Article by Larry Jock
It was a tough week for fishermen. The wind blew steady and some days hard, making it difficult to get out. The sad part is that the ultra-clean water we had in the middle of the week got roughed up pretty good and is now dirty.
From the Surf
We didn’t see any blitzes this past week, and the bite has definitely slowed down since all of the action around April 23rd, but that doesn’t mean some nice fish weren’t caught.
Assateague surfcasters had to battle through numerous skates and dogfish sharks if they wanted to hook a keeper striped bass, but it did happen.
We didn’t see the good striper bite from the beaches in North Ocean City that we saw the week before, however some anglers were able to hook into some chopper bluefish around the MD/DE line.
Anglers continue to get the best results from using bunker heads and bunker chunks. Some are needing to put their baits on floats to keep them off the bottom and away from the crabs.
Flounder
With clean water most of the week, I thought we would see more keeper flounder hit the docks, but this 19-inch minimum is making it tough this early in the season.
Water temperatures in the bay cooled off slightly as the weekend progressed. Heading into Thursday, the water temperature hovered between 67-degrees and 74-degrees, with a spike up to 77-degrees during the incoming tide on Friday. However, by the time the weekend came to a close, we were down between 60 and 65 degrees.
Anglers are catching flounder, it’s just that they really need to put in their time to catch a keeper. I spoke to one veteran angler who told me that he has caught almost 40 flounder so far this year, and hasn’t had a keeper yet.
On Wednesday, anglers on the “Bay Bee” had 3 keepers and 22 throwbacks. Capt. Bob said that quite a few of the throwbacks were in the 18-inch range, just shy of the 19-inch minimum. Two of the flounder were caught on squid and shiner combinations while the third keeper was caught on a salmon belly. Capt. Bob has been focusing his action in the bay behind Assateague Island.
One angler who I’ve seen a few times this year is Steve Flohr from Dover, PA. Steve stopped in with two keepers, weighing 5.1 lbs. and 5.4 lbs. He has had good luck bump-trolling near the Rt. 90 Bridge. Steve’s technique is pretty slick and definitely effective. He has a small boat with two 8-hp motors. Once he arrives at his spot, he shuts one off and trolls with the other. This allows him to troll slowly and quietly. An interesting and effective way of doing it.
On Friday, the “Bay Bee” returned to the bay behind Assategue and returned with 3 more keepers, with the largest measuring 21.75-inches.
Steady winds accompanied the arrival of the weekend, which kept most anglers at the dock. The “Get Sum” did go out on Saturday morning and anglers caught throwback flounder before switching over to tautog fishing.
The most productive flounder fishing spots right now are in the Sinepuxent Bay near the duck blinds, around the airport and up near the Rt. 90 Bridge. Anglers are finding success using bull minnows, shiners and Gulp! Alive white swimming mullets.
Striped Bass
Striped bass anglers who are insomniacs had the best luck this week landing stripers around the Rt. 50 Bridge this past week. The best bite happened late, between 11 pm and 2 am in the morning when the outgoing tide slowed and and made the switch to the incoming tide.
Bridge anglers, a secretive bunch, have been limiting out with most fishing off the north side of the bridge and letting the current bring their lure back to them. Storm lures, Gotcha plugs and bucktails all produced fish.
Small stripers were also caught in good numbers by anglers casting bucktails tipped with curly tails around the Assateague Bridge.
Tautog
With the sea bass season still closed (opens May 22nd), inshore anglers continue to target tautog. Mid-week, Matt King kept two tog measuring 22.25-inches and 25.5-inches while fishing on the “Morning Star”. Both were caught on green crabs. On Sunday, Capt. Monty braved the strong winds and got onto some tautog at Great Gull where Michael Mancini caught 4 keepers and Willie Thomas landed himself a 20.5-incher.
Remember, effective May 16th anglers are only allowed to keep 2 tautog with a minimum size of 14-inches.
Bluefish
By far, the most interesting catch of the week came in from Darrell Zepp of Westminster, MD. It’s not that Darrell’s 25-inch bluefish was that unique, it was the way he caught it. Taking his cue from striper fishermen in the Chesapeake Bay, Darrell built two planer boards, one to use for the incoming tide and one for the outgoing tide. The planer boards were attached to cords that were tied to the 4th Street Bulkhead. Darrell used release clips that slid down the cord and were attached to his fishing line. This set-up enabled Darrell to get his line out and away from the bulkhead, a notorious spot to get snagged.
This is the first time I have ever heard of an angler using this method to fish. Darrell checked with the DNR Police and was told that as long as his set-up didn’t interfere with boaters in the East Channel, he was free to continue fishing that way.
My guess is that this method is fine right now, but come the busy season it would be impossible to fish this way due to heavy boat traffic.
Tournaments
A new tournament will kick-off the season this year. The Ocean City Marlin Club is bringing back a bluefish tournament to Ocean City. Veteran Ocean City fishermen told me that there used to be some great bluefish tournaments in town, and many are happy to see one return. The tournament is on Memorial Day weekend, May 29th and 30th. If you want more information, you can call 410-213-1613.