Article by Capt. BJ Pietryak
Calm winds and smooth seas were the story this week fishing out of Ocean City Maryland. Other than a west wind and biting flies this was a beautiful week to be on the bays and near coastal areas.
Sea Bass
Sea bass remains strong on the near shore wrecks. As usual for summer fishing many wrecks are full of juvenile sea bass, but this year if you put the time in, several nice size knotheads can be found. Deeper wrecks like the Great Eastern Reef as well as the Jack Spot remain the main targets. I spoke with Victor on the Ocean Princess who stated, if not for the pandemic this would have been a banner year for sea bass. Many days in the summer even a few keepers are hard to find, however this year we saw several customers on the headboats returning to the docks with multiple keepers. When you add in all the mahi and flounder that are around, you have a chance at catching a lot of fish for dinner. The Judith M, as well as the Morning Star, also reported good catches of sea bass this week. Russ Garufi of Titan Yachts was out this past week and caught 17 keeper flounder, 22 keeper knothead sea bass as well as continuing a little further off and catching 14 big blueline tilefish.
Flounder
Flounder this year is the best I can remember in many years. Lately however the back bay has been hit or miss in the last few weeks. When they were found, this week brought many nice size flounder to the docks. Big Bird Cropper was out this week catching some nice flounder near one of his favorite spots, the Rt. 50 Bridge. He also got a few bluefish as well as some short rockfish. News from the bay headboats was that the flounder fishing was steady all week. The main areas catching the most were the area around the Rt. 50 Bridge, the bay behind Assateague Island and the main area of the Thorofare along the docks north of the inlet. Fresh bait of squid and minnows were the most successful baits used. Remember when fishing the bays of Ocean City, use the smallest sinker you can to hold bottom. In most cases this is about 2-4 oz. Many anglers go too heavy and fail to feel the bites or fail to make a good hook set. The use of fresh bait is also a key factor recently. Using the same container of squid you used a week ago and frozen minnows will yield a much lower hook up percentage than if you used fresh squid and live minnows.
On the near shore front we saw many headboats coming back to the dock with not only nice catches of sea bass, but also some nice flounder. The area of the Bass Grounds as well as the African Queen are great areas to target. If you're looking for a trophy fish head to deeper waters along the shipping channel near the DE Lightship. The use of braided line is recommended as you will be fishing in water from 60-120 ft with strong currents. The wrecks just south of the Lightship have held some giant flounder this past week. The Fenwick Shoals has also been a key producer this week with many anglers using live spot.
Sharks Blues,Rockfish
Inshore chumming around the wrecks has produced some nice dusky sharks as well as small blues. We are seeing a lot more mullet pods out on the surface in the past few weeks. As these bait fish move inshore, the bluefish, sharks and rockfish will be close behind. In the inlet the fishing piers are reporting catches of small bluefish as well as small rockfish in the evening hours. Jigs and cut bait are responsible for most of these catches. At the Rt. 50 Bridge, bouncing a live spot will produce a larger bluefish or even keeper rockfish. Target the areas on the down current side of the bridge pilings and try to drop your baits as close to the bridge as possible. These fish will be sitting in the break water just below the bridge structure waiting for bait to be swept by. Triggerfish were also on many inshore wrecks this week. Target triggerfish with small pieces of squid or bloodworms.
Surf Fishing
The west wind and biting flies kept many off the beach this week. I did receive a report from Assateague Island of small bluefish being caught on bunker rigs. The anglers also caught some nice kingfish when they could get out. In the north Ocean city area on the beach it was reported that at night small sharks and rays could be caught on cut bait. As the temps begin to cool we should see a rise in the amount of fish in the surf.
So till next week...
Tight lines and fins up!
