Article by Larry Jock
Well, after the horrible, and I mean horrible, winter and early spring we had this year, it feels great heading into another fishing season. This is the 35th year of publication for the Coastal Fisherman, which was started back in 1976 by Dale and Suzanne Timmons.
Like every fishing season, bad memories are forgotten and we start out with tremendous optimism and hope that this is THE?YEAR! Will we finally get a good yellowfin bite, after years of disappointment? Will we have another great white marlin bite in the late summer? Who’s going to catch the heaviest flounder of the year? The slate is clean and everyone has a chance to fulfill their angling goals and dreams. So let’s get at it!
STRIPED BASS
Every year, the spring is highlighted by the angling exploits of those that spend many hours looking to land the “big one” while casting from the beach. This year was no exception, besides the fact that the “blitz” occurred about 2 weeks earlier than last year.
As always, the stripers are migrating north, after spawning in the Chesapeake Bay, following the big schools of bunker and herring.
The highlight of the run was the April 23rd blitz that occurred off Assateague Island with several bass landed over 45-inches. Marcus Crowley hit the jackpot with a 54-incher that he released after hooking it on fresh bunker. What is remarkable about this catch is that Marcus released the fish even though he had a chance at breaking the current Maryland state record, held by Gary Smith at 57.2 lbs. Marcus’ fish was an inch bigger, but unfortunately he didn’t have a scale available to weigh the fish and decided to release it, which won Marcus much praise from fellow surfcasters. Who knows, maybe this big female will spawn a future state or world record fish. Crazier things have happened.
Over the last week, several stripers have been caught north of Assateague Island, along the beach in North Ocean City. We also saw a great night of fishing experienced on Friday by anglers fishing off of the Oceanic Pier. J.J. told me that in his 13 years at the Pier, he had never seen anything like it. Not only were a lot of fish caught (18), but the fish were big. The two largest measured 48-inches and weighed 35 lbs. Capt. Skip Maguire was fortunate enough to be one of the dozen or so anglers who were on the Pier that night and he said it was like catching trout in a pond. The big fish could be seen swimming in the lights and all you had to do was to flip a Gotcha Plug into the water and the fight was on.
The following night, another good bite occurred, although it didn’t turn on until almost 1 o’clock in the morning when eight fish were caught.
It seemed like the fish that didn’t get caught made their way up near the Rt. 90 Bridge where anglers were able to hook into some on Sunday. Other anglers over the weekend caught linesiders while drifting close to the beach off 133rd Street and also around Gudelsky Park on the west side of the bay. The bay is loaded with bunker, so I expect to see many more stripers being caught in the coming weeks.
FLOUNDER
With much anticipation, the state released their 2010 flounder regulations with mixed emotions from anglers. The minimum size this year is 19-inches, up from 18-inches last year. Anglers are still allowed to keep 3 fish per day and the season will run from April 17th to November 22nd. The season was going to close in mid-September again, but local anglers lobbied for an extended season and had to give up an extra 1/2-inch on the minimum size to get it.
The start of the season has not been especially memorable, with most anglers settling for short fish. One angler I know has caught 38 flounder so far this year, but hasn’t landed a keeper. The largest flattie caught out of Ocean City so far this year was David Trout’s 26-5 incher that weighed in at 7 lbs. 1 oz.
The water in the bay has been exceptionally clean. Heading over the Rt. 50 Bridge on some days the water has looked like what you see in the Keys. Water temperatures are hovering between 55 and 60-degrees, ideal for stripers but a little on the cool side for flatties.
Most of the keepers we have seen this year have been caught by anglers on the troll. Bucktails tipped with curly tails or minnows have had the best success. The bay behind Assateague around the duck blinds has been productive, although that water has been very slurry lately. Anglers fishing near the Rt. 90 Bridge have also been able to land some nice fish around the crab pots. I haven’t heard much about the East Channel yet, but I have heard about fish caught in the West Channel near Hooper’s Restaurant.
It will be a challenging year for catching keeper flounder, but when I looked back at last year’s Coastal Fishermans, I was surprised at how many flounder measuring 19-inches and above were caught, so I’m sure we will still see many nice flounder gracing the pages this year.
TAUTOG
With the sea bass season closed until May 22nd (although that hasn’t been finalized yet), tremendous pressure has been placed on tautog this spring. Those anglers who were able to hit the ocean wrecks and reefs this spring returned with some nice catches of tautog. Of course, the headboats also threw some nice tog on the dock, highlighted by Frank Graziano’s 19 lb. 10 oz. tog caught on the “Morning Star” in early February.
After years of seeing New York and New Jersey tautog fishermen bringing their own crabs to Ocean City and having great results catching fish, local anglers have caught on and are now finding better results by using brown crabs instead of green crabs for bait. Brown crabs, also known as rock crabs, are indigenous to our area where green crabs are not. This is not to say that green crabs haven’t been effective. I am just saying that the anglers I have spoken with have been very impressed with the results they have gotten by switching to brown crabs.
SEA BASS
Many anglers are wondering about the sea bass situation. As you may know, the 2010 sea bass quota was originally set, only to be doubled because the government scientists determined that doing so wouldn’t hurt the stock. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which controls state waters, has set the 2010 regulation for black sea bass at a 12.5-inch minimum, 25 fish per person with a season that runs from May 22nd to September 12th. The Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Management Council (which controls federal waters) proposed the same size and creel limit but a split season that would run from May 22nd to August 8th and September 4th to October 4th.
The two groups will resolve this issue in the next few weeks and it looks like anglers can begin keeping sea bass effective May 22nd.
Stay tuned!
