Article by Larry Jock
As our spring fishing season continues to be plagued with more windy days than not, there are periodic windows of good weather that get anglers hearts pumping and this past weekend was one of those windows.
White Marlin
I don’t think a day goes by where I don’t receive an email or a phone call asking if the first white marlin has been caught and released. Unbelievably, the answer is no! The only white marlin I even heard of being released was on the “Foolish Pleasures” last weekend, 123 miles down the beach.
Tuna
We saw a smorgasbord of tuna arrive at local scales this past weekend. Giant bluefin tuna were found cruising deep outside the canyons. As you saw on the cover of this weeks issue, the “Nauti Norwegian” arrived back at Sunset Marina on Sunday with a 202 pounder caught in 500 fathoms south of the Poor Man’s. Smaller bluefins were caught in 300 to 500 fathoms between the Baltimore and Poor Man’s Canyons.
Several bigeye tuna were also captured last weekend by anglers trolling between the Rockpile and the 461 Lump where water temperatures were hovering around 66-degrees. All were caught on ballyhoo or spreader bars, with some of the bally’s dressed up with the ever popular Joe Shute lure. On Saturday, the charter boat, “Marli” had a pair of eyeballs, weighing 59 and 62 lbs. and the “Reel Chaos” boated 4 bigeyes at the 461 Lump.
Everyone is reminded to be careful when identifying giant bluefins and bigeyes. With the wide discrepancy in regulations between the two, a misidentification could be costly.
Although a few yellowfins were caught in the canyons off the Delmarva coast, a few boats decided to make the 100 to 125 mile journey down to below the Norfolk Canyon and absolutely crushed them. “Killin’ Time”, with Capt. Jason Norton at the wheel, took an overnight trip on Saturday to the 160 line and returned on Sunday with 21 yellowfins and a mako in the box. At the same location, “Foolish Pleasures” had 14 yellowfins, a mako and a white marlin release and the “Stalker” boxed 9 yellowfins and a mahi in 68 to 73-degree water.
Mahi
We didn’t see a lot of mahi caught last weekend, but the charter boat, “Moore Bills” did end their day with 10 in the box after trolling in 800 fathoms below the Washington Canyon on Saturday.
Sharks
A few makos were caught out in the canyons but we didn’t see any threshers arrive at Ocean City scales last week. There was a 408.2 pounder caught at the Fingers on Sunday by the “Triple Threat” out of the Indian River Marina.
Sea Bass
Sea bass fishing has been hit-or-miss. Larger knotheads continue to be caught in 100+ feet of water by anglers fishing with clams. Capt. Kane Bounds on the charter boat, “Fish Bound” had good luck taking his anglers north to the Old Grounds where they picked up a combination of sea bass and flounder.
Local headboats also had good catches of sea bass with a few flounder mixed in.
Flounder
Many days of windy weather made it difficult for flounder pounders last week, but that didn’t keep a couple of anglers from hooking into some quality fish. On the following page, you see William Castleberry’s 7 lb. 11 oz. doormat that he caught on Sunday while tossing a pink bucktail off the dock at the Coast Guard Station.
Late in the week, Mark Breesman was fishing on the charter boat, “Fish Bound” and nailed a 25-incher at the Old Grounds that weighed 5 lbs. 11 oz. Over the weekend, another group on the “Fish Bound” ended their day with 17 keepers in the box, also from the Old Grounds.
In the bay, the throwback to keeper ratio continues to run high. The best bite was in the East Channel, but fish were also caught in the bay behind Assateague near the duck blinds and also up in the Thorofare. Gulp and minnow combinations have been very productive.
Bluefish
There was a real mixed bag of bluefish in the bay last week. Although smaller fish have dominated the action over the last couple of weeks, we did see some larger fish caught around the Rt. 50 Bridge. Big Bird Cropper continued his spring assault on choppers, catching his limit last Thursday with fish up to 32-inches and 12 lbs. 8 oz. All were caught on Roy Rigs on the north side of the Rt. 50 Bridge during the outgoing tide. Bird said that you had to get your rig deep to get the bigger fish, so 3+ ounces of weight was needed to get into the strike zone. Those fishing with less weight were striking out.
Cobra
The second cobia we have seen so far this year was caught by Jaime Buffington in the Ocean City Inlet. The first cobia was caught a couple of weeks ago by an angler fishing in the surf off South Bethany.
Sheepshead
On Monday morning, a few sheepshead were caught at the South Jetty. The largest we heard of at press time weighed 8 lbs.
Weakfish
Fresh off his win in the Mako Mania Tournament, avid angler, Rich Daiker caught a 28-inch weakfish while tossing a plug at the South Jetty. Rich’s weakie weighed 5 lbs. 6 oz.
Upcoming Tournaments
At the time this report was written on Monday, two tournaments are on the schedule, but the weekend weather forecast is dicey, so check the Coastal Fisherman website for any changes.
The M.S.S.A. Tuna-ment will be held Friday, Saturday and Sunday with weigh-ins at Atlantic Tackle from 4:30 to 8:00.
The Ocean City Marlin Club Small Boat Tournament is Saturday and Sunday. Anglers can fish 1 of 2 days and weigh-ins are at Sunset Marina from 3:00 PM to 6:30 PM.
