Article by Capt. BJ Pietryak
Last week in Ocean City the weather was better, however fishing was slower. Summertime is upon us and small undersized fish are everywhere.
Sea Bass, Flounder & Triggerfish
The “Judith M” with Capt. Eric Shoaff was fishing the near shore structure, and although having to pick through a ton of small fish, they did manage to bring home some quality fish including a few keeper bass from the near shore wrecks despite the rising water temperatures.
Captain Victor Bunting of the “Ocean Princess” reports some decent fishing. He stated that the best fishing was near the African Queen, however the Bass Grounds were a close second. Clam bait was the ticket for capturing keeper sea bass. Some nice flounder are coming in off the wrecks.
The “Angler' was out in this area last week. Captain Chris Mizurak reported some nice flounder caught along with a few bass. He also reported the big catches last week were Tom Price, who had limits with fish to 5 lbs. Also fishing the “Angler” was Tom Adkins with limits up to 4 lbs. Great job to both anglers!
Further Offshore
At the Great Eastern Reef ”Tipsy Tiki’s” Captain Jeremy Michalski took out Brian Dreiton for a great day of fishing. The crew brought home 8 flatties up to 22” and 17 bass up to 18”. Despite a broken boat knife the trip was a huge success.
Jack and Garrett Bucy were out at the Jack Spot using clam and squid, and reportedly slayed the black bass. This time of the year the deeper area such as the above mentioned Great Eastern Reef, as well as the Jack Spot are great places to target bass. The deeper water keeps temps down for fish, and the distance to them keep many boats inshore providing less fishing pressure.
Bay Areas
The back bays of Ocean City produced a lot of nice fish this week. The charter boat “Lucky Break” was fishing the Rt. 50 Bridge.Adrian Romero of Delano, California caught 10 species of fish including a slammer bluefish. The “Lucky Break” fishes various bay spots as well as the OC Inlet.
Robert Giuffrida absolutely crushed the flatties last week catching limits for the boat. They also reported throwing back over 40 tog and a couple of triggerfish. That is quite the haul gentlemen! Also in the back bays, anglers Brenda Applebaum, Jim and Katie Ruth, and Charlie Mainwere were fishing near Jolly Roger Water Park on the boat “Nacho Boat” and caught a few flounder with the largest coming in at 20.5”.
Preston Walls was fishing the Thorofare with live mullet and caught a nice 22” flat fish. Cari Beth Shappell, Michael Guigley, Kim Petersheim and Judy Ziegenfuse fished the West Channel and caught 4 keepers up to 21”. Cosmo Berezowski from Hebron, Maryland caught 6 keepers. The heaviest catch for Cosmo was a huge 23”at 5 lbs. 12 oz. He fished from Blake Gunther’s boat using Gulp.
The area just north of the Rt. 50 Bridge has been the hottest spot last week, however as the summer season comes to full swing this area is very crowded. The main inlet area is also a good spot to fish, but be careful of the hard currents especially when fishing near the rock walls.
David Germroth and Fred Zolonas caught some nice flounder measuring 17-22”. Fish were caught on squid and minnows. This time of the year is also a great time to drift small live spot. Big trophy fish can’t resist a live spot on a circle hook. You will not get the bites you do with Gulp or squid, however, the bites you do get will be of better quality.
In the back bays near the Verrazano Bridge I have received reports of small rockfish and sea trout holding along the rocks near the bridge. Swim jigs and paddle tails are the hot bait when targeting these fish. They will often hold right along the rocks so cast up the current and allow the bait to bounce on the bottom just inside of the jetty walls.
Just a reminder, the Ocean Pines Chamber owf Commerce Flounder Tournament is coming up on August 6 with larger cash awards. This is a great tournament for the whole family and usually has some good anglers competing for the prizes.
Surf Fishing
Assateague Island was also a hot spot this week with several anglers getting in on the over slot redfish bite. Strom Cline was out with the family and said his son’s girlfriend caught a beautiful fish of a lifetime. It was not weighed but measured at 45” long. Many anglers fish a lifetime and never catch a red drum that big. Great job and a fantastic catch! The closer you get to the Virginia line the better your chances at landing one of these trophy fish. In the next week or two as the water heats to our summer high temps, the fish will migrate out of the areas until mid September.
Crabs & Clams
Crabbing in Assawoman Bay is a little slower than past years with the catch counts down a bit. The upside to this is it's some of the biggest crabs we have seen in years. Carl Littleton, owner of Bob’s Marine, said he has been averaging around 7-9 crabs per pot with almost half being jumbos of 7” or more. Bunker as the bait is working best. I personally tried chicken a week ago and got one of the smallest harvests I've gotten all year. This week I went back to bunker and got 38 crabs for 4 pots. Out of those crabs at least 12 were jumbos with many in the 6-7” range.
Until next week...
Tight lines and Fins up §
