Article by Larry Jock
It was a heckuva week for fishing out of Ocean City. We saw nice catches, both from offshore boats and those drifting the bay and inshore structure. The weekend was a little dicey, but there was enough good weather for plenty of action in the canyons.
Canyon Kick-off
The Ocean City Marlin Club Canyon Kick-off was held over the holiday weekend. Most of the boats fished on Friday and Sunday due to high seas forecasted for Saturday.
Highlights from Day 1 were:
•“Poore Sport” releasing a blue marlin and a white marlin in 700 fathoms in the Washington Canyon to take the early lead in the “Billfish Release” Division. Several other boats released a pair of white marlin and the “Grande Pez” and “Nontypical” each released a blue marlin. The release on the “Nontypical” was in 90 fathoms in the Poor Man’s Canyon.
•“Jezebel” catching a 21 lb. dolphin at the Chicken Bone that ended up taking 1st place in the Dolphin Division. The “Dawg Haus” was right behind with a 19.6 pounder caught in the Washington Canyon and ended up holding onto 3rd place in the tournament.
•“Double Trouble” weighing a 61 lb. yellowfin tuna, caught in 50 fathoms in the Wilmington Canyon, that held on to take top honors in the Tuna Division (yellowfins, bigeyes and long fins).
On the second day of the tournament, the forecast wasn’t too pleasant and most returning boats reported miserable conditions. The big change on the leaderboard came when the “Buckshot” returned from the Rockpile with 3 white marlin to take the lead in the “Billfish Release” Division.
The final day of the tournament saw 50 of the 59 boats entered leave the Inlet. The action was hot with changes coming in all divisions:
•”Poore Sport” jumped to the lead in the Billfish Release Division with a blue marlin release and a white marlin release in the Wilmington Canyon. The “Streaker” released another 2 white marlin in the Baltimore Canyon, giving them 4 white marlin releases in the tournament, giving them 2nd place on a tiebreaker. “Tighten Up” followed up their 2 white marlin releases earlier in the tournament with another pair on Sunday, but lost the 2nd place tiebreaker and ended up in 3rd place. The “Canyon Hunter” also had 4 white marlin releases, but was bumped out of the top three spots based upon the time of their last release.
•”Tighten Up” weighed a 24.8 lb. dolphin to win the Dolphin Division after hooking it in the Wilmington Canyon. That knocked the “Jezebel” to 2nd place and the “Dawg Haus” to 3rd place in the tournament.
•In the Tuna Division, the “Amanda May-Hem weighed a 49 lb. yellowfin to take 3rd place in the division, bumping out “The Zipper” by less than 2 lbs.
•Jimmy Giles on the “Sell Fish” brought a 45.6 lb. bluefin to the scale and took the lead in the Bluefin Division. The fish was caught inside the Chicken Bone. This knocked the “JoJo” to 2nd place. “Carol’s Teakettle” was one of the final boats to arrive at the scale and they had a 41.4 lb. bluefin that took over 3rd place in the tournament.
Overall, it turned out to be a very good tournament with a lot of fish arriving at the scale and exciting movement on the leader board.
Marlin
We saw white marlin and blue marlin releases come in from boats trolling anywhere from the Wilmington Canyon down to the Norfolk Canyon last week.
On Saturday, despite very tough conditions, the “Playmate” had an exciting day, recording a Billfish Grand Slam by recording releases of a white marlin, a blue marlin and a spearfish while trolling in 10 fathoms in the Poor Man’s Canyon.
We saw a couple of other blue marlin released on Friday, as mentioned earlier, by anglers on the “Nontypical” and the “Poore Sport”.
Most of the boats with white marlin releases had only a couple during their trip, but on Friday the “D.A. Sea” racked up 5 releases in the Washington Canyon. This ties the “Game Changer” for the most white marlin releases by a boat in a single day this year.
Tuna
It was quite a week for anglers looking to battle bigeyes in the Washington Canyon. Most of the action came on overnight trips with bites mainly coming just before sundown and into the night. It started on Tuesday, when the “Pumpin’ Hard” returned with 4 from the Bigeye Hole. The fish ranged from 184 lbs. to 296 lbs. On Thursday, the “Restless Lady” weighed 3 eyeballs, up to 188 lbs., with all bites coming between 7:30 and 11:00 PM. Saturday morning was a busy one with boats returning from overnight trips to the Bigeye Hole. “Keep Er Wet” (154 lbs.), “Skattebol” (190 lbs.) and “It’s Time” (256.5 lbs.) all returned with good size fish.
Bluefins were picked up anywhere inshore from the Twin Wrecks up to Massey’s Canyon.
Yellowfins were mainly found by the Hot Dog. Yellowfins last week were on the small side with plenty of throwbacks recorded.
The largest yellowfin of the week came in on “Rhonda’s Osprey” when Nancy Kohl boated a 62 pounder in 700 fathoms in the Washington Canyon on Tuesday. Right behind them was the 61 pounder caught in the Wilmington Canyon over the weekend aboard the “Double Trouble”.
Wahoo
In addition to the yellowfin caught by Nancy Kohl mentioned above, she also caught a 45 lb. wahoo. ?On Friday, the “Pumpin’ Hard” returned with a speedster from the Wilmington Canyon and the “Reel Chaos” caught one at the Hot Dog. Jenny Pastorius caught a 53 pounder on Thursday while trolling at the Hambone.
Dolphin
There were plenty of catches of dolphin, both inshore and in the canyons last week. Early in the season, the action was dominated by small fish, but we are seeing quite a few, larger bull dolphin being caught right now. Most are weighing between 11 and 15 lbs., but the top 5 mahi in the Canyon Kick-off weighed between 18.8 and 24.8 lbs.
Tilefish
We are seeing a few charter boats splitting their day into offshore trolling and then heading to some honey holes for sea bass, black bellied rosefish and golden and blueline tilefish.
The “Boss Hogg” had a couple of these trips where they headed to either the Washington Canyon or Poor Man’s Canyon and returned with 40 tilefish, 20 sea bass, dolphin and even a bigeye on one day and another 56 tilefish, 40 sea bass, 37 dolphin and a bluefin on another day. Talk about fun!
Flounder
Flounder fishing was fantastic last week. Like we usually see this time of year, the weekend was softer than during the week, but even still, we saw some quality fish arrive at the dock. Anglers needed to weed through a lot of throwbacks to get their keepers and the action has shifted from the bay behind Assateague up to the East and West Channels. Bigger fish were definitely caught in the deeper holes found in the channels. We also saw nice catches, both in numbers and in size, come in from those drifting the Thorofare flats.
On Sunday, Ashton Richardson landed a 28-inch, 7 lb. 11 oz. flattie in the East Channel, just north of 13th Street. Hunter Betz caught a 7 lb. 3 oz. flounder on a live minnow at the Rt. 50 Bridge. Hunter and his buddies had a couple of really good flounder trips there last week.
Budd Heim had a 6 lb. 3 oz. flattie on Friday while fishing in the West Channel, the same day little Laila Pascucci caught a 24 1/2-inch 5 lb. 8 oz. flounder. Earlier in the week, Jeff Leach on the charter boat, “Lucky Break” captured a 7 pounder in the East Channel.
Those heading to ocean structure have been rewarded with excellent catches of flat fish. The Old Grounds, the Attwater wreck and Winter Quarter Shoals are all spots worth taking a look at if you are looking for flounder.
White Gulp! Swimming Mullet is the top flounder bait for bay anglers and cut bait and squid is working best for those in the ocean.
Stripe Bass
Keeper striped bass are few and far between, but small throwbacks are plentiful around the Rt. 50 Bridge and jetties. Tossing jig heads tipped with swim shads works well, but if you are fortunate to get your hands on live spot, than look out. Your chances have improved greatly.
Upcoming Tournament
This weekend is the 28th Annual Ocean City Tuna Tournament held at the Ocean City Fishing Center.
This is one of the premier tournaments of the year and is a great one to both participate in and also to view at the scales.
Weigh-ins are from 4:00 PM to 7:30 PM on Friday and Saturday and 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM on Sunday. All catches can be weighed at the Fishing Center but boats can also weigh stringers on Friday and Saturday at Sunset Marina. Micky Fins restaurant is a great place to grab a bite and check out the action at the Fishing Center and Sunset Grille has great views of the weigh-ins at Sunset Marina.
See you at the scales.
