Article by Sue Foster
“The kids are driving me absolutely bananas! They want to go fishing in the bay… They want to go crabbing too… We don’t know much about either one. Where do we go? What bait should we use?”
This is where your local fishing tackle store comes in! Visit one with your list of questions and you should get your answers quickly. Let the clerk know how old your children are, what kind of fishing equipment you have (if any), and what your level of knowledge is. If you know nothing, be honest about that, and you will get more help. If you go to a local tackle store to ask for help, it’s common courtesy to buy your equipment there. PLUS, if you are a total novice, the nice clerk might tie your rigs on for you! Hint: Watch carefully so you can do it yourself next time.
Young kids, 5 to 8 years old, may be really excited to go fishing and crabbing, but most have short attention spans. It’s best to have the equipment all ready to go. (Hooks and sinkers already tied on the ends of the line.) Keep it active and exciting. Don’t bore them with how to string the rods and reels up. Save that for the older kids. Try not to let them play sword fights with the rods and reels prior to going fishing and get them all messed up! Get to the pier, bait it up, and put it in their hands. OK, now we’re fishing! Get the prep work done before involving the kids.
“Where can we take them?”
The 125th Street Pier behind Northside Park is a very popular pier to take the very young kids for their first fishing and crabbing experiences. You’re not going to catch any big fish, just little Norfolk spot, sand perch, and small flounders. Buy size #6 or #8 hooks, rig them up on a basic high/low top-and-bottom rig (like a crappie rig) with a ½ to 1-ounce bay or bass cast type sinker and bait up with bloodworm, night crawler, or artificial Fishbite Bloodworm. Fish the bottom. If the kids want to use a bobber, position the bobber so the bait is close to the bottom.
If you’re going to Northside Park to go fishing, you should probably go ahead and get a couple of hand lines, an inexpensive crabbing net, and some chicken necks or a box of squid.
Crabbing is very good at the pier at 125th Street, and I can tell you that lots of people go there to fish, and come back to the tackle store to buy crabbing equipment. Crabbing with hand lines just fascinates young children. It’s active. There’s a lot to see and do. Kids don’t care about keeping crabs; they just like to see them. Some families buy a fine mesh shrimp net rather than a crab net so the kids can also scoop up jelly fish and little minnows. It doesn’t take much to excite young children. Sometimes waiting for a fish to bite isn’t as interesting as running down the dock looking for jellyfish!
The Pier at the Isle of Wight, which is located on the island in the middle of the Route 90 Bridge off 62nd Street, is a really nice place to go with kids. The railing is a little high for scooping crabs with nets, so if you decide to go crabbing, buy some collapsible crab traps or a couple of those inexpensive crab rings that you can extend down into the water. To use a crab ring, tie the chicken necks in the bottom of the ring, tie on some extra rope, let it sit on the bottom for 5 or 10 minutes, then just simply pull it up!
Fish the same way you would if you were at Northside Park. Always try to fish these areas on the higher tides as the water can be too shallow at low tide. Get a tide table from the local tackle store or in the Coastal Fisherman. Add 3 hours to the chart for these northern areas and that will give you the peak high tide. Once you find what time the peak high tide will be, fish and crab three hours either side of that tide for the best results. You probably won’t catch anything big at the Isle of Wight, but your chances of catching croaker, flounder, or bluefish are greater here than at the Northside Park. Sometimes anglers hook into a big ray and the fight can go on for an hour!
The Pier behind Convention Hall at 41st Street is another popular place to take young children. Again, you are not going to catch anything big and you must fish the higher tides. Add two hours to the tide chart to pinpoint peak high tide and fish 3 hours either side of the high tide for best results for fish and crabs. Fish the same way as you would at Northside Park or the Isle of Wight. Your chances of also catching croaker, sea robins, flounder, and bluefish are greater here than at the Northside Park. You can also catch crabs here with hand lines or traps. And if you are careful, you can walk out into the water on low tide, walk towards the right, and go clamming.
“Where are my chances of catching something bigger?”
Go South! The 9th Street Pier is a popular little pier on the bayside. Bait up with the worms and little hooks and catch spot, croaker, blowfish, little sea bass and sea robins. But if you bait up with larger, size #1 hooks, with live minnows or shiners and squid strips, you can catch flounder and bluefish!
Same is true for the bulkhead running from 2nd through 4th Streets. This area is very snaggy, so tell the children to fish straight down. Take plenty of extra tackle. There’s a lot of little sea bass for the kids to catch here.
The Oceanic Pier at the southernmost end of Ocean City is better for the older kids since you can catch flounder and bluefish. But there’s still the same little fish for the young kids to catch. The water is deep here, so young children need to be watched carefully. At night, Gotcha Plugs and Spec rigs catch bluefish on the incoming tide. This is a good time to take the older kids.
Same is true for the Route 50 Bridge. Flounder by day, blues by night with lures. And there’s always little fish available for anglers fishing with worms or cut squid. It’s a little loud and probably not the best place to take real young children, but it’s a good place to fish.
The Ocean Pier, which is the pier located off the boardwalk by the Inlet Parking Lot, is a good place for the older kids too because there’s some good shark fishing at night! Use squid or bunker for sharks. Use worms for kingfish and spot. Anglers catch croaker there too, along with some flounder, skates, and little sand sharks.
The Inlet is free fishing, but I just wouldn’t take kids there. And if you’re inexperienced, I just wouldn’t go there and try to fish on the rocks! It’s just too difficult.
Homer Gudelsky Park on the West side of the Route 50 Bridge is nice for the family. You can fish for little fish or fish for bigger fish. Plus there’s a beach for Mom!
Need to learn how to fish? Go out on one of the bay boats on either 2 or 4 hour trips. They are all advertised in this Coastal Fisherman! Don’t want to buy a rod and reel? Rent one at one of the local tackle shops or piers.
Good fishing….
Sue Foster is an outdoor writer and co-owner of Oyster Bay Tackle in Ocean City, MD and Fenwick Tackle in Fenwick, DE.
