Article by Capt. BJ Pietryak
Welcome back to a new year of fishing in Maryland. The year of 2022 will hopefully be an epic year for us in the Ocean City area. We begin this year with colder temps than in previous years. To have nights in the 30’s at the end of April is not helping the season get off to a quick start. Despite the cold start the first flounder of the season has been caught by Scott Lenox, reeling in a nice keeper flounder to start off the year. The first rockfish keeper also came in from none other than Big Bird Cropper and Shaun Flaherty. Shawn caught a nice 30” slot fish off the Rt.50 Bridge using the famous Roy Rig.
Rockfish, Black Drum & Bluefish
Rockfish was a little slow to start but has really turned on in the past couple of weeks. Tons of small fish are feeding around the bridges. Roy Rigs, bucktails, and swim baits are accounting for most of the catches. The Rt.90 Bridge was the hot spot 2 weeks ago but in recent days the Rt.50 bridge as well as the Verrazano Bridge have really turned on. David More took a quick 2 hour drive out to Assateague Island drive-on beach and caught a beautiful striper. The fish was over slot and returned to the water safely. Many of the fish being caught in the bays are under slot and the ones on the federal side of Assateague Island are over the slot limit. The bait of choice on the beach right now is surf clams and bloodworms. Most anglers are using clams because the surf is beginning to fill up with big black drum heading up to the Delaware Bay to spawn. The hot bait currently in the back bays are swim jigs and paddle tails as many of these fish are smaller than those on the beach. Casting to the bridge pilings seems to be generating the best strikes. On the beach, the black drum bite has been fantastic! Tom Berry caught a nice 32” black drum off the beach last Monday, while Freddie Donaway and his crew pulled in 3 nice drum, all good eating size, in the 35-40” range. Chris Peters was using crab scented Fishbites and secured a huge black. His picture can be seen in the magazine... he is the one biting the fishing pole. Gary Harmison caught a personal best black drum weighing 51 lbs. Mann Choi was celebrating his 40th birthday and pulled in a nice 35” black drum. Quis Tayla was also on the Island for about 3 hours and pulled in 4 fish, all of which were trophy black tog. Most anglers fishing the beaches are using a 7/0 circle hook with a big piece of fresh clam secured to the hook with either rubber bands or sewing thread. These fish are big so don't be afraid to use the biggest clams you can find. Kevin Zissimos also got a nice 32” black off the beach. Now through the middle of May is the time to get out and target these big ugly brutes. Surf clams and fresh clams in general are often hard to find this time of the year, so crab can be used instead of the clam. The last of the outgoing and beginning hours of the incoming tides have been reported as the best times to fish for these trophies. I fished out of Virginia last week and our 50 lb. fish came 1 hour into the incoming tide. And they were caught on fresh clam on a 7/0 circle hook. For many anglers without a big offshore boat these fish afford the best opportunity to catch a big 50+ lb. fish from shore. Bluefish have still been slow this year with only a few reports of small blues being caught in the surf as well as the back bays near the bridges.
Tog, Sea Bass & Flounder
Sea Bass season opens on May 15th and judging by the catch from tog fishermen, it looks to be a great early season. Tog is in full swing and when the wind cooperates the anglers are catching some huge fish. Fish Bound Charters has been out a few times and has seen great action. Many of these fish are big breeder fish and have been returned to the water to protect the population, however, Kane reports that his clients have been able to take home lots of smaller fish for dinner. Fresh clam and crab make the best baits for these fish. Tog are notorious bait thieves so small circle hooks are recommended. Proper wreck positioning is also crucial in catching these elusive fish. It has long been said sea bass fishing is exciting but tog fishing separates the novice angler from the seasoned angler. Tog is a great eating fish with nice white flaky meat.
Flounder season has started off a little slow but is quickly picking up. Dual flounder rigs tipped with squid and minnow combo have been working the best. The flounder are scattered all over the backwaters of Ocean City and have not settled into their seasonal spots yet, but most reports are saying that the rear bay behind Assateague Beach is the most consistent for quality fish. Pat Degroodt got a nice 19” flounder in the Thorofare using a big mud minnow. The ocean has not given up a lot of flounder yet, and with water temps still low with cold nights we are going to need a few warm 70 + degree days to get things rolling.
Crabs & Clams
Crabbing both up north at Indian River as well as Ocean City bays has been slow, but the crabs coming in are very large. I pulled my pots on Tuesday and only had 15 crabs for 4 pots but none of the crabs were under 7”. Also noted that most were male crabs. This time of year we tend to see a lot more females. Clams are very slow with most anglers having to rake very deep to find clams . As the water temps rise so should the clams..
Until next week...
Tight lines and fins up!
