Article by Capt. Lance Smith
I hate winter. I am still trying to figure out why most of us die-hard fisherman live here in the Mid-Atlantic when we probably all belong in Florida. Think about it, all the old retired people just sit down there in their air conditioning. If they like it so cold, why did they move there? If we like it so warm, why are we staying here? Whatever the answer may be, I am not moving to Florida anytime soon and most likely, neither are you. Thankfully spring is here and the fish are biting. Soon enough we will all be looking for some shade or A/C. In the meantime, don’t miss this season’s opportunity to load up on some quality fish.
The first fish of the season that we need to talk about is the lowly tautog. It seems like less than ten years ago that no one even bothered fishing for these tasty, crab-eating wrasses. Tog, as most of us call them for short, have always been one of my favorite fish to catch in Ocean City. They can be caught from anywhere in the back bay where there is structure, all the way out to about 120-feet of water off the coast. The problem with tog is that they suck. I mean, they literally will suck the bait off of your hook before you ever detect a bite! This can make tautog fishing for the beginner very frustrating, if not downright impossible.
Firstly, you must be able to cast to (or preferably drop straight down on) some sort of structure. Be it inlet rocks, bridge pilings, bulkheads or mussel beds, if you aren’t getting any bites in the first ten minutes you may as well move. Tog are like old drunks in their favorite bar. Once they find a place they like, and a chair to claim, they aren’t moving. So either they are there or they are not.
Now, sometimes tide and water temperature will play a factor into the tautog snagging equation. When I set anchor over what I think is productive structure, the first thing I like to see is someone get snagged. Sounds strange right? Well, if you don’t get snagged every now and then you are definitely not fishing in the right location. Tautog, much like grouper in the south, will test your strongest braid and your finest knots while trying to get back into their hiding holes. While fishing for tog in the bay, I generally prefer 40 lb. monofilament over braid for its ability to stretch and give a bit when a tog tries to lock you up. In the ocean, stick with braid as it will help you detect the subtle bites more easily in deeper water.
Putting away your flounder rods when togging in the back bay is another good suggestion.
While you may land a few keepers on your lighter outfits, there will always be that one fish that leaves you wondering. For this reason, I have a set of freshwater musky rods with small-medium sized baitcasting reels on them that are strictly devoted for tog fishing. When you first start togging you will be amazed at how many times you think you have a keeper, only to reel up a ten-inch fish! No fish in the bay (except for maybe bluefish) fights harder pound for pound.
As for bait, all you need to know is that you must use crabs. What kind of crab is completely up to you and every tog fisherman has their preference. The easiest to acquire and the most affordable is the green crab. Please, if you go to a tackle shop and all they have is frozen green crabs or frozen sand fleas, try a different shop! The fresher the crab the better and sand fleas can be dug off the beach on certain tides for free. Once you have bait and a proper rod, the great thing about tog is that you don’t even need a boat to fish for them. In my younger years I fished for tog from the jetty on the north side of the Ocean City Inlet, the Route 50 Bridge and off the bulkhead that runs from 2nd through 4th Street. Funny thing is, I still fish the same places, but from an anchored boat now!
As for terminal tackle, a 2 to 4 ounce sinker (depending upon the tide) that allows you to hold bottom, with a pre-snelled blackfish hook 6-12 inches above it is all you need. This is bottom fishing in its most simplistic form. Just be ready to re-tie often and wait for that third tap before you set the hook.
If you want to learn from some of the best toggers in town, try the “Lucky Break” or the “Get Sum” for bay charters. As for going offshore a bit and fishing for the behemoths, you absolutely cannot beat Captain Monty on the “Morning Star,” Captain Kane Bounds on the “Fish Bound,” or Captain Chris Mizurak on the “Angler”. These men are the best at what they do and every trip you board with these professionals could give you a shot at the world record (which an angler on Capt. Bounds’ boat currently holds!).
Alright, enough with these ugly wrasses. Let’s get to the bread and butter of Ocean City’s bay fishing, the summer flounder. Now, there are two ideas we need to discuss when it comes to flounder fishing; the old school (my father’s method) and the new school (my method). Trust me when I tell you that my father has not used the old school method for about ten years now. You see, flounder are not the lazy bottom dwelling feeders that most people think they are. In fact, they are one of the most voracious and unsatisfied fish in our coastal bays. I have caught flounder in the spring with bellies so full you wouldn’t believe they could move for another meal. Once, we landed a 5 pounder that had a pair of 10-inch mantis shrimp in it’s stomach that had not even begun to digest!
The old school method, which still works just fine, is to use a frozen shiner or a live bull minnow with a strip of squid attached as bait. These baits are most often rigged with an egg sinker, 12 to 18 inches above the line with enough weight to drag the bottom according to the drift speed. This method usually involves longer drifts through the channels while waiting for a bend in your rod. This way of fishing has, and always will, produce some decent catches of flounder. Many, many years ago, a friend and I (while renting a Bahia Marina skiff), discovered in the very early season that flounder would absolutely pounce on a bucktail with a strip of squid if you vertically jigged it. We came back to Bahia that early April day with the floorboards covered in big keeper flounder! Then came GULP! and their incredible scented Swimming Mullet. Everything changed as we all began to jig with these bio-degradable baits, either on plain jig heads or as a bucktail trailer. Rigged in tandem, with one bait about 14-inches above the first, it is my opinion that there is no better flounder bait in the world. I have personally watched flounder, in over 8-feet of water, follow and eventually attack these baits right at the surface. This is spring though, so there is no reason to fish in 8-feet of water. If you really want to catch some early season flounder you will want to concentrate on water shallower than this, even down to about 2-feet or so.
The first flounder to enter the bay are cold and they are hungry. Being cold-blooded, they must first warm their body temperatures to a point where it is viable for them to feed. It doesn’t take much water to hide a supremely camouflaged flounder and I have caught 5 pounders in less than 2-feet of water in the spring. On an outgoing tide, look for these early flatties to stack up at the shallow mouths of small channels anywhere from the 611 Bridge to the Route 90 Bridge. As back bay waters warm over their muddy bottom, they flow toward the ocean on ebbing tides and this is when flounder fishing peaks. I will take a warm and sunny April or May day over anytime of the year to catch a limit of flounder. Much like the bluefish that have already entered the bay, these fish are ravenous! Jigging shallow, warm waters will elicit amazing strikes from big and hungry doormats as the larger fish are usually the first to enter the bay.
Speaking of bluefish, they are another early visitor to our coastal bay system that can really make for a fun day of fishing. When schools of blues begin devouring bait beneath flocks of diving birds, it is time to cast out anything you can find (on a wire leader of course) and retrieve it through the school as fast as possible. Bluefish are the ultimate predator, often noted to regurgitate food simply to keep killing and feeding. Bucktails and shiny spoons are the best options but stay away from soft plastics as more often than not you will retrieve nothing but a leadhead and a small piece of what was formerly your bait. There are quite a few fisherman on the East coast with missing finger parts, complements of Mr. Chopper.
Always be careful when unhooking these guys, especially in the middle of a blitz where the action is non-stop.
Contrary to popular belief, bluefish of all sizes are actually quite tasty. Here is the secret. As soon as you catch a bluefish that you want to keep for dinner, take a knife and completely slit their gills (throats) and make cuts just above the tail on either side. Then, stick the fish headfirst into a bucket of fresh seawater and let it bleed out until it stops kicking and red clots form in the water. When you filet the fish, cut out the bloodline running down the center as you would a tuna and you will have flaky, white filets no matter how you prepare them.
Fishing from shore is an option for all three of these species but your chances will increase exponentially if you can get out on a boat. If you have your own boat get out there as soon as possible before all of the jet-skiers and goofballs show up. If you don’t, please look into one of the many inshore charters available here in the pages of the Coastal Fisherman for a memorable spring day of catching.
Lance Smith is an outdoor writer and Captain of his family’s boat, ‘Longfin”.
