Article by Larry Jock
The wind was still cranking as this report was being written late-morning on Monday with the weekend already in the books as one to forget. Offshore, the tuna bite slowed down last week when compared to what we saw several weeks ago, but maybe the nasty weekend weather will “turn things over” and jump start the bite. We can only hope!
Flounder
It would be difficult to find someone who thinks that this season hasn’t been a good one so far for flounder fishing and the flattie action on inshore sites should only get better with each passing day.
In the bay, anglers continue to find keepers interested in their offerings in the East Channel, around the South Jetty, in the Thorofare and at the mouth of the Commercial Harbor. The bite in the bay behind Assateague Island near the Duck Blinds has cooled down a bit, with the East Channel taking over as the top location. The north end of the East Channel has surprisingly produced some of the better catches we have seen lately. Capt. Nick on the charter boat, “Get Sum” had some good trips last week, but had to hit various spots in order to get his keepers. As always, finding cooler clean water was the key.
Size-wise, most of the fish are in the 17 1/2 to 19 1/2-inch range, but we saw a couple of larger fish captured last week as well. On Sunday, an angler on the charter boat, “On the Run” caught a 22 1/4-incher that weighed in at 4 lbs. 8 oz.
The larger flounder we see each season typically come in from ocean structure and last week Capt. Kane on the “Fish Bound” had his anglers fishing over coral bottom where they captured fish weighing over 7 lbs. We also saw a nice catch come in from the Dagsboro/Frankford boys who ventured out to the Bass Grounds last Friday before the winds started picking up and returned with 12 good size keepers weighing up to almost 5 lbs.
When it comes to flounder bait, the clear winner so far this season is the white Gulp Swimming Mullet, followed by minnows and belly strips. Gulp baits are even working well for ocean anglers who typically stick to the tried-and-true strips of flounder belly and sea robins.
Spot & Croaker
Anglers fishing around the Rt. 90 Bridge are catching croakers and spot, primarily on Fishbite bloodworms. Matt Shoup at Fenwick Bait & Tackle told me that some of his customers have had dramatically better results using chartreuse Fishbite bloodworms over the traditional red-colored artificial bait. A couple of anglers reported that the chartreuse color is outproducing the red color bait 10 to 1. Anglers are also finding croakers snapping in the Ocean City Inlet at the mouth of the Commercial Harbor.
Cobia
The “man in the brown suit” is starting to show up at familiar haunts, particularly around Little Gull Shoal where Jeff Kauffman and Matt Marsiglia found a 49-incher swimming with porpoises. They threw a Bass Kandy Delight to the fish and ended up with it in their boat after a 40-minute fight. Another good catch was made by Robby Pinzhoffer who was fishing at Great Gull Shoal and hooked into a 42 1/2-incher swimming under a school of bunker.
I read a story online last week about what a curious fish cobia are and it reminded me of a tip Capt. Bruce McGuigan once gave me. Capt. Bruce said that when you are cobia fishing, after you arrive at your location, rev your engines a couple of times before shutting them off. If cobia are in the area, they will come to the surface to investigate the noise, giving you the opportunity to throw a bucktail or eel in their direction. An interesting tip from an excellent fisherman!
Tuna
Prior to the weekends blowout, offshore boats were heading to 30-50 fathoms, mainly to the Massey’s Canyon, Hambone and Hot Dog areas where they found yellowfin tuna mixed in with some bluefins. A few boats last week returned with high single-digit catches of yellowfins, but most had just a few in the box. On Wednesday, anglers on the “Game Over” had a great trip to Massey’s, returning with 7 yellowfins, a dolphin and a 61-inch, 141 lb. bluefin. The day before, the charter boat, “Marli” fished in 40 fathoms and had 8 yellowfins and an 86 lb. bluefin.
Local tackle shops are reporting an increase in butterfish sales, so that means some boats have switched over to chunking.
Upcoming Tournament
This weekend is the 4th Annual Big Fish Classic at the Talbot Street Pier. Anglers can choose one of two 32-hour windows in which to fish and scales are open from 4:00 PM to 9:00 PM on Friday and Saturday and 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM on Sunday.
Until next week, I’ll see you at the scales!
