Article by Larry Jock
Mother Nature made it a rough one for anglers last week. The wind blew all week and really didn’t start to die down until late on Sunday and when I say “die down” I am saying relative to what we had in previous days. It was still puffing more than normal.
The conditions made it especially tough for surfcasters who have been waiting patiently for big striped bass to come close enough to the beach to grab their offerings of fresh bunker, peeler crabs or sand fleas. Although they have been kept busy over the last several weeks with large bluefish hitting anything thrown their way, very few big stripers have been beached. However, it looks like things may be heating up with some nice fish caught over the weekend and on Monday morning as this report was being written.
It’s has been interesting that the commercial netters have been returning with some nice catches of stripers over the last few weeks, but surfcasters just haven’t had the same luck. Some have a theory that the fish have been feeding mainly on crabs and sand fleas and haven’t been interested in offerings of bunker. Other anglers have theorized that the fish are filled with roe and are just in the heavy migrating mode. I have seen pictures of big fish being caught from the beach up in New Jersey, so I have a feeling that the big fish may be cruising by us a little further off the beach than we normally see during their spring run.
Who knows? It could be a whole host of reasons. Hopefully, with the bite looking more promising this past weekend and on Monday morning, surfcasters will soon be rewarded for their patience.
In the bay, anglers who wished to endure the incredibly windy conditions we had EVERY?day last week found big chopper bluefish all over the bay, but those fishing from 32nd Street down to the East Channel off 3rd Street reported seeing bluefish boiling on the surface on many occasions. Little Emma Matarese pulled in the biggest bluefish of the week when she hooked into a 15 3/4 pounder in the East Channel while using fresh bunker for bait. Vinnie Locascio caught a 12 lb. bluefish while fishing from the pier on 9th Street which has been a good location for several weeks now.
Big bluefish were also caught in the bay behind Assateague Island with the waters behind Frontier Town producing some of the best catches of the week.
Bluefish are known for attacking anything thrown their way, but anglers have had good results recently by trolling swim shads and Rat-L-Traps. Big Bird Cropper continued to have good results with his famous Roy Rig, a salt-and-pepper swim shad on a short shanked jig.
Up until the bad weather that rolled through last week, flounder fishing was showing some improvement with keeper fish being caught in the Thorofare, mainly on the troll. Trolling from edge to edge of the narrow, shallow channels on the Thorofare flats gave anglers the best shot at boating a keeper.
On Saturday, anglers on the charter boat, “Get Sum” battled the windy conditions in the Thorofare and ended their day with 2 flatties measuring 19 3/4-inches and 20 1/4-inches. Capt. Nick said they also had 7 throwbacks during the trip and the fish were biting both pink and white Gulp! Alive Swimming Mullets.
Offshore, it was a wasted week for those hoping to catch the first white marlin of the season. The water that anglers caught makos, tuna and mahi in a week ago has broken up, but I’m sure the temperature charts are being studied hard by local captains looking to deposit the $15,000 for the first white marlin catch of the season will bring this year.
Finally, the Ocean City Reef Foundation held their annual dinner on Sunday night. The event has outgrown the Ocean City Marlin Club, so this year it was held at Seacrets. Around 160 people attended the dinner and through the admission fee and money received from silent and Chinese auctions, it looks like they raised more money than last year, so congratulations to Capt. Monty Hawkins and his team of volunteers. As Capt. Monty loves to say, “More money equals more reefs” and we all want that. To join the Reef Foundation, log on to their website at ocreefs.org. A $50 donation gets you charts of all of their reef sites.
Until next week, I’ll see you at the scales!
