Article by Larry Jock
What a fantastic week of fishing, both in the bay and in the Canyons. It’s hard to say who had a better week, flounder fishermen or those chasing yellowfin and bigeye tuna. The scales were extremely busy and the fish cleaners looked like Edward Scissorhands.
Flounder
The flounder bite in the bay behind Assateague was on fire last week. It all started on Tuesday, when anglers on the charter boat, “Lucky Break” returned to the dock with an amazing 21 flounder in the box. The key was finding clean water, which is what Capt. Jason Mumford did behind Castaway’s Campground and further south. The grass coming off the shallows in the middle of the bay behind Assateague drifted north during the outgoing tide, making the water south of the shallows nice and clean.
All throughout the week, we saw flounder charter boats routinely coming back with great catches of 8 or more flatties. However, the action wasn’t limited to charter boats. On Saturday, Paul Bucha landed a 26 1/2-incher behind the OC Airport on a Gulp! Swimming Mullet. The fish weighed 6 lbs. 8 oz.
There was also a good bite in the Thorofare last weekend. Several boats on Saturday had catches of 5 or more flounder with anglers on the “Oasis” ending up with 13 in the cooler after drifting squid and minnows. Earlier in the week, anglers on the “My Three Sons” were drifting live minnows on the west end of the Thorofare where Jack Walker caught himself a 25-inch, 5 lb. 3 oz. flat tie.
Good flounder action was also seen in the East Channel, north of the Rt. 50 Bridge. Jeff Schmidt of West Ocean City reported an excellent bite for flounder fishermen off the 2nd-4th Street Bulkhead on Saturday morning. The largest flounder so far this year was caught in the East Channel last Monday by Tina Poole on the charter boat, “Get Sum” when she boated an 8 lb. 13 oz. flat tie.
White or chartreuse Gulp! Swimming Mullet is the top flounder bait right now, but live minnows and squid are also producing nice catches.
Striped Bass
The only striper action seems to be around the Rt. 50 Bridge. Although anglers continue to catch fish too small to keep, a few larger linesiders are being pulled out of the pilings as well.
Billfish
On Sunday, numerous reports of white marlin releases, and even more white marlin sightings came from boats fishing in the Baltimore Canyon.
We also saw the first blue marlin release of the year when, on Monday, an angler on the “Boss Hogg” released a blue, estimated at 500 lbs., in 300 fathoms in the Baltimore. Another blue marlin was released on Saturday by Mike Runk, Sr. who was also fishing on the “Boss Hogg”. Mike’s blue marlin was estimated at 450 lbs. and was hooked in the Baltimore Canyon.
The first swordfish of the season came in on Saturday morning after an overnight trip by the charter boat, “Jade II”. The 62 1/2-inch swordie weighed 108 lbs. and was caught on a mackerel bait in 300 fathoms in the Baltimore.
Tuna
The star of the offshore show last week had to be yellowfin tuna, but large bigeyes also had folks at the scales very excited.
Big catches of yellowfin tuna started on Wednesday when the charter boat, “Moore Bills” returned with 17 in the box. Capt. Rob had his anglers slightly south of the Baltimore Canyon and caught the fish on the troll (no greensticking). Although a catch of 17 yellowfins would constitute a great day in anyone’s book, the class of fish put it at the exceptional level. The 17 yellowfins totalled 914 lbs. which gives them an average weight of 53.75 lbs.
On Thursday, the charter boat, “Marli” took off for the Baltimore Canyon and ended up with 16 yellowfins with the largest tipping the scale at 62 lbs. Nice quality fish!
Speaking of quality fish, a great catch came in on Friday when anglers on the “Keep Er’ Wet” caught 11 yellowfins totaling just over 600 lbs, giving them an average of almost 55 pounds.
The yellowfin bite slowed on Saturday and really took a nosedive on Sunday. There were a ton of boats in the Baltimore Canyon on both days and a few of those boats had better luck moving just south of the fleet.
The largest yellowfin came in on Friday when Howard Todd on the “Fintimidator” boated an 83.3 pounder in 100 fathoms in the Baltimore.
We also saw some nice bigeye tuna arrive at the scale throughout the week. On Monday, the “Game Over” had a 64-inch, 178.5 lb. eyeball from 650 fathoms in the Baltimore Canyon. That same day, the “Skattebol” weighed a 185 lb. eyeball and the “Magic Moment” boated a 67-inch, 202 pounder around the 800/800.
In the M.S.S.A. Tunament several bigeyes arrived at the scale. On Friday, the “Lady Luck” showed up with a pair caught in the Washington Canyon. The tunas weighed 151.8 and 172.7 lbs. Also on Friday, the “Skint Back” weighed a 168.4 pounder. These fish were in the top three until Sunday when the “Top Dog” decked a pair of bigeyes weighing 211.7 and 222.1 lbs., caught in 200 fathoms in the Washington Canyon. Right behind them was the “Wet Dreams” with a 180.6 lb. eyeball caught in 265 fathoms in the Washington Canyon.
Overall, it was a tremendous week of tuna fishing!
Sharks
Although the water is warming up into the low 70’s, we still saw a few makos hit the scales last week. On Saturday, the “Jade II” killed a 153 pounder during their overnight trip in the Baltimore and the “Rippin Lip” caught a 134 pounder in 120 fathoms, also in the Baltimore.
Sea Bass
Sea bass fishing has been inconsistent on ocean structure. Some of the historical hot spots produced excellent catches of knotheads while other, normally reliable spots, produced goose eggs.
The charter boat, “Fish Bound” did have a fantastic day on Saturday when Mike Matha and his buddies caught 57 triggerfish, 23 sea bass, a spadefish and a flounder on Winter Quarter Shoal.
Upcoming Tournament
There isn’t a local tournament this weekend in Ocean City, so the next event is the 32nd Annual Ocean City Marlin Club Canyon Kick-off on July 4th, 5th and 6th. Weigh-ins are at Sunset Marina. For more information, call the Marlin Club at 410-213-1613.
See you at the scales!