Article by Larry Budd
This Week Last Year
• John Stackhouse on his Trident Kayak won the 4th Annual Fish N Paddle Saltwater Slam with a 46¼ lb. cobia he caught 2 miles off the beach at Kelly’s Reef.
• “Team Martz” took the top spot for Heaviest Tuna during the 43rd Annual OCMC Small Boat Tournament with a 66.6 lb. yellowfin from outside the Baltimore Canyon. 1st Place in the Billfish Release Division went to “No Limits” for their single white marlin.
• During the 2nd Annual Tuna & Tiaras Tournament, “Game Changer” took 1st Place for Heaviest Tuna at 54 lbs. and “Lucky Duck” topped the board for Heaviest Stringer at 51 lbs.
• After a very slow start to the season, there was a pop of tuna action over 3 days with large yellowfin catches from the southern Poor Man’s to the Washington Canyon being the hot spots.
Despite the on and off weather last week, there sure was a lot of fishing going on! Anglers got out in the bays as well as the inshore reefs and wrecks, and there were a couple outstanding tuna days in the canyons. However, we heard of no billfish releases last week and only a couple mahi.
There were also a couple of cool tournaments. The Indian River Marina held its 8th Annual Kids Catch All over the weekend. This was a super fun family event with kid’s catching everything from spot, crabs and croakers to yellowfin tunas from the canyons. There were also several shark releases reported! You can see all the kids and their catches in our coverage starting on page 60.
The 5th Annual Fish N Paddle Saltwater Slam was also held over the weekend. 60 anglers competed in this kayak only event that targets the Ocean City Bays up to the Delaware line. There were lots of great catches, a surprising amount of large sheepshead and over $8,000 in award money plus prizes. You can see the winners in our coverage starting on page 64.
As for the action offshore, it remains dominated by tuna. However, we are getting more reports of shark releases inshore and off.
Last week started with an explosion of bigeye tuna. Monday saw the “5 Figure” return to the Indian River Marina with a 200 lb. eyeball that they caught in 300 fathoms of the Wilmington Canyon. That fish set the bar for Heaviest Bigeye in Delaware for the year so far. It was Tuesday however that saw insane action offshore. Most notable was the catch on the “Boss Hogg” that is on our cover this week. I was actually driving around delivering the paper when I got a message from Capt. Brian Porter at 10:15 that simply stated - “call me, important”. Well I can tell you that when you get a message from Brian in the morning while the boat is fishing, it can mean only one thing, fish on! Sure enough, he shared that Capt. Alex Beane had called from offshore (this new Starlink thing is amazing) and already had 6 bigeyes in the box as well as a mess of yellowfins and a couple gaffer mahi for good measure! With so much tuna aboard so early, the mates switched and set out a marlin spread! Truly a catch of a lifetime for that crew. Capt. Alex found this bounty in the Baltimore Canyon while trolling in 70 fathoms and 70°-73° water. He also reported scattered grasses.
The “Boss Hogg” was not alone in finding eyeballs that day. The aptly named charter boat “Fish On” returned to Sunset Marina with 6 heavy bigeyes. Capt. Andrew Dotterweich was trolling the edge in between the Wilmington and Baltimore Canyon when they got covered up with 6 bites and landed all of them! One run and done! These were larger fish than the set from the Hogg with the heaviest at 191 lbs. that is currently the Heaviest Bigeye in Maryland for the season. The “Rhonda’s Osprey” found 3 eyeballs and 7 yellowfin in the Wilmington. The private boat “Vahalla” out of Ocean City also got in on the action bringing 4 bigeyes back from the Baltimore Canyon. They reported the big fish were hitting on everything from wide trackers to Nomad Plugs, Joe Shutes and Pakula Plugs.
The weather turned midweek with winds keeping most at the dock for Wednesday thru Friday. We did get a report from the “Fin Chaser” at the Talbot Street Pier that they slipped out last Thursday to some inshore lumps and boated several golden and blueline tilefish. Saturday saw the weather improve which was a little unexpected given the forecast midweek. Still, you probably wanted a bigger boat if you were heading to the canyons! The tuna had moved south and most over the weekend came from the Poor Man’s Canyon. The bigeye bite however did not return. The “Fish On” had another 2 days of great fishing with 18 yellowfin on Saturday as well as another 13 on Sunday. The “Boss Hogg” also crushed it on Saturday finding their limit of 18 yellowfin tuna. These Sunday catches as it turned out were real exceptions to the experience of the rest of the fleet. I saw reports of more than one very experienced captain reporting being skunked. The “Grande Pez” reported working very hard for the 2 yellowfins they boated. The “Wrecker” did manage 5 for the day in the Poor Man’s.
I hope this is a good sign as we are only 16 days away from the largest and richest tuna tournament in the world! The Ocean City Tuna Tournament returns July 14 - 16 with weigh ins at the Ocean City Fishing Center. It is always an action packed event so I highly recommend you check it out and the new ‘sky bar’ at Micky Fins!
There were many reports of shark releases last week, especially from the Delaware Bay. Capt. Pete Haines on the “Top Fin” reported hooking 26 sharks, getting 19 to the boat for a release. The largest was estimated at 250 lbs. The charter boat “Finatic” released a mako shark early last week in the southern Wilmington Canyon in 60 fathoms. Last Sunday the “Savannah Lynn” released 14 brown sharks in the Delaware Bay and during the Indian River Kid’s Catch All team Gessler reported 8 shark releases around the Wall in the bay. There were also several other shark releases reported during the event including some sand tigers from the surf off of Assateague Island. Lastly, we heard from 10 year old Lee McAteer about the ~6’ dusky shark he released at an inshore lump on the “Drop Money”.
Well, that about sums up last week, so until next time I will see you at the scales! §
Upcoming Tournaments
• The Ocean City Marlin Club hosts it’s 41st Canyon Kick Off Tournament on June 30 through July 2nd. This is a fish 2 of 3 day event with weigh ins at Sunset Marina from 5:30 – 7:00 PM each Day. You do not have be a member to fish this event. Details at ocmarlinclub.com/tournaments
• The MidAtlantic Cup Blue Marlin Tournament will held on July 4th and is the largest open boundary tournament. More at southjerseytournaments.com/midatlantic-cup
• The world’s largest tuna tournament returns to the Ocean City Fishing Center on July 14-16. The 36th Ocean City Tuna Tournament promises more action and big money payouts. Purses over the past 2 years have exceeded $1M. Scales will be open at the Fishing Center from 4-8PM on Friday & Saturday and 4-7:30 PM on Sunday.
