Article by Larry Jock
Can anyone tell me where all the fishermen have gone? I know we haven’t had the greatest weather this spring, but you look out at the bay and it is void of fishermen. The most action is coming off the Rt. 50 Bridge, where some nights, anglers are lined up shoulder to shoulder.
Well, I firmly believe that eveything evens out over time, so we should be in store for some strings of good weather and great fishing, so get your tackle ready, put some gas in your boat and let’s get excited about the fishing season!
Flounder
We were teased mid-week when some larger flatties started showing up, both in the Thorofare and in the bay behind Assateague Island. The largest flounder we have seen in Ocean City so far this year was caught on Thursday by Steve Flohr when he hooked into a 7 lb. 4 oz. flattie near Buoy 17 in the Thorofare. On that same day, the “Bay Bee” had a great trip, returning at noon with 7 keepers and 23 throwbacks, all caught on shiners behind Assateague Island.
The day before, Christian Feezle on the “Get Sum” boated a 7 lb. 2 oz. flounder in the bay behind Snug Harbor. The fish hit a white Gulp! Alive Swimming Mullet in 60-degree water.
Incredibly, even with the reduction in minimum size from 19-inches last year to 18-inches this year, anglers are still having to weed through a lot of throwbacks in the 16-17 inch range to get their keepers.
Bluefish
We didn’t see many chopper bluefish caught this past week, but if you wanted action catching snappers, you had all you wanted while fishing around the Rt. 50 Bridge on Tuesday night and during the day on Wednesday, especially around high tide. On Wednesday afternoon, the “Bay Bee” kept their anglers busy with over 60 snapper bluefish hauled over the rail.
Sea Bass
The much anticipated black sea bass season opens on May 22nd and stays open until October 11th. It then closes for the remainder of October before opening from November 1st until December 31st. Anglers are allowed to keep 25 fish per day with a minimum size of 12.5-inches.
Striped Bass
Although the hot striper bite was a little north of us around the Indian River Jetty during the week, we did see some nice size fish landed, especially by surf fishermen off Assateague and north Ocean City.
Early in the week, John Wittmyer landed a personal best, a 45 incher while fishing off Assateague using bunker for bait. Paul Martin caught a 39-inch striper on bunker from the Assateague surf and a little farther north, Lenny Potenzo beached a 40-incher on a bunker chunk during the early morning hours and Jim Thompson continued his good run of spring striper fishing, landing a 33-incher just over the line in Fenwick.
On Saturday morning, Big Bird Cropper was patrolling the North Jetty with his Roy Rig in the ready position and ended up with a 36-inch striped bass that tipped the scales at 15 lbs.
An intesting note was made in Marty Gary’s column this week on page 52, where MD DNR biologists are predicting a later striper run up the beach than we normally see due to cooler water temperatures. Check out his column.
Tautog
The biggest tog we saw this week came from anglers on the “Morning Star” who boated several over 10 lbs. On Saturday, one angler boated a 14.3 pounder, caught on a green crab at an artificial reef.
In the Surf
Anglers fishing from the surf off Assateague have been quietly catching a good number of black drum and striped bass, although big seas from offshore swells required heavier weights than desired. They also had to show patience, weeding through good numbers of sharks to get their drum and linesiders. Clams and bunker were the baits of choice.
Bluefin Tuna
It seems like “The Wrangler” is the only boat heading offshore in search of tuna, and on Saturday they returned from an overnight trip with a 46 pounder caught in the Wilmington Canyon. Capt. Craig Mercier reported finding a 55-66 degree temperature break in 100 fathoms where they caught 2 bluefins, releasing one, during the trip. They also caught numerous blue sharks.
