Article by Capt. BJ Pietryak
Well, as we know, this past week was not the week to be anywhere near the beaches of Ocean City or any town along the eastern seaboard. Massive storms struck the coast with a vengeance. Springfest was once again canceled due to high winds and flooded roads. The Ocean City Inlet resembled a washing machine for most of last week instead of its normal calm! This made many, if not most anglers sit on their couches tending to rods or watching TV instead of fishing. A few reports of anglers braving the weather did come in but very few of those had anything to report. Victor Bunting, owner of the Ocean Princess, told me he was doing rod maintenance preparation for the opening of sea bass season on the 15 of May.
Sea Bass, Tog & Flounder
Flounder season was off to a good start prior to the storm's arrival with more fish being caught every day. The deeper main channels along the Thorofare were the most productive, with the area behind Assateague Island being a close second. Clean squid strips with a frozen shiner or minnow was the preferred bait. The water is still very cold for this time of the year so the bites have been very subtle. The fish will grab the baits loosely in their mouths but not aggressively taking the bait as in the summertime. Using a 3 count when a bite is felt or a slight drop back was the best working method. Gulp baits have been working okay but using a scented spray or juice on them made their effectiveness close to that of squid. In the spring a longer leader, or dropping back to a lighter leader will increase your chance of fooling these early season fish. The key here is to make sure your drag is set for the line you're using. If you are using a 20 lb. mono leader, then your drag should be set to about 4-5 lbs. of drag. Most anglers would not think of going to a 10 lb. leader for flounder, but my question is, how many 10 lb. flounder have you caught? Even at a drag setting of 3-4 for a 10 lb. leader the fish doesn't have anywhere to go. It will not spool your reel, so take your time, leave the drag alone and you will bring that fish in. The lighter leader will also get you about double the bites than a traditional heavy leader. Sea bass season opened this week as tog is set to close. For sea bass a simple top and bottom rig works the best for getting numbers of fish, while a jig or bucktail will be targeted by the larger fish. The opening day for sea bass is widely anticipated and numerous boats will be out the first few weeks. Targeting the lone or deeper wrecks will often allow you to be less crowded and have a better chance of scoring some nice fish. The African Queen site as well as the Bass Grounds are two of the more popular spots and should be avoided due to overcrowding. The Jack Spot and Great Eastern reef are usually fantastic spots, but fuel prices at the docks will cost quite a bit more to run there. These spots are approximately 30 miles outside of Ocean City. Fresh clam is always the preferred bait with salted clam and squid being second. Sand fleas and fish bites are used by many who don't want the mess of squid or clam all over their boat. As I stated earlier, jigs are very popular this time of year for targeting the bigger trophy fish. As with all fishing the lightest jig or weight you can use will always work the best. Depending on the water current you can get away with jigs as light as 4 ozs. If the current is drifting you too fast and the lure is not reaching the bottom, then a weight of up to 10 ozs. may be necessary. Once the lure makes contact with the wreck start jigging it up while reeling to about 20 ft. off the wreck and then drop back down and repeat the cycle. You will mainly be targeting these fish on wrecks and rubble piles, such as cable piles, and should expect to get hung up. Releasing the tension as the snag is felt and softly bouncing the rod tip will quite often dislodge the hook from the wreck. This is unless you're fishing a cable pile, in which case you will probably be tying a new rig on! Despite the risk to your lure, cable piles like those on the African Queen can be fantastic structures for holding sea bass.
Rockfish, Bluefish & Black Drum
Rockfish had really begun to pick up prior to the storm with many over slot and trophy sized fish coming on to the beach and boats. Chuck Stevenson had a great day this past week on Assateague beach pulling in two 38” and 39” stripers. The fish were caught on sand fleas and Fish Gum. The reports from the island beach saw most fish were being caught on the southern end near the Virginia line. The basic rig for surf fishing for these large rockfish as well as black drum are a nice long leader of mono or fluorocarbon with a 7/0 or 8/0 circle hook attached at the end. A sliding sinker rig is used where the small swivel attaches the main line and leader. This sliding sinker allows the fish to take the bait without feeling the weight and line. As the fish swims off with the bait all you have to do is engage the reel and hold on. The preferred bait for both of these fish is either large surf clams or crab. The clam or crab is secured onto the hook using sewing thread or rubber bands.
Crabs & Clams
Clamming is still very slow. With the colder water the clams are very deep and not easy to rake up. As the water warms over the next couple of weeks we should see the clams return closer to the surface. Crabbing this week was a bust with most anglers pulling their pots prior to the storm. Still, Bob Brown reported that he caught several jumbos in his pots this week. Tommy Fowler of West OC reports he had a nice pot pull this past week despite the weather. Crab numbers for Maryland are around 6-8 keepers per pot with at least half being jumbos over 7.5”.
Until hopefully calmer seas next week...
Tight lines and fins up
