Article by Larry Jock
This past week is a tough one to describe. On one hand, there weren’t a lot of fish caught, but there were some really nice fish brought to the docks.
Speaking of nice fish, how about that 52-inch striped bass caught by Donald Hatfield off the beach on Assateague Island. That was just one of a bunch of big stripers landed off Assateague over the last week and a half. Allen Sklar beached a 51-incher and Scott Cooper landed a beautiful 44-inch linesider. In addition, other fish in the upper 30-inch range were caught by surfcasters, primarily on bunker heads. This is the time of year when the big stripers migrate up the coast towards their summer grounds off New York and New England, and the bite typically only lasts a couple of weeks.
Black drum, skates and sharks were also caught by surfcasters with boomers hooked on chunks of clams.
Also on Assateague, the first reports of bluefish showing up came in this weekend. Anglers have been crushing bluefish off Hatteras, NC and everyone was wondering when they were going to arrive in our local waters. Reports of bluefish off the coast of New Jersey had many anglers scared that the choppers had passed us by. It looks like this may not be the case. Henry Busby caught a 13 pounder off the beach in Bethany and reports came in about snapping blues in the Inlet and around the Rt. 50 Bridge. Bluefish can be caught on practically anything from fresh bait to metal jigs. These fish will give you a tremendous fight, especially on light tackle. A lot of anglers will use a wire leader to protect against bite offs. I’ve always used a little heavier mono leader and it has worked out fine. Remember to check your leader after each catch since bluefish can really chafe your line, causing problems with future hook-ups.
Local headboats continue to have good trips targeting tautog and sea bass. The “Judith M” returned on Friday with an especially productive trip and laid some really nice tog on the dock at Bahia Marina (check out the picture on page 17). Mike Whiter from Northridge, CA continued to hook into big tog, coming back with a pair of 16 pounders. Also on this trip, Dennis Muhlenforth landed a 5 lb. sea bass. Capt. Kane Bounds had his anglers parked on ocean wrecks in 55-degree water.
Anglers are having good results by using green crabs for tog bait and strips of squid and clams for sea bass. If you can’t get a hold of any green crabs, don’t be afraid to use the Gulp! Alive Peeler Crab or Sandflea artificial baits. They work really well, much to the amazement of one particular local headboat captain. A final comment on tautog, effective May 16th the creel limit in Maryland was reduced to 2 per person, still with a 14-inch minimum. Tog fishing in Delaware is closed until June 30th and until June 24th in Virginia.
Other ocean wrecks that produced good catches were Russell’s Reef, the African Queen and the Subway Cars dropped at the Jackspot. It is so encouraging to see the Subway Car Reef already producing nice catches of sea bass. With more cars scheduled to be dropped in the next 12 months, the Ocean City Reef Foundation’s system of reefs will only get better. The cost to join the organization and receive a set of reef charts with coordinates is only $25. You can join by calling 410-208-0064 or by visiting their website at www.ocreeffoundation.com.
In our local bays, flounder fishing was sporadic this past week with bad weather and dirty water keeping most flounder fisherman at the docks or searching for keepers. Until the weekend, water temperature in the Inlet ranged between 60 and 70 degrees, spiking on the high tide. Over the weekend and into Monday morning, water temperature dropped down a few degrees into the upper 50’s.
The largest flounder caught in Ocean City so far this year was landed by Scott Peters. The 30-inch flattie weighed in at 7 lbs. 12 oz. and was caught on a minnow at an undisclosed location. Early in the week, when the weather was spectacular, Roger, Steve and Scott Hoffman headed to the bay behind Assateague and ended up with 7 keepers. Scott landed the largest flounder, weighing in at 5 lbs. 12 oz. Interestingly, all of the fish were caught on Gulp! Alive Swimming Mullets. Steve showed me his rig which consisted of a three-way swivel where he dropped down about 12 inches to his sinker. Off the swivel, Steve ran a 6-foot leader to a 1/0 flounder hook (kahle). He left a little tag end on the knot to his hook and pushed the Gulp! bait up and over the tag end to help secure it on the hook.
Hot spots for flounder continue to be in the bay behind Assateague near the airport and further south near the duck blinds. A few fish were also caught on the flats, north of the Thorofare. Larry Moist caught a nice 21-incher on the flats using a minnow & Mister Twister combination.
The most interesting catch in the bay last week was not the largest fish by any means. On Wednesday, Rich Bell of Baltimore, MD caught the rare and elusive weakfish, a 19-incher in the bay down by the airport. I say this with tongue in cheek, since it is a rare occurrence to see a weakfish, or gray trout, landed in our local waters. When I was a kid fishing in the Delaware Bay, that was all we went for and it was a rare day when you came back empty handed. In my opinion, it would be great to see a moratorium placed on catching these fish to see if the stock would rebound in the same way as the striped bass fishery.
The first Ocean City tournament isn’t until the Mako Mania Shark Tournament on June 5th-7th. However, if you are a flounder fisherman looking for some tournament action, Lewes Harbour Marina in Lewes, DE is holding their annual Flounder Tournament on Friday, May 22nd. Joe always puts on a good tournament, so it would be worth the 45 minute drive.
That’s all for this week. I hope to see you at the scales.
