Article by Larry Jock
Last week will definitely be one to forget for most anglers fishing out of Ocean City. The weather was not cooperative and the weekend was a total blowout. Luckily, the organizers of the Big Fish Classic postponed the event to September 8th, 9th & 10th.
Prior to the storms that started to affect the area beginning on Thursday, offshore boats that headed to the Hot Dog and Massey’s Canyon found good tuna fishing, especially on Tuesday. Both the charter boat, “Restless Lady” and the charter boat, “Jade II” went chunking at the Hot Dog and returned with 15 quality yellowfins in the box. The charter boat, “Boss Hogg” was also at the Hot Dog and had 13 yellowfins and the charter boat, “Marli” chunked up 7. The tuna we have been seeing continue to be a good class of fish, with yellowfins in the 45 to 55 lb. range not being uncommon.
On Wednesday, the seas calmed down and anglers on the charter boat, “That’s Right” ended their day with 3 yellowfins and a mahi in the box.
The following day, seas started to build, but “That’s Right” returned with another 3 yellowfins plus a pair of mahi after chunking near the Hot Dog.
Finally, on Friday the charter boat, “Reel Chaos” took on snotty seas and ended up with a bluefin and 2 yellowfins at the Hot Dog.
The yellowfins have been finicky lately with several captains reporting the need to drop to 30 lb. leaders to get them to bite. Unfortunately, this also resulted in quite a few breaking off.
So far this season, we haven’t seen much of a billfish bite. On Thursday, anglers on the “C-Boys” did release a white marlin in the Wilmington Canyon and the “Bar South” released a sailfish in the Poor Man’s Canyon.
Inshore, boats fishing on ocean structure continue to find both the sea bass and the flounder bite to be inconsistent. The best flounder action continues to be up around the Old Grounds where anglers are finding good numbers of quality fish more than willing to eat the minnows, bellies and Gulp! artificial baits being offered.
On Wednesday, anglers on the charter boat, “Last Call” ventured out to the 1st Lump and had a good day catching mackerel, both king and Spanish, along with bonitos, skippies and even a mahi while trolling spoons and feathers. The highlight of their day was catching and releasing a 31-inch cobia. Remember, you are not allowed to keep cobia in federal waters, but you can if you catch it in Maryland state waters.
In the bay, flounder fishermen continue to be frustrated with the incredibly high throwback to keeper ratio. Many anglers reported that they have never seen so many short flatties in our bays. The main East Channel and the area behind Harbour Island were the best spots last week to find a keeper with minnows and Gulp! artificial baits being the top producers, but we also saw a few come in from behind Assateague Island on squid and shiner combinations.
Red drum were caught around the Rt. 50 Bridge where Josh Blume caught a 22-incher while fishing with live minnows. A few black drum were hooked last week on sand fleas in the Ocean City Inlet.
Anglers fishing around the South Jetty also found hungry triggerfish during the incoming tide.
Upcoming Tournaments
We are entering our busy stretch of tournaments in Ocean City. This weekend is the 9th Annual Marlin Club Ladies Tournament on Friday and Saturday with weigh-ins at Sunset Marina.
Also on Saturday is the Ocean Pines Chamber of Commerce Flounder Tournament out of the Pines Point Marina.
Sunday is an off day, but on Monday the big kahuna, the White Marlin Open, begins with weigh-ins Monday through Friday at Harbour Island from 4:00 PM to 9:15 PM. We have seen an increase in anglers and prize money in every tournament so far this season, so it will be interesting to see what the WMO brings in 2017. We wish all tournament anglers a safe and successful tournament!
Until next week, I’ll see you at the scales.
