Article by Larry Jock
Challenge Cup
Unfortunately, the team from the Ocean City Marlin Club didn’t make it 3 wins in a row, losing last weekend to the Cape May Tuna & Marlin Club by a score of 5,700 points to 4,650 points. Cape May jumped out to an early lead on Friday, outscoring Ocean City 3,900 points to 2,550 points. “Espadon” led the way for Ocean City with 600 points.
On Day 2, boats were greeted with very rough seas and quite a few had to cut their day short with some returning home at only 8 knots. Although Ocean City put more points on the board, they could not overcome the Day 1 deficit. The “DA Sea” was the top Ocean City boat on Day 2 with 600 points.
Congratulations to the team from Cape May. We are lucky to have some of the best billfishing boats in the world sailing out of Ocean City, so beating our guys is no easy task.
Flounder
It really wasn’t a good week for flounder fishing. Poor weather early in the week kept a lot of boats at the dock and turned the water into chocolate milk. A few flatties came in from boats drifting in the Fishbowl, the East Channel and out around the South Jetty. Fishing with live bait, such as spot or mullet, was the ticket, but we also saw some fish caught on the larger, 6-inch Gulp! artificial baits as well.
On Friday, Big Bird Cropper and David Leizear caught their limit of flounder while tossing Roy Rigs around the Rt. 50 Bridge. I guess Big Bird has received so many inquiries about Roy Rigs that he started his own website at RoyRig.com, where you can not only find out about the rigs, but purchase them as well.
The better flounder action right now is definitely out on the wrecks and reefs, where local head boats returned with some nice catches of both flounder and sea bass.
This time of year, look for big flounder around the rocks at the Cement Plant, around the pilings of the Rt. 50 Bridge, in the deep holes by the Coast Guard Station, along the rocks on the north side of the inlet and at the South Jetty.
Croaker
Some good size hard heads are being caught in the bay right now by anglers fishing with Gulp! artificial baits and Fishbites bloodworms. The area just south of the Rt. 50 Bridge has been a good spot, along with the mouth of the Commercial Harbour and in the Fishbowl.
Sheepshead
Sheepshead have been the star of the show in the bay during the last couple of weeks. The charter boat, “Lucky Break” was on the cover last week with a fantastic catch at the South Jetty and followed that up with good days on Tuesday and Thursday when they landed 8 quality fish during their 2 trips. All of the fish were caught on sand fleas and green crabs. The outgoing tide has been the more productive tide of the day.
Tautog
Anglers targeting sheepshead at the South Jetty are also hooking into some tautog while using sand fleas and green crabs for bait.
Striped Bass
Although the striper bite has mellowed from a couple of weeks ago, striper snipers have still been hooking a few around the tip of the South Jetty and under the Rt. 50 Bridge. Bucktails, live spot and tandem rigs have been doing the trick.
Marlin
The excellent marlin season we have been experiencing just keeps rolling along with good catches of white marlin, blue marlin and even a few sailfish being recorded last week. Most of the action centered in the Washington and Norfolk Canyons. Although we didn’t see any double-digit releases, a lot of boats came back with very respectable catches of 4 to 9 white marlin on several days last week.
On Wednesday, the charter boat, “Billfisher” took some junior anglers down to the Norfolk Canyon where they released 5 white marlin, a blue marlin and a sailfish.
Thursday the “Reel Joy” and “Par V” each recorded 5 white marlin releases, and the “Reel Chaos” recorded 4 white marlin releases between the Poor Man’s and Washington Canyons.
Saturday was a dynamite day, despite the rough seas, with several boats releasing numerous white marlin in the Washington Canyon. The “DA?Sea” and the “Fish-A-Holic” both led the way with 9 white marlin releases each.
On Sunday, seas settled down a bit and several boats had good days. The “Reel Chaos” released 6 white marlin, the “Reelentless” released 3 whites and a sailfish and the “Miss Annie” released 3 whites and a blue marlin, all in the Washington Canyon.
Tuna
The tuna bite continues to disappoint most anglers with only a couple coming back to the dock each week. On Friday, the “Fastbreak” did manage to land a 65 lb. yellowfin in the Baltimore Canyon.
Dolphin
Boats chasing billfish in the Washington and Norfolk Canyons are getting into some serious schools of dolphin. Most of the fish are bailors, but some larger fish are mixed in as well.
Tilefish
On Wednesday, anglers on “Kylee’s World” had a good deep dropping trip outside the Poor Man’s and Washington Canyons, returning with 6 golden tilefish and a blueline tilefish.
Upcoming Tournament
We are heading into that time of year when surf fishing tournaments kick in, and the first one on the schedule is the 11th Annual A.M.S.A Red Drum Tournament on September 20th to 23rd. After that, the next tournament isn’t until October 4th when the 3-day Mid-Atlantic Surf Fishing Tournament is held by the Ocean City Surf Anglers.
Well, that brings us to the end of our last fishing report of the 2012 season, and what a season it was. The year started off with a great striper bite in the winter and early spring. Flounder fishing was the best we have seen in a decade, and the yellowfin tuna chunking bite was fantastic while it lasted. Boats caught more bigeye tuna than anyone can ever remember and the billfish bite has been excellent for several years in a row. We are even seeing what looks like a comeback for weakfish. Wouldn’t that be great!
We hope you have enjoyed the 21 issues of the Coastal Fisherman this season. It has been our absolute pleasure to bring them to you each week. A lot goes into the paper each week and I am blessed with a very dedicated staff. I would like to thank Daina Kazmaier, my Mom and Dad, Maureen and Larry Jock, my wife, Mary and son, Larry III. They all work incredibly hard to bring you the best Coastal Fisherman we can and I appreciate all of their efforts.
I also want to thank our readers. Nothing makes our day more than to hear great feedback from our very loyal readers. Over 20,000 people read the paper each week and rarely does one go by without hearing something nice from our readers and how much they look forward to each issue. My Mom especially loves the comments about the recipes!
Thanks also to our wonderful columnists. Sue Foster, Mark Sampson, Pat Schrawder, Julie Ball and the folks at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the Delaware Division of Fish & Wildlife each take time out from their busy schedules to write an informative and entertaining column. It is not an easy task to come up with 21 topics to write about during the season and they all do a great job.
Finally, thanks to all of our advertisers. Since we are a free publication, they make it all possible, so if you enjoy reading the Coastal Fisherman, please make every effort to give them your support and let them know that you saw their ad in the paper.
Our next issue doesn’t come out until the first week in January, our 38th year of publication, but we will continue to collect pictures for the Winter Issue throughout the fall and early winter. If you have a picture you would like to submit, simply email it to [email protected]. Also stay in touch through our online fishing report at www.coastalfisherman.net.
So until next year, have a safe and happy rest of 2012.
Bring on the stripers!
