Article by Sue Foster
“I’m bringing my boat to Ocean City to go fishing. I’m reading about all these places you can go fishing in the bay like the Thorofare, East Channel, down by the duck blind. Where the heck are these places?”
Ocean City locals flip these places off the tip of their tongues like it’s part of their back yard. Well, it is part of “their” backyard. But to a vacationer from out of town, these places might as well be in outer space! Let’s see if we can put a little light on the subject.
On top of everything else, there are a few charts out there this year, but no really great charts of the bay. One company went out of business and another man who did really nice charts died, so the vacationer has to suffer through with the couple charts that are available.
“Everyone talks about the Thorofare. Where is it?”
The Thorofare sees a lot of flounder. It’s a large area covering a wide territory. The Thorofare is located on the west side of the bay, just offshore of a residential area called Captain’s Hill. It’s deep next to the houses and jsut offshore there’s a yellow house where locals say they catch a lot of big flounder. Going north, you will see Buoy #6 and from there you can follow the marshes back just offshore of a development called Isle of Wight to Buoy #16. By the time you hit #16 you are almost opposite Ocean Pines and can see the Route 90 Bridge in the distance.
Buoys #12 through #16 are what the locals often refer to as the “flats.” It’s not deep, but on a high tide some nice flounder can be caught in these shallower waters.
“I caught my fish in the main East Channel!”
The main East Channel is the deep channel on the east side of the bay between the draw of the route 50 Bridge and 14th Street. The gray townhouses at 14th Street are often referred to as Harbor Island. A lot of flounder are caught there as well. So if someone said they caught a nice flounder behind Harbor Island in the main East Channel, they would have been fishing in the main east channel off 14th Street close to those gray townhouses! The current runs hard in the main East Channel, so you do need to fish this area when the tide is easing. When it is slacking and anglers can drift close to the draw of the Route 50 Bridge some real dandies are caught!
“The Coastal Fisherman refers to a place called the Fish Bowl? Where the heck is that?”
The Fish Bowl is not a place that everyone can get to. It is just north of the Route 50 Bridge in the center of the bay. Anglers have to slip over a shoal to get in there. The pontoon headboat, “Happy Hooker” and the charter boat “Get Sum” like to work this area because it’s not overfished, it’s hard to get to and there aren’t a lot of snags. When you are fishing in the “Fish Bowl”, and looking north, you will see Bird Island. Of course, you can also work the area to the east of Bird Island with pretty good success. The current is not so strong in here, and is a pleasant area just to drift around.
“Off Homer Gudelsky Park and Martha’s Landing. Well, where could that be? “
On the west side of the bay and just south of the Route 50 Bridge you will see a sandy beach where vacationers are fishing or just sunbathing. This is Homer Gudelsky Park (Some locals still call it by it’s old name, Stinky Beach. It’s real deep here and there are some holes that go down to 40 feet. There are lots of snags but some real nice flounder are caught here. Tautog are there too if you use live or frozen sand fleas. If you drift south of the park you will drift past a bunch of rocks towards the Commercial Harbor, which is another good fishing hole. Along these rocks, and around the bend is a fancy development called Martha’s Landing. Locals often refer to this area as catching fish, “off Martha’s Landing.” Now you know where that is!
If you keep drifting south you will be at the entrance of the bay behind Assateague. There are all kinds of fishing holes back there. The first one is “behind the Ocean City Airport!” Well, if you don’t see it right away, you will probably hear it! Around Buoys #4 and #6 is our local Ocean City Airport and some flounder are caught here on the west side of the channel. It’s not very far behind Assateague.
Other places anglers mention that are behind Assateague are a lot further south. Frontier Town and Eagle’s Nest Camp Ground are down by Buoys #10, #11, and #13. This can be an excellent flounder catching spot if the water is not dirty. This is a favorite area for the bay headboat “Bay Bee”. It can be hot, or totally not, but that’s fishing!
“We caught flounder every time we drifted past the duck blind!”
The famous duck blind is even more south than Buoy #13. Just keep drifting south until you see it. There’s only one duck blind back there, so where you see it, it’s the famous one everyone is talking about!
“We casted lures and caught some stripers by the Verrazano Bridge. We threw some peelers on the bottom and caught some black drum.” Where’s the Verrazano Bridge?
The Verrazano Bridge, or also known as the Assateague Bridge, is the bridge that crosses over to Assateague Island. It’s south of the duck blind. Just keep going south until you see it. Casting around the bridge pilings is a good fishing location for stripers, drum and trout. To the southeast of the bridge is a famous clamming hole! It's a pleasant place to spend the day, even if you just want to catch spot and croaker, you’ll never get bored.
Well, I hope this helps to interpret some of the local “hot spots”! Now you know where they are!
Good fishing….
Sue Foster is an outdoor writer and co-owner of Oyster Bay Tackle in Ocean City, MD and Fenwick Tackle in Fenwick, DE.
