Article by Larry Jock
We finally had a nice weekend for fishing in Ocean City. The wind picked up during the afternoons, but the mornings were beautiful and the sun was shining.
The record-setting 21st Annual Mako Mania Shark Tournament at Bahia Marina was exciting. Although, angler Shane Moore on the “Moore Bills” caught a good size, 228 lb. mako on the second day of the tournament and held on to win the big money, it was the Thresher Division that had those at the scale on the edge of their seats.
On the first day of the tournament, Ocean City angler Kevin Rohe caught a 501 lb. thresher to take over the top spot in the Thresher Division. I’m sure everyone thought that fish had a lock on 1st place (I know I did), but as it usually does in fishing tournaments, the leaderboard changed on the final day when Mike Fritsch on the “Teaser” arrived with a 583 pounder that they caught in 20 fathoms at the Fingers. The fish was so big that the guys couldn’t fit it in the boat so they had to tow it back the 28 miles to Bahia Marina. This fish actually knocked the 241.6 lb. thresher caught on the first day by the “Teaser” guys out of 3rd place, but I’m sure the anglers didn’t mind. Vaughn Charlton on the “Game On” caught the 3rd place thresher on Day 2 when he hooked a 434 pounder on a skirted mackerel in Massey’s Canyon.
The Mako Division was also exciting. The “Jenny Poo” was the first boat to arrive at the scale, loaded with a 191.2 lb. mako caught at the Hot Dog that took the lead after Day 1, but fell to 3rd place by the end of the tournament. Several other makos were caught on the first day, primarily in 30 fathoms around the Hot Dog. On the second day, “Mako Me Crazy”was the first to show up with a mako, with theirs weighing 196.3 lbs., good enough to vault them into the lead. The mako ate a whole bluefish in 59.6-degree water at the Hambone. The charter boat, “Moore Bills” arrived a short time later with their 228 pounder that jumped into the lead and never looked back. Shane’s mako went after a bluefish fillet in 59-degree water below the Tea Cup. The anglers only had their lines in the water for 30 minutes before Shane’s hook-up at 8:00 AM.
The Bluefish Division in this tournament is always a mystery to me, and I mean a mystery as to why more boats don’t spend at least some time targeting the choppers. The “Teaser” took the top 2 spots with a 7.3 pounder and an 11.2 lb. bluefish to win $10,310 in award money. An awesome payout!
Overall, it was a record breaking tournament on many levels, including 77 boats, 337 anglers and a total payout of $134,480. Shawn Harman, Earl Conley and the entire staff at Bahia Marina, once again, did a fantastic job running the tournament and making it a fun event for both anglers and spectators.
Although you could make a case for sea bass being the star of the week, it would be tough to vote against sharks, with several nice ones hitting the scales around town.
The “Restless Lady” brought a couple of nice size threshers back to the Talbot Street Pier last week. On Wednesday, Capt. Todd Kurtz took his group to the Marine Electric and returned with a 494 lb. thresher that they hooked on a whole squid. Hats off to Brad Robertson for muscling in the big shark all by himself. The following day, anglers on the “Restless Lady” headed to the Chicken Bone and boated a 374 pounder on a bluefish fillet.
On Saturday, inspired by the thresher on last weeks cover of the Coastal Fisherman, anglers on the “Constant Threat” decided for the first time to try for a thresher and were rewarded with a 358 pounder at the Parking Lot.
In addition to the several makos weighed during the tournament, we also saw some mako sharks caught throughout the week. The “No Quarter” boated a 202 pounder in 60-degree water at the Sausages and later in the week, anglers on the “Marli” had a 135 pounder in 30 fathoms in the Washington Canyon. The largest mako of the week, and probably the largest we will see this year, was caught out of the Indian River Marina when John Pendell captured a 461 pounder on Saturday at the Elephant Trunk.
Some offshore boats ventured further from the beach in search of marlin, tuna and mahi. Incredibly, the first white marlin of the season has not been caught yet, although a few were hooked “over the fence” below the Norfolk Canyon, 126 miles from the Ocean City Inlet.
On Friday, Capt. Brian Porter on the “Boss Hogg” took his anglers to that batch of water and ended up with 11 yellowfins and a pair of dolphin.
Over the weekend, boats returned with yellowfins and mahi from 65-degree water in the Baltimore Canyon and from deep behind the Washington Canyon.
On Sunday, anglers on the “Bonnie Lynn” got back from an overnight trip northeast of the 461 Lump where they went 5 for 6 on yellowfins with a pair of keepers in the 40 lb. range. They also caught 2 mahi, a 66-inch mako and lost a swordfish while fishing during the night. The “Hammer Down” went to 200 to 500 fathoms outside the Poor Man’s and went 2 for 4 on yellowfins.
Inshore, the sea bass bite has been very good but anglers are having to run to at least 100-feet of water to find the larger fish. The best spots seem to be the Great Eastern Reef, the San Gil and the Del-Jersey-Land reef site. Anglers are also starting to see a few keeper size flounder mixed in as well.
In the bay, flounder fishing was good behind Assateague Island and in the Thorofare. Right now, the throwback ratio is extremely high all over the bay, but particularly behind Assateague where anglers were hooking 16 shorts before they could get their keeper. The flats north of the Thorofare continues to produce nice catches for those either drifting minnows and Gulp! artificial baits or slow trolling belly strips.
Striped bass were caught last week around the South Jetty and in the surf. Smaller stripers were found around the Rt. 50 Bridge for those tossing Gotcha plugs and topwater lures.
The bluefish bite has died down considerably with smaller snappers dominating the action. On Thursday, Big Bird Cropper and Dave Hrycyk had a superb day, hooking 37 snapper bluefish (keeping 20) and releasing 25 small stripers around the bridge and South Jetty.
The first sheepshead of the year was caught by Paul Lebling on Wednesday when he was fishing around the South Jetty with Ayrton Pryor. The 6 pounder hit a spec rig that was probably intended for a striped bass or bluefish. They did end up catching a dozen bluefish, weighing up to 6 lbs., in addition to 12 small stripers during their trip.
Upcoming Tournaments
We have a rare weekend off this week, so the next two tournaments on the schedule are the 28th Annual MSSA Tuna-Ment on June 16th to 18th and the Marlin Club Small Boat Tournament on June 17th and 18th. The weigh-ins for the MSSA Tournament will be at Atlantic Tackle and the Small Boat Tournament will be held at Sunset Marina.
Until next week, I’ll see you at the scales!