catch some good size croaker. The drift in front of the Airport, the drift in front of Mystic Harbor and the drift in front of Snug Harbor are all popular places. And again, try the drift from buoys #8 to #10. You can anchor there as well.
“The croaker aren’t biting today. We’ve caught some small spot, but the kids are getting bored. What should a Grand Pop do?”
Well, there are always flounder! Even though it’s hard to catch a keeper sometimes, there’s lots of action with the undersized flounder. Just be careful taking them off the hook when releasing them. Keep some of the live spot in the live well and use them for bait. Drift the main East Channel from 14th Street to the draw of the Route 50 Bridge on the slacking tide. Try to fish two hours before high tide and two hours after high tide for the best results. Frozen shiners or live minnows on a top-and-bottom rig will give you the most action. For a slower drift, (if the tide gets ripping), drift the inside channel along the big island. Locals call it Bird Island. You’ll see the smaller pontoon bay party boats working these inside channels. This channel is just north of the Route 50 Bridge.
There’s another “inside channel” on the South side of the Bridge between the two sand bars. The stretch from approximately mid-section of the Bridge to the Homer Gudelsky Park is a nice little drift. Sometimes there are bluefish and spot action in there as well as flounder.
The Thorofare usually holds a decent amount of flounder. The Thorofare is on the West side of the bay and runs from buoys #6 to #16. People call a wide area, the Thorofare. The original Thorofare was the deep water next to two islands that have disappeared. But it gets quite deep between the houses and the submerged islands, called Dog and Bitch Island, that you will see on the local ADC Map of the Ocean City bay. Anglers drift from the deep water towards the shallow water, from 20 some feet into 6 feet. This shallower water is what local anglers call the “flats.”
Party boats are catch and releasing anywhere from 40 to 100 flounder a trip, so the action is there! Two or three keepers per trip are the norm, so keepers are out there as well!
“We don’t have a boat. Where can we take the kids for some action?”
-The Oceanic Pier at the Southern most end of Ocean City will certainly give the kids action for flounder with shiners or minnows, or smaller fish such as croaker, spot, and little sea bass with bloodworm and squid.
-The Route 50 Bridge is really good for all kinds of fish, big and small. But it is busy and quite noisy, so older kids would probably enjoy it, but young kids… I’d take them somewhere else.
-The 2nd through 4th Street Bulkhead almost always has little sea bass pecking at the hook if you use sand fleas, shiners, worms, or squid. Fish straight down, or the kids will get frustrated fighting snags. You can also catch spot, croaker, and tautog. Anglers have luck with flounder on the slacking tides, but these are harder for the kids to catch because you have to cast out for those… and yes, the area is very snaggy when casting.
- The 9th Street Pier is easier for kids. Spot, croaker, flounder, snapper blues. They are all there!
- Around 40th Street behind Convention Hall is a place for smaller fish. Worms on size #6 hooks will catch you spot, croaker, and small flounder. Higher tides are a must!
-Same is true for the Isle of Wight, the island in the middle of the Route 90 Bridge. It’s not real deep here, but a nice place to take the kids with worms and small hooks to catch spot, croaker, and sand perch. Crabs are here too!
- Ditto for the pier behind the Recreational Center at Northside Park at 125th Street. Higher tides are a must, and bloodworms, night crawlers, or Fishbites artificial bloodworms on size #6 or #8 hooks will catch you spot, croaker, sand perch, and small flounder. Crabbing is fun here too.
- Even the park along Jamestown Road which is really just a few blocks along the canal behind the Green Turtle is a good place to catch spot on higher tides with small hooks and bloodworm. Crabs are here too.
- Homer Gudelsky Park on the West side of the bay (the old Stinky Beach) is a neat place to go. Parking is limited, so go early. I go here just to relax sometimes. Last time I went and took a pack of bloodworms and a two hook spot rig and caught all kinds of little fish. Sea bass, spot, grunts, small flounder was the fair for me. Other people were using big hooks and squid and not catching anything. I like to walk to the sandy part of the beach towards the entrance of the Fishing Center and cast out. Last year, I caught some nice croaker there, and once I caught a keeper flounder on a live mullet we castnetted from the beach.
- Surf fishing from the beach will usually catch the kids something. A box of squid and a pack of bloodworms on a kingfish/spot rig catches spot, kingfish, croaker, sand sharks, snapper blues, or whatever happens to be biting that day (or evening.) Go when the ocean is calm. If it’s too rough, the kids won’t be able to hold bottom and will get bored with the fishing experience.
Whether you are fishing from a boat, or fishing from the shore, there’s fish to catch in Ocean City, Maryland in mid-August for sure! Take a kid fishing now for some sun, fun, and action!
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.
