Article by Larry Jock
Well, we all survived Hurricane Irene, which luckily didn’t wreak havoc on our area as predicted by the doomsdayers on the Weather Channel. I guess timing is everything, and having the worst of the hurricane hit closer to low tide was a blessing with less flooding than anticipated.
Obviously, there wasn’t any fishing going on between Friday and Sunday with everyone battening down the hatches.
As with any major storm, it will be interesting to see what effect it has on fishing over the next couple of weeks. It may even give a desperately needed boost to tuna fishing.
However, prior to the storm...
Mid-Atlantic $500,000
Hurricane Irene made for an interesting tournament week. With Monday’s weather being a little sporty, most local boats ended up fishing Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, which ended up being a good call since tournament officials cancelled fishing on Friday, the final day of the tournament. What made it interesting was that close to 47 boats out of Cape May, NJ and only 7 boats out of Ocean City planned to fish on Friday.
Most of the big numbers were posted by boats fishing in 500 to over 1,000 fathoms outside the Poor Man’s and Baltimore Canyons.
A big congratulations go out to the “Lady Luck V” for winning the Mid-Atlantic $500,000 for the second year in a row. Last year, they tied the “Billfisher” for first place in the Heaviest White Marlin Division with an 88 pounder caught on the final day of the tournament. This year, Steve Ramsey boated an 82 pounder and held on to win first place and a check for over $600,000. Capt. Tommy Baldwin reported hooking the white marlin at the tip of the Poor Man’s Canyon on a black and white Moldcraft artificial lure. Interestingly, this was the same exact lure they caught the white marlin on last year.
Second place in the White Marlin Division went to the “Espadon”, which sails out of Sunset Marina. Capt. Sylvain Cote said that their 73.25-inch, 76 lb. white marlin was caught in 90 fathoms in the Poor Man’s on a ballyhoo. They hooked this fish with only 5 minutes left before lines were out of the water.
Another local charterboat, the “Pumpin’ Hard 66”, boated a 494 lb. blue marlin in the Baltimore Canyon on the second day of the tournament and held on to win 3rd place in the Heaviest Blue Marlin Division. It took an hour to get the fish to the boat when mate Mike Burt simply slipped a rope around the marlin’s bill and walked it around to the tuna door. No gaff was needed.
Also on the 2nd day of the tournament, the “Par Five” with Capt. Charlie Rodriguez at the helm, landed a 71 lb. yellowfin tuna in the Poor Man’s Canyon and ended up in 2nd place in the Heaviest
Tuna Division.
On the final day of the tournament, the “Hit N Run”, which was docked at Sunset Marina, boated a big, 53 lb. bull dolphin to win first place in the Heaviest Dolphin Division. This fish was caught on a ballyhoo in the Baltimore Canyon.
Finally, the top boat in the Point Standings was the “Predator”, with Capt. Howard Lynch at the wheel. The crew released 21 white marlin and a longbill spearfish during their 3 days of fishing. It’s tough to get an exact location out of Capt. Howard, but I heard they were very deep outside the Poor Man’s Canyon.
Congratulations to all of the boats that fished in the tournament and especially to our Ocean City boats. Once again, you made us proud!
Flounder
It was a good week for flounder fishing if you were looking to bend a rod. There were a lot of fish caught, unfortunately anglers are still having to weed through a lot of throwbacks. The best bite was in the East Channel, north of the Rt. 50 Bridge and a little farther north around Harbour Island. Live bunker and spot gave you the best shot at a keeper but the Gulp! artificial baits, especially the Swimming Mullet, are still fooling a lot of fish.
We are also hearing good reports from fishermen who are slow trolling along the rocks by the Cement Plant and up in the Thorofare.
Croaker
It has been another dismal year for anglers chasing hardheads. Small fish are still being caught in the bay behind Assateague Island, down by Snug Harbor, but none that are large enough to keep. It’s kind of interesting that the bite in Chincoteague and up in the Delaware Bay has been good, but nothing for us over the past couple of years.
Bluefish
We had been seeing schools of smaller, snapper bluefish terrorizing baits in the East Channel, but last week a good number of larger bluefish showed up around the Rt. 50 Bridge. These choppers will attack almost anything thrown their way. The best bite typically occurred around the top of the high tide.
Striped Bass
Mixed in with the bluefish around the Rt. 50 Bridge were some nice sized striped bass in the 28 to 32-inch range. Anglers had good results fishing with live mullet and spot or just tossing artificial lures around the pilings.
Buddy Martin and Reed Davis stopped by the office in the middle of the week with some 30 to 31-inch stripers and a 12 lb. 4 oz. bluefish that they caught while fishing with jig heads tipped with curly tails off the Rt. 50 Bridge.
In previous weeks, anglers were having fun hooking smaller stripers around the tip of the South Jetty, but we haven’t seen anything from that location lately.
In the Surf
Sue Foster from Oyster Bay Tackle reports, “Surf fishing was good this past week on snapper blues. There were still some spot and kingfish around and some little silverish red fish that we think must have been either croaker or trout. Not sure... Sand sharks, big rays, and some larger sharks were also about. We even had reports of pompano and a 44-inch cobia from the surf!”
Upcoming Tournaments
This weekend is the 53rd Annual Ocean City Marlin Club Labor Day White Marlin Tournament. Although it is primarily a white marlin release tournament, there are meatfish divisions as well. Weigh-ins are at Sunset Marina on Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 5:00 to 7:00 PM.
See you at the scales!
