Article by Larry Jock
Some weeks there are so many fish caught that you really don’t know where to begin. Well, this was definitely one of those weeks.
Ocean City Tuna Tournament
Heading into the tournament, some folks were afraid that this year’s event was going to be a dud, with regulations only allowing tournament anglers to land 1 bluefin tuna between 27” and 59”. Man, were they wrong. The tournament ended up being very exciting with a ton of yellowfin tuna being weighed.
With almost all of the anglers fishing on Friday and Sunday, the action was hot and heavy at the scales. Of the 69 boats entered in the tournament, 37 weighed fish on the first day with many weighing a stringer of 5 yellowfins. The yellowfin bite was hot in the Spencer and Wilmington Canyons early in the tournament, and worked its way exclusively into the Wilmington by the time the tournament was completed.
On the first day, the “D.A. Sea” and “Canyon Blues” were tied for 1st place in the Total Heaviest Weight Division with 305 lbs. caught by each boat. Fortunately, the “Canyon Blues” backed it up with another good day on Sunday, weighing 5 yellowfins for an additional 292 lbs. to clinch first place in the division.
Also on the first day, several dolphin were weighed, but none were larger than the 32 pounder caught on the “Playmate”, which ended up holding onto 1st place in the Heaviest Dolphin Division.
The Single Heaviest Tuna Division was won by Glenn Steele on the “Toplesss” during the last day of the tournament, when he weighed a 79 lb. bluefin caught in the Wilmington Canyon.
Overall, the 69 boats competed for $350,000 in award money. It was quite a tournament.
Bluefin Tuna
Early in the week, a charter boat mate told me that “it was all the bluefin tuna you care to fight between the Twin Wrecks and Massey’s Canyon.” This was consistent with what we had seen in prior weeks, although the bite slowed as the week progressed.
Later in the week, bluefins were caught at the Fingers, Hambone and Chicken Bone with some weighing in at over 70 lbs.
The largest bluefin we heard about this week was the 76-incher caught and released by
an angler on “That’s Right” during the Tuna Tournament. The new bluefin regulations no longer allow for the “giant” bluefin over 73-inches to be caught once a year, so it had to be turned away.
Yellowfin Tuna
The Tuna Tournament wasn’t the only time we saw great catches of yellowfin tuna. They started arriving earlier in the week when on Tuesday, “That’s Right” weighed 18 yellowfins caught in the Wilmington Canyon.
On Wednesday, boats headed to the Spencer Canyon and really mugged them up. “All In” returned with 18, the “Billfisher” and “Marli” each caught 13 and the “Restless Lady” weighed 10.
On Thursday, the bite in the Spencer Canyon continued with the “Reel Chaos” landing 8 yellowfins, the “Marlin Magic” catching 5 and the “Marli” thowing 10 on the scale.
Dolphin
Our ocean waters have really warmed up over the last couple of weeks and dolphin are being caught all over. Heck, Kaycee Compher caught a 13 lb. 10 oz. dolphin on the way to an ocean wreck while fishing off the headboat, “Morning Star”. Other reports came in about anglers catching dolphin at Russell’s Reef.
The larger dolphin were caught in the canyons, primarily the Wilmington, by anglers over the weekend. Several mahi over 20 lbs. were landed, with the largest of the week coming in at 32 lbs. by an angler on the “Playmate”.
Wahoo
Four wahoo were weighed this week. The first two came in on Friday by angler Jim Walsh on the “Rain E Daze”. The small wahoo, weighing 18 and 19 lbs., were caught on the north end of the Wilmington Canyon.
On Saturday, Chip Davis on the “Titan 62” caught a 33 lb. wahoo in the Wilmington Canyon and on Sunday, Gary Tanner on “Bill$ 4 Bills” landed a 75 pounder on a skirted ballyhoo at the Hambone.
Billfish
Anglers in search of tuna during the tournament released quite a few white marlin and even a couple of blue marlin. Incredibly, some boats had trouble getting away from them. Steve Ramsey on the “Lady Luck” told me that they could have easily caught 12 if they wanted to on Sunday in the Baltimore Canyon.
The bite centered on the Spencer Canyon early in the week and worked its way south into the Wilmington Canyon by Sunday.
The “Billfisher”, “Pumpin’ Hard 66”, “Titan 62”, “That’s Right”, “No Worries” and the “Blood, Sweat & Tears” each released blue marlin throughout the week.
The surprise billfish catch of the week happened on Thursday, when the “Tuna Dog” released a sailfish at the Chicken Bone.
Flounder
We didn’t see a lot of keeper flounder caught this past week, but the ones we saw sure were big. Several flatties measuring 24 to 25-inches were caught, surprisingly on Sunday. I say surprisingly because on Saturday we had torrential rains, making our bay waters as clear as mud.
The best bite continues to center around the East and West Channels. The East Channel runs from the Coast Guard Station, through the Rt. 50 Bridge and up to Harbour Island. The West Channel is on the west side of the bay running from in front of Gudelsky Park to past Hooper’s Restaurant.
The largest flatties we saw this week were Dan Betz’s 24.25-incher and Jay Betz’s 25.5-incher caught in the East Channel, Amanda Schmidt’s 25.25-inch flattie caught off the 4th Street Bulkhead and Wayne Smith’s 25-incher caught in the West Channel.
The surprise bait of choice this week was chartreuse Gulp! Swimming Mullets. This bait has really taken off and has recently shed its reputation for only catching small fish. Several of the large fish cited above were caught using this bait.
Sea Bass
Rough seas made it difficult for most small boats to make it out to reefs and wrecks this week, but the “Morning Star” did manage to return with some decent catches throughout the week. High hook on most days was in the high-teens with others catching a few.
The Great Eastern Reef seems to be the area where most anglers targeting sea bass are heading.
Bluefish
Some big bluefish, over 10 lbs., were landed by anglers fishing off the Rt. 50 Bridge. Other anglers had great success catching smaller bluefish seen boiling just south of the Bridge. If you were lucky enough to get your bait below the snappers, there were stripers to be found.
The number of bluefish in our bay was staggering this week, no doubt due to the tremendous amount of bait (mullet, peanut bunker & spot) we currently have throughout our bays.
Upcoming Tournaments
This weekend is the world famous Marlin Club Kid’s Classic. Last year, 381 junior anglers participated and the tournament seems to be growing each year.
Weigh-ins are held at Sunset Marina on Saturday from 3:00 to 6:30 pm and on Sunday from 3:00 to 6:00 pm.
If you are interested in fishing the tournament, you can call the Ocean City Marlin Club at 410-213-1613 for details.
If you want to see a lot of smiles, head on over to Sunset Marina. This tournament is a blast!
See you at the scales.