Article by Capt. BJ Pietryak
The winds have finally slowed down and made for pretty calm conditions on the ocean. The wild fires in Canada brought us smoky and foggy type days making anglers travel slower than usual to reach their destinations safely. Sea bass is still a little slow compared to past years, however, the flounder and blues are coming on strong.
Sea Bass & Flounder
Near Shore
Near shore fishing has been pretty consistent with decent catches of sea bass and a few flounder thrown into the mix. Averages of 10 keeper fish to limits is common. Deeper water and jig fishing is producing the best results. Kevin Twilley, the Captain of “Fish Bound Charters” reported he was glad to see calmer seas after all the northeast wind we have had for the past several weeks. The anglers pulled in some nice limits of sea bass as well as their first flounder of the year. Kevin stated that as the seas calm down they will start to target flounder, but for now they will stick with their limits on sea bass. They managed limits on both morning and afternoon trips.
The “Restless Lady" gave the tuna a break and stayed inshore for sea bass. The crew had limits of bass. The “Judith M” said the fishing has been great on their 8 hour trips. The “Ocean City Girl Charters” was out fishing for bass and enjoying the calmer days. They had a group from the Pittsburgh area and the bass were more than willing to cooperate. The group got their 7 man limit of 105 keepers. That is an impressive haul. Great job guys!
The “Ocean Princess" had its first triggerfish. The crew reported decent catches of bass during the week. Korale Filipaik from Dayton, Ohio, caught the triggerfish for the boat. For any anglers that have never had this, the meat is very thick and firm, and has a taste much like halibut. The skin on a trigger is a cross between the toughness of leather and steel. Many anglers including myself have a special knife just to fillet this specie. After one fish the knife will usually need to be resharpened.
“Double Trouble Charters” took some time off from their tuna trips to catch a few sea bass and were rewarded with several nice fish. Pulling up two fish at a time was commonplace with at least one fish being a keeper. “Line Dancer” was out with captain Lance Beisecker, Karen Biesecker along with Faith & Josh Rosenberg, and managed a few keeper flounder. Their biggest fish was 17.5 inches. Pat DeGroodt decided to stay close to land, fishing structure on Gull Reef. He pulled in a couple fluke and then realized he needed longer arms when he pulled in a few king sized sheepshead. He was fishing with sand fleas when the big fish decided it was time to eat. Many anglers don't realize the amount of sheepshead we have here on the near shore wrecks. Up in Delaware Bay on the breakwalls they are very common, but the wrecks of Ocean City hold many sheep as well as triggerfish for those looking for them. Small circle hooks and sand fleas are your best rigs, although using a sheepshead style jig is also very productive. Remember, these fish have small mouths and will not usually go after big baits on big hooks. Bigger is not always better.
Back Bay Areas
The back bays of Ocean City have been very productive and continue to get even better as the water warms. The 2 hour headboats are beginning to run their charters on a regular basis. The “Miss Ocean City" was out last week and had several good trips for the bay flounder. “Bottom Bouncer Fishing” was also out targeting the flat fish for their clients. These back bay trips are usually shorter than the ocean trips and a great way to see the bay areas of OC. Many boats fish behind Assateague Island, allowing you to catch a glimpse at the wild ponies on the island while at the same time catching a delicious dinner. Jeff and Adylynn Dunlap caught 2 fluke using the deadly double rigs. They fished on their boat named the “Reel-Lee”. 9 years young John Lawrence from Hanover, PA caught a 19 inch fish in the East Channel on a Gulp minnow combo. He fished with his sons Greg and Dave and his grandson Dylan. John caught another keeper in the Thorofare. The area to the north near Ocean Pines has also been producing better fishing. The channels are warming up and more fish are being caught. As warmer temps are predicted for the upcoming week, this would be the spot I would try.
Surf Fishing
Assateague Island beaches are still producing some quality stripers early in the morning as well as just at and after sundown. Most of these fish will not fit in the new slot limit and will have to be released, but they’re still a great fish on light tackle. I did not hear of many drum being caught on the island, but I'm sure a few black as well as red drum are still hanging around. Eric Field got one of the bigger rockfish that the island is known for, but being over the 31 inch limit the fish was returned to swim another day. If you are looking for a hard fighting fish, tossing a chunk of bunker or a big circle hook loaded with surf clam, it may be the ticket to a fish of a lifetime.
Ryan Mende was on the MD beaches, but stated that the skates and rays were too aggressive. He enjoyed catching numerous rays but did not manage to catch anything else. Dale Thomas was near 133rd Street and managed to catch a couple blues and a dogfish shark on a 10 lb. test line with small hooks. He was surprised the hook held on the shark.
Until next week...
Tight lines and fins up §
