Article by Larry Budd
Inshore and bay fishing continues to be very strong and dominated the action this last week as several fisheries are active with some new ones, like sea bass opening on the 15th and some closing for a while like tautog, closing from the summer season of May 15th to October 31st. So we are lucky that we will see in this edition great catches from Lewes, DE down though Maryland and into coastal Virginia from the bays, the beaches and nearshore, including the 78-pound black drum Matt Ferenschak caught in the surf near Chincoteague, VA! It is one of several 60+ pound drums reported this week off the beach and the nearshore wrecks including a 76 lb. monster caught on the “Game On” in the Delaware Bay by boat owner Donald Downes. Rockfish were there as well with many reports from the Delaware Bay, Indian River, Ocean City Inlet and the beaches from DE to VA with several right at the 35” limit including one caught by Hugh Thomas Cropper off of Assateague Island. There were still a lot of tautog caught in the trailing days of that fish’s winter/spring season now closed as of the 15th.
The big news however was the crazy flounder bite and the wild opening day of sea bass season on the 15th! There are many photos of flounder limit catches (4/day) coming from the Thorofare in Ocean City as well as the Indian River Bay. On top of the limit catches, some like “Just a Toy” charters at Bahia Marina reported a catch of 8 keepers for their 2 anglers and 20 keeper throwbacks in just a few hours! “On the Run” and “Lucky Break” charters also reported limit catches with keeper flounder throwbacks to spare.
Having sea bass season open on a Saturday is a rarity as well, coupled with nice weather made for a crazy day with literally hundreds of boats fishing and hundreds of fish hitting the docks all weekend. It is a good sign for the sea bass season to see these numbers so early. As always, check out the details in our Maryland and Delaware reports by BJ Pietryak for locations, bait and tactics.
For offshore fishing the water is still a little cool, however, some charters have been making runs to the south to test their luck. We do not have any more reports of tuna like last week, although there were 2 shark releases reported. First was charter boat “Finatic” with Capt. Mark Malamphy based at the Ocean City Fishing Center. They headed out Saturday to the Rockpile in about 300’ of water and released an 8 foot dusky shark. Then on Sunday Capt. Willie Zimmerman on the “Ro Sham Bo’, also out of the Ocean City Fishing Center, caught and released a female mako they found in a similar depth. Both captains put their anglers on both blueline tilefish and sea bass. Some nice blueline and golden tilefish catches were reported at Hook’em and Cook’em at the Indian River Marina as well as some recreational anglers out of Ocean City. The water is warming, and more charters are starting to run so we expect the action to pick up soon.
I wanted to take the remainder of this report for some regulatory updates or clarifications around tilefish and bluefin tuna.
Tilefish Regulations
For those that may not fish for tile, the species was not regulated by NOAA until a couple of years ago. Since then the regulations and reporting requirements have evolved as well as states developing sometimes contradicting regulations for this species. For example, Delaware sets tilefish limits at 7 per angler per day for a combination of blueline (or grey as they are also known) and golden tilefish. The current federal creel limit for anglers however is only 3 blueline tilefish/angler/day and up to 8 golden tilefish/angler today. So technically a legal Delaware catch of up to 7 blueline is not legal federally speaking, and the reality is that these fish are primarily caught in Federal Waters. In discussions with DNREC in Delaware they know this conflict exists and appears to be in the process of updating their limits. Some of their websites and documents list the limit as “TBD” while others have the 7 fish combo limit. Maryland on the other hand defers to the Federal Limits and does not specify a unique state limit. So if plan to land your tilefish in Delaware, NOAA advised us that the most restrictive rules apply which in this case would be the federal ones. We also have reports that the tilefish permit process is not a quick one, so we advise planning well ahead of a trip offshore so the process can complete and youw have your permit in hand. This is a separate process from the Highly Migratory License process and is managed by the commercial part of NOAA. Don’t forget the requirement to file Vessel Trip Reports (VTR) to report catches AND even just attempted trips with no landed fish!
Lastly, we did update our Federal Size & Creel Limits for bluefin tuna after the May 2nd update. We did update it again this week as the > 73” Trophy North category is now closed.
Upcoming Offshore Tournaments
The first offshore tournament for this season is the Ocean City Marlin Club Franky Pettolina Memorial Day Tournament, however there are several inshore and surf events happening this week and next. You do not have to be a Marlin Club member to participate in the Memorial Day event.
The Bahia Marina Mako Mania Tournament is also just around the corner on June 4th - 6th. After a pause last year due to the pandemic, we are excited to see this one back on the schedule.
Check out our tournament schedule in the paper or online at CoastalFisherman.net and follow us on Facebook and Instagram for the lasted info! §
