Article by Capt. Mark Sampson
They say “there’s more than one fish in the sea,” and as fishermen, we know how right “they” are! Even if you never leave our home waters there’s probably more fishing options here on Delmarva than most could experience in a lifetime. While it’s not too hard to learn the ins-and-outs of catching the more popular species, some of the less mainstream fish are a little more difficult to get acquainted with. Here’s an introduction to just a few.
Hickory Shad
A few years ago I was striper fishing in mid-December when I noticed a few birds working near the Rt. 50 Bridge. Motoring closer to the activity, I could see periodic flashes from some kind of fair-size fish in the water below the birds. They didn’t look like rockfish so at first I assumed the fish were snapper bluefish. Casting a small fly out into the mayhem I soon had a hook-up. But when I actually got the fish to the boat, I was very surprised to see that it was not a bluefish but a hickory shad.
My surprise stemmed from the fact that I’d never seen or heard of shad showing up so late in the season. Usually we enjoy a strong run during May and early June, but shad in December was a new one to me. The stripers weren’t biting that afternoon but the fun we had catching and releasing 18-21 inch shad on light tackle more than made up for the lack of action from our intended quarry. That late season shad run lasted for at least a couple of weeks and during that time the fish proved every bit as aggressive as we’d come to know them to be in the spring. Even though this species of shad has no open season in Maryland and are, therefore, a catch-and-release fish only, they can be one of the most enjoyable fish our inshore waters have to offer.
Hickory shad might be caught at any time during the spring, summer or fall, but the most intense and reliable bite typically occurs from mid-May until early June and they are ideal targets for light, ultra-light and fly tackle fishermen. As a matter of fact, very light line not only provides the most fun, it’s also the most effective tackle to use as it’s better suited for casting the very small artificial lures used for shad. Got-Cha plugs, tiny bucktails, spoons, shad darts, Spec-Rigs and a variety of flies are some of the most popular offerings for shad. Anglers will find that by replacing the treble hooks with single hooks and smashing down the barbs will make it a lot easier to unhook and release the fish once they’re brought to the boat.
Shad are even kid-friendly! Since they don’t have teeth, they’re a lot safer to handle than even small bluefish, and with the help of a wet rag to keep the fish from banging around the boat or pier too much, anglers of all ages should find little trouble restraining, unhooking and releasing their catch in a good and healthy condition.
Shad might be hooked at any depth, but most of the time anglers will take them when they’re up, close to the surface pushing bait. That’s when the birds will likely be working over them and when they’ll provide the best action and most excitement. Feeding shad won’t be in tight schools, instead they’ll be spread out over a fairly wide area which will allow multiple boats to work the same bunch of fish without interfering with each other. And since shad don’t seem to spook too easily from boats, anglers should always be ready to hook fish at the end of their retrieve - just 4-5 feet from the hull!
Most of the shad action occurs from the mouth of the Ocean City Inlet up to the Rt. 50 Bridge, but during the spring I’ve also caught them in the Thorofare and heard reports of them as far north as the Rt. 90 Bridge. The falling tide is usually best, but sometimes the fish will show a preference for an incoming flow. As long as the water is moving there’s a chance. The shad bite pretty much quits when the current slacks.
False Albacore
Every fall, anglers from all over the country converge on North Carolina to get in on what many consider some of the most exciting and enjoyable light tackle action on the East Coast. Each morning the fleet heads out in search of the prize quarry which is sure to test every inch of line, every knot, every drag washer and every tensed muscle between man and fish. It’s the kind of quality, light tackle fun that we read about in the glossy pages of national fishing magazines and watch on the outdoor channels.
Fortunately, Delmarva anglers don’t have to run to North Carolina to get in on the fun, because the fish I’m referring to is the wonderful, or lowly (depending upon how you look at them) false albacore, a.k.a. little tunny, albi, apple-knocker, turkey or bonito. In these parts, most anglers have traditionally not looked too favorably upon the false albacore because the little 5-20 pound members of the tuna family typically attack baits and lures intended for more popular fish such as tuna, dolphin and billfish, so it can be quite a disappointment when someone plunks themselves down in the fighting chair with the thought of engaging battle with one of the larger “glory” fish only to realize that their “big catch” has turned out to be a false albacore.
But as “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” false albacore under the right circumstances are a wonderful resource for anglers to tap into. They’re strong, fast and willing to hit both natural and artificial baits on the surface and at mid-depths and are often available in great quantities. What more could you ask for out of a game fish?
Okay, I know, how about good table-fare? Well, as far as that goes - forget it. The super-strong taste of false albacore makes them virtually inedible. But what they lack in taste, the false albacore more than makes up for in pure fun.
In September and October, false albacore can be found anywhere from 10-25 miles offshore. Good places to look for them include the Jackspot, Twin Wreck area, Southeast Lumps, the Bass Grounds and all along the 20-fathom line. A good way to locate these fish is to troll small spoons or feathers, and once you get a few bites in one area, shut down and either anchor or drift. Then do some light chunking to hold them around the boat.
Anglers can use chunking-type baits such as cut butterfish, small bunker or squid on small circle hooks to catch false albacore, but for even better fun they should consider casting small diving plugs like Rapala’s or Rattle-Traps, jigs or medium size surface poppers. And as anyone who is into saltwater fly fishing knows - hooking and landing a false albacore on fly tackle is a pinnacle achievement of the sport!
They won’t jump like a dolphin or dig deep like a big tuna, but these miniature members of the tuna family will always give the light tackle enthusiast the kind of fun they’ll not likely forget. When hooked, a false albacore will typically stay just under the surface as it make a series of long fast runs that often end with a quick change of direction that sometimes has them racing back towards the boat. Anglers can only hold-on during the runs, crank like mad when the fish charges in and then be ready to run, crawl or climb around the boat as the fish darts from one end to the other. Exciting fishing? You bet!
So few fishermen actually target false albacore around here that Delmarva anglers will find they usually have all the fish to themselves and don’t have to worry about other boats interfering with their efforts. Another nice thing is that a half-hour run offshore sure beats a five-hour drive to North Carolina!
Triggerfish
Though black sea bass are clearly the most popular stars of the wrecks and reefs, they’re certainly not the only inhabitants of offshore structures. In late June and early July, scores of gray triggerfish move inshore and begin living fin-to-fin with their buddies the sea bass, tautog, jacks, porgies and other fish that thrive among the rubble.
At first glance, triggerfish may look more like a fish that should be swimming around a tropical coral reef or in someone’s aquarium, rather than flopping about the inside of a Delmarva fisherman’s cooler. But triggers are no strangers to these waters, and local anglers who have come to know them are very aware that they’re challenging, strong fighters and one of the best tasting fish that swims off our coast.
Anglers will find that triggerfish have a Jekyll-Hyde type personality in that sometimes they’ll ferociously attack and consume fishermen’s baits as fast as they are dropped into the water, and other times they’ll show little, if any, interest in taking a bait at all. Unlike most other fish, triggers have the ability to stop dead in the water and even swim backwards. This allows them to cautiously approach a bait and use their little mouth and big rabbit-like teeth to gently pick a hook clean from all sides before the angler even knows what happened! To help combat this aggravating talent, anglers should consider using modest size baits clumped on relatively small hooks for triggers, rather than the typically long “fluttering” type baits often used for sea bass. Triggerfish will eat just about any bait you put over, but squid has proven to be one of the most durable offerings anglers can employ. When the triggers get really “picky,” squid tentacles can even be threaded on the hook as one might with a worm, thereby minimizing the chance of the bait being stolen without the fish being hooked.
Anglers hoping for triggers should look for them first with their depthfinder as they pass over a wreck or reef. They will often show up as a small school of fair size fish, 5 to 10 feet over the structure, rather than right down in it. While fishing, anglers should keep watch below their boat every time a fish of any type is cranked up to the surface. A few, or even an entire school of triggers will often follow a hooked fish right up to a boat and then hang 5 to 10 feet below the surface. Not unlike what is sometimes done while dolphin fishing, by leaving the hooked trigger in the water close to the boat, fishermen can often hold the rest of the school close and catch a number of them before they retreat back to the depths.
After successfully catching a triggerfish, there’s one more hurdle anglers must overcome before they can finally sit back and enjoy a wonderful meal of these great tasting fish – they still have to clean them! Triggerfish have incredibly tough, leather-like skin that does not yield easily to even the sharpest of knives. On the Coastal Fisherman website (www.coastalfisherman.net) there’s a great instructional video showing how to quickly and easily fillet a triggerfish by inserting a thin blade fillet knife in the vent and then cutting from the inside out that makes the tough job a cinch.
Spadefish
Spadefish are one of those fish that you typically see a lot more than you catch. With a habit of popping up close to the surface a few yards away from the boat, but not close enough to bite a single thing that comes with any kind of “string” attached, it’s like the little black and white banded demons just love to tease the heck out of anglers! I’m thinking that spadefish must have learned that trick from their friends the cobia, but unlike the usual appearance of a cobia under the boat, there is no such thing as “one spadefish”. They’re “always” in a school - maybe that’s why they’re so smart!
Spadefish are structure fish and the more relief to the structure the better. Spades don’t hang out right in and among the structure, like sea bass and tautog, but instead will choose to stay around the perimeter or above the debris. I’ve found these fish over wrecks in as little as 20-feet of water and in as much as 90-feet, and most times it has been on hot-clam days in the middle of the summer, though I can’t say if those conditions have anything to do with success other than it makes it easier to spot the fish and put a bait in front of them.
When it comes to finding spadefish you don’t really find them as much as they find you. Though the school can be easily spotted on a depthfinder, by just looking at them on a screen there’s no way to tell for sure that they’re not triggers, bluefish, jacks or any other schooling fish down below. Fortunately for fishermen, a characteristic of spadefish is to rise up close to the surface when a boat sets up over the structure they’re on. The school won’t usually come right up to the boat, but most of the time they’ll at least be within casting range.
Seeing the fish is important because if spades are deep they’re not likely to be caught. These are not a fish you just drop a line over the side and wait for a bite. Spade fishing is a directed thing where your bait and tackle is specifically set up for them and no other fish.
Look closely at a spadefish and you’ll see that they pretty much resemble “angelfish” in that their bodies are tall but relatively narrow and their mouth is very small. That small mouth is the “problem” because it allows them to be even better at stealing bait off a hook than a triggerfish, and that’s saying a lot!
Because they are so darn selective about what they eat, spadefish are not going to be caught on the same tackle wreck fishermen will likely be using for sea bass and tautog. Their little mouths and finicky habits require small hooks tied to very light line and leader. I like spinning tackle in the 10 to 15-pound class and a 3-foot leader of 12-pound fluorocarbon. When the fish are being super finicky I’ve had luck by just tying the hook directly to 6-pound test line with no leader or swivel. Just hook, line and bait – it doesn’t get much simpler than that! Sometimes it helps to position a small float about 6-feet above the hook to help keep the bait in the strike-zone, but anglers should always strive to keep their terminal tackle to a bare minimum. In some areas spadefish are more abundant and more aggressive feeders so anglers can get away with bigger rigs and heavier tackle. So far I haven’t met any of those fish in the waters off Ocean City.
The technique for catching spadefish is simply a scaled-down version of tuna chunking except that instead of butterfish, anglers will use clams. The process involves mincing up the clam and throwing small bits of it out to hopefully get them feeding. Once they start to eat it’s just a matter of casting or drifting back to the fish a small bit of clam that’s been threaded on the hook in such a way that it conceals the hook and looks like just another chunk that the fish are feeding on. It helps if anglers can see the fish take the bait so they know just when to set the hook – a split second too late and the fish gets a free meal and the fisherman gets to rebait. However, if their timing is just right an angler will have a chance to enjoy an exciting light tackle fight with one of these beautiful fish that also happen to be one of the best tasting fish off our coast!
Red Drum
Big red drum (AKA; redfish, channel bass) are not a fish that most local anglers tangle with. And that's not so much because they aren't available, but because they're more of a specialty fish that rarely show up in the kind of huge numbers that makes it easy for any old "Joe Fisherman" to go out and intentionally or even accidentally catch. Most drum are caught by surf anglers who pretty much have the knowledge to deploy the right bait and tackle at just the right time when the fish are moving past our coast. Landing a big red in the surf is certainly a great accomplishment and testimony to the skills of anyone who enjoys fishing from the beach.
Local surf anglers know that late September and October is the time when they have the best shot of hooking one of these migrating, big "bulls" from the beach. But as they move down the coast the drum can also be found from the shoreline and out five or more miles, so the joy of doing battle with these fish isn't necessarily reserved strictly to surfcasters.
Before going much farther, I'd better point out that most, if not all, of these nearshore drum run 40-50 inches in length. While that makes for a nice big fish, anglers need to know that it's too big to show the gang back home anything but a photo. Red drum have a "slot-limit" which allows only fish that measure between 18 and 27 inches in length to be kept. So keep in mind that this is strictly a catch-and-release fishery. Anglers who can't handle such a thought had better avoid the temptation and steer clear of these fish altogether!
This nearshore drum fishery is not one that's widely recognized or even publicized by those who know about it, but for at least a few weeks each fall it allows anglers a fun and somewhat unique fishing opportunity.
I sort of stumbled into these fish accidentally while bottom and shark fishing over the years in areas such as Little Gull Shoal, McCabes and Great Gull Shoal. Usually what happens is the big fish hit our bottom rigs intended for trout and croaker or they snap-up one of our deep shark baits. Since these fish usually run 35-50 pounds it's easier to get them to the boat when they take the tackle intended for sharks, but even when they hit our light bottom tackle (two-hook rig baited with squid), we've been fortunate to land most of those that we’ve hooked.
Just because they're caught in one place today doesn't mean they'll be in the same spot tomorrow, so nearshore anglers will not likely encounter the big reds every time, or even most of the time that they go fishing, therefore, catching one is an accomplishment that usually requires persistence and dedication on the part of the angler. When deciding where to fish I usually look for places where my fishfinder shows a good presence of baitfish and a lot of trout and croaker on the bottom. Pulling into such areas, the machine will sometimes "mark" big fish close to the bottom but there's no way to tell for certain if they are drum or sharks, unless the fish show up in a definite "school" which is not a characteristic of sharks.
When a likely spot is found I usually prefer to anchor the boat and allow the moving fish to come to us. In most cases, we simply go about our business of bottom and shark fishing and figure that if the drum pass by we'll get our shots on whatever lines they chose to take. But if drum are the primary target, then single (circle) hook bottom rigs baited with clam or larger strips of squid or cut fish are used. Such baits must be checked frequently because at this time of the year they are easily stolen off the hook by snapper blues and other small fish.
The areas these fish might be found could range in depths anywhere from 25-feet on top of a shoal to 70-feet in the middle of a slew. Unless the drum is caught on the shallow side of that spectrum, anglers should be prepared for the fact that the fish might not be able to swim back to the bottom after it's been released. This is caused by a change in pressure on the fish's swim bladder which allows the internal gases to expand and act like a life jacket for the fish.
All the drum needs to do is swim down a few feet so the gases can recompress, but particularly if the fish was taken on light line, the struggle often saps so much energy from the fish that it has trouble getting down. Anglers who have a "venting" tool can use it to vent the gas and allow the drum to descend, but those who don't have such a tool can make a "lowering device" by tying a tiny hook and a pound or more of weight to the end of a long cord - I use the sash-weight and line that anchors my wreck-marking buoy. The hook is put through a thin sliver of flesh on one of the drum's lips and the fish and weight is lowered 30 or more feet down. Then, by snatching on the cord the small hook will pull free and the fish will be at a safe depth.
Since any drum caught must be released as quickly as possible, anglers should keep their photo sessions short and if a lowering device is used it should be made up ahead of time. I know this sounds like a lot to go through just to release a fish, but when you figure that these big drum are the mature breeders of the species it only stands to reason that they should be given every chance possible to survive their encounter with what will surely be a very happy angler!
Enjoy the diverse fishery we are lucky to have off the coast of Delmarva. You just never know what fish will be at the end of your line.
Captain Mark Sampson is an outdoor writer and captain of the charter boat “Fish Finder”, docked at the Ocean City Fishing Center.
