Article by Larry Jock
Welcome everyone to another year of the Coastal Fisherman. I’ve been saying it for a couple of months now, I have a real good vibe on this year. I think we are going to see a lot of happy anglers gracing our pages during the 2011 season.
Saying that, it has been a tough spring. We just can’t seem to string any nice weather together. Back in early April, it looked like some nice weather was going to warm up our bay waters, only to be followed by a week of cold weather that shut the bite down. That’s Mother Nature.
On the regulation front, the minimum size for flounder was reduced from 19-inches to 18-inches and you are still allowed to keep 3 fish per day.
Flounder
It’s funny how fishing is. Last year, when the minimum size was 19-inches, all we heard about were the number of 18” to 18.5” fish that were being caught. This year, we are hearing about good numbers of 16” to 17” being hooked. Go figure!
The best flounder bite, and although it hasn’t exactly been on fire, has been over the flats north of the Thorofare. Anglers drifting minnows and shiners are doing well. One comment we are hearing pretty consistently is that the fish are fat!
There have also been reports of good numbers of flounder being caught north of the Rt. 90 Bridge, although the vast majority of those hooked are too short to keep.
The south bay near the airport and down by the Assateague Bridge have also given up some nice flounder.
Striped Bass
Although some striped bass have been caught by surfcasters fishing from Assateague Island over the last month, the better and more consistent bite has been off the Rt. 50 Bridge at night in recent weeks. Anglers throwing Storm Lures and bucktails have been landing some really nice linesiders. Some anglers have also caught stripers in the Thorofare at night.
I remind folks that the last couple of state record striped bass have been caught during the first half of May.
Tautog
The inshore reefs and wrecks have produced some outstanding catches of tautog this spring. Anglers on the “Morning Star” have returned with some real whoppers, highlighted by the 19 lb. 8 oz. blackfish caught by Scott Allison on March 30th. On that same trip, Pat Travolino landed himself an 18 lb. 10 oz. tog. Several other trips produced multiple tautog weighing in excess of 13 lbs.
If you are not inclined to venture outside the Inlet, you can pick up some tautog by anchoring along the rocks off Martha’s Landing. This location is directly across the bay from the Oceanic Pier.
The fish are biting a variety of crabs including green crab, white crab (rock crab) and spider crabs.
Black Drum
Although it has been kept pretty quiet, surfcasters off Assateague Island landed themselves some nice black drum over the past month. We have also seen some caught off the beach in North Ocean City and up into Delaware.
Sharks
I’m starting to hear the buzz from shark fishermen. They are getting the itch to get out into the ocean and do battle. As you saw on the cover, the first mako shark of the year was caught over the weekend by the crew on the “Wrangler” who, on an overnight trip, ventured 84 miles from the Ocean City Inlet. Capt. Craig Mercier found a temperature break of 55-67 degrees between the Washington and Norfolk Canyons where they ended up hooking the 133 lb. mako.
On the same day, Terry Layton on the “Nontypical” took a trip, just shy of the “Wrangler”, and got into nothing but blue sharks.
Tuna
The “Wrangler” also returned with the first bluefin tuna of the season, caught in the same location as the mako shark. They kept a 39-incher and released two others, one measuring 75-inches.
Hopefully, we will get a string of nice weather and more anglers will be hitting the water.
See you at the docks!
