Article by Larry Jock
It won’t go down as one of the greatest weeks of fishing out of Ocean City, but we saw a good variety of species arrive back at the dock.
Heading into the weekend, the big news was the 22nd Annual Mako Mania Shark Tournament at Bahia Marina. Would the feds raising the minimum size on mako sharks from 54-inches to 83-inches have an effect on the number of boats entered into the tournament? Well, the regulation change and the poor weekend weather forecast unfortunately drove down the number of boats from 77 last year (a tournament record) down to 37 boats this year. However, even the decrease in the number of boats didn’t take away from the excitement at the scales. On opening day of the tournament, Steve Randazzo aboard the “FOMO” arrived with a mako shark that measured exactly 83-inches and weighed 200.9 lbs. Steve hooked the big mako on a whole mackerel on the East wall of the Baltimore Canyon and held on to take top honors in the Mako Division.
Next to arrive at the scale was Ed Ream on the “Sea Ment” with a 355.2 lb. thresher shark that he hooked in 62-degree water near the Cigar. Everyone thought that this big thresher had an excellent chance of winning the Thresher Division, but that all flew out the window when, on the second day of the tournament, Nick Skidmore on the “Fish-Full Thinking” hauled in a 644.9 lb. thresher to win the division. Nick’s thresher was caught on a mackerel fillet near the Cigar only 10 minutes after the guys had their lines in the water. The thresher was actually 2.9 lbs. heavier than the current Maryland state record of 642 lbs. caught back in 2009, but unfortunately due to safety reasons, and entirely legal in this tournament, the anglers shot the shark prior to tying it off to their 25-foot boat to be towed back to the dock. Maryland has historically not permitted sharks that have been shot from qualifying as a new state record, so presidence has been set making the new state record designation doubtful. Even so, big congratulations go out to Nick Skidmore, Brandon Miller and Ryan Oberholtzer for their incredible catch!
We also saw a couple of other thresher sharks arrive at the tournament scale. The “Fish-Full Thinking” crew also caught a 183.3 pounder on the first day of the tournament, also on a mackerel fillet at the Cigar. On Day #2, anglers on the “Chrissy B” weighed a 164.6 pounder that they caught on a whole mackerel in Massey’s Canyon.
The only bluefish weighed in the tournament came in on the “Teaser”. The pair of snappers weighed 2.0 and 2.2 lbs. and were caught on cut bunker near the Fingers. Luckily, the anglers didn’t use them as shark bait because they were worth over $5,500 in award money.
The new Mako Release Division was won by the “Sea Ment” with 6 mako shark released during their 2 days of fishing near the Cigar. Their releases also earned them the W.W. Harman Award.
It basically turned into a 2-day tournament with 35 boats fishing on Friday, 37 on Saturday and only 2 eligible to fish on Sunday.
Outside of the tournament, offshore anglers found good bites of mostly “under” bluefins in 30 fathoms around the Hot Dog and Elephant Trunk and a few returned with their “over” fish as well. The largest bluefin we saw last week came in from Jeff Greenwood after trolling in 30 fathoms near the Hot Dog. Jeff’s bluefin measured 61-inches and weighed 140 lbs. Also on Saturday, anglers on the “Hammer Down” boated a 54-incher that weighed 92 lbs. On Friday, Chris Jenkins caught a 132 lb. bluefin tuna while trolling a ballyhoo in 30 fathoms near the Hot Dog. Earlier in the week, the charter boat, “Restless Lady II” ventured out to 30 fathoms and had 14 releases and 4 bluefins in the box, measuring 39, 40, 42 and 53 1/2-inches. All were hooked on trolled ballyhoo and spreader bars.
Yellowfins were very scarce, but a few did come in from the south end of the Poor Man’s Canyon.
A couple of bigeye tuna were caught last week. On Wednesday, anglers on the charter boat, “Marli” hooked a bigeye while trolling just above the Norfolk Canyon and on Friday, Capt. Mark brought back another one from the 500 fathom edge outside the Washington Canyon. This one tipped the scale at 176 lbs.
We also saw another nice size thresher caught on Friday by anglers on the “Deckelman”. They captured a 174 pounder on their first ever shark trip. After watching shark fishing videos on YouTube, the group of 5 anglers headed out to the Jackspot where they hooked the big thresher before they could get their 3rd line in the water. Good group of guys and a cool catch!
Although the weather hasn’t been very good, when boats have been able to hit ocean structure and natural bottom they have been returning with some good catches of sea bass. We aren’t seeing a lot of whoppers, but nice fish in the 2 to 3 lb. range. caught on clams and squid. On Thursday, anglers on the charter boat, “Fish Bound” came up 6 fish shy of their boat limit of 120 sea bass while fishing natural bottom. Capt. Monty on the headboat, “Morning Star” reported good trips throughout the week with a couple of limits around the rail each day.
Flounder fishing in the bay behind Ocean City wasn’t stellar last week. The better bite looked to be down in the bay behind Assateague Island near the Duck Blinds. Capt. Nick Clemente on the charter boat, “Get Sum” took his group of 6 anglers down there on Wednesday and they caught 7 keepers and had over 20 throwbacks during their morning trip. The keepers ranged in size from 16 3/4 to 22-inches. All were caught in 66-degree water on white Gulp Swimming Mullets.
The largest flounder of the week was caught by Tom Tatum while fishing with minnows in the Thorofare. Tom hooked 5 flatties (kept 2) on Wednesday including a 25-incher that weighed in at 5 lbs. 2 oz. The following day, Budd Heim was fishing the incoming tide in the Thorofare when he hooked a 23 1/4-incher on a jig tipped with a Gulp Swimming Mullet.
In the surf, action continues to be slower than expected for this time of year. A few stripers and bluefish were caught but anglers continued to deal with good numbers of skates.
Upcoming Tournament
The next local tournament on the schedule isn’t until June 16th and 17th when the Ocean City Marlin Club holds their 39th Annual Small Boat Tournament. You do not have to be a Marlin Club member to fish in this tournament and anglers are allowed to fish 1 of 2 days. The Inshore Division consists of flounder, sea bass, tog, bluefish and striped bass while the Offshore Division covers tuna, dolphin and billfish release. Registration is Friday, June 15th at the Marlin Club and weigh-ins will be at Sunset Marina each day from 3:00 to 6:30 PM.
Until next week, I’ll see you at the scales!
