Article by Dale Timmons
Had a call last week from a gentleman in Fenwick Island, DE who had a good question regarding the upcoming flounder closure in Maryland (beginning September 14). He and several of his friends dock their boats in Delaware, but they often run to the Ocean City Inlet and head offshore to fish. One of their target species is flounder, and he wanted to know if they left the OC inlet, fished in the EEZ outside state waters and returned to Delaware with a flounder, would he be legal? Publisher Larry Jock did some legwork and contacted Sgt. Glenn Lay with the Maryland Natural Resources Police. Sgt. Lay told Larry that if someone launches in Delaware, moves through Maryland waters, lands a fish caught in Delaware waters or the EEZ, and lands the fish in Delaware, there will be no problem. However, if the fish are caught and boated in the EEZ, and the boat stops and fishes in Maryland waters either before or after, even though you intend on landing them in Delaware, then the fish on board will be considered illegal. In other words, don’t stop in Maryland, either on the way to the fishing grounds or on the way back. Of course, rumor has it that the feds might close the EEZ flounder season as well, in which case it won’t matter…
I also heard from an old friend last week, namely Charlie Kratz. Charlie, you might remember, was at the helm of his “Five C’s” when the late George Pierson caught the Maryland state record 135-pound white marlin in 1980. Charlie donated the mount of that fish, and his friend Capt. Don Speicher of “Spike’s Boat” built the case that houses it, at the south end of the boardwalk. Charlie was also instrumental in starting the Challenge Cup Tournament, which is a friendly billfish release tournament held each year between the Ocean City Marlin Club and the Cape May Marlin & Tuna Club. Charlie has also put a lot of effort and considerable funds into a program called “Band of Brothers,” which makes sure indigent service veterans receive a proper burial when they pass on. Senator John Astle, who is from Anne Arundel County, and another gentleman, Bill Miles, have been instrumental in helping Charlie with this program, and Charlie wanted me to know they will be coming to fish in this year’s Challenge Cup on “Spike’s Boat”. Senator Astle is the Senate Co-Chairman of the Maryland Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus, and he was the recipient of the Brad Rowse Leadership Award for advancing the sportsmen’s agenda in the halls of state government. Bill Miles is the vice-chair of the Maryland Legislative Sportsmen’s Foundation and was the first to receive the Brad Rowse Leadership Award. It’s nice to have guys like this on our side when it comes to the political spider webs that the average fellow usually knows nothing about until we are caught up in them. Let’s hope the fish gods will provide these gentlemen with a couple of white marlin…
While there has been a good white marlin bite recently, make no mistake about it—it has been a dismal tuna year. A fellow asked me last week if I thought we would get any yellowfins this fall. Of course, if I knew the answer to that I would probably be a rich man, and my guess is no better than anyone else’s. The yellowfins made a pretty impressive appearance last weekend, with several boats taking double digit numbers, but whether they will stay is another matter. As with every other fish, it all depends on the water conditions and the food—if the bait is there, the tuna should be, as long as water temps permit. October is traditionally a good time for longfin albacore along the 100-fathom curve, so that fishery is also still a possibility, along with the yellowfins. With this year’s slow business, however, the bigger question might be kind of like the old sound of the tree in the forest—if the yellowfins push the squid into the Baltimore Canyon, will anyone be out there fishing for them…?
We are well into September now, and that means what a friend of mine calls the “dirt fishermen” out there, including me, are living and breathing an especially beautiful and hard pulling creature, the red drum. This fishery is strictly catch-and-release, as the law prohibits keeping any reds over 26 or 27 inches, depending on whether you are fishing in Virginia or Maryland. That doesn’t stop those surf anglers who get the fever, however, and one of the pure pleasures of drum fishing is watching a big red swim back out through the waves after you let it go. A northeast blow like we had last week will often “bring drum on the beach,” but the real key is usually the beginning of the mullet run in the surf, which could begin any time now and usually peaks during the last two weeks of September. Mullet are excellent red drum bait, along with spot, bunker, bluefish and blue crabs. It’s hard to believe a grown man as old as I am can get excited at the sight of a fresh cut cob mullet head hung on a big circle hook, but I confess that I still do. I think it’s the anticipation that it represents. Although it took me a long time to catch my first big drum many years ago, and I still love it, red drum fishing is not rocket science. Like most fisheries, it is often a matter of being in the right place at the right time, which means keeping fresh bait in the water when the reds are on the beach. As with most target species, veteran drum anglers argue about the best hooks, rigs, line, rods and reels, but after all is said and done, you just have to be there when a hungry red comes by. Years of protecting the big drum has brought the fishery back to the point where we do see them on the Maryland beaches once again, and the Virginia barrier island fishery is second to none, so here’s hoping you fellow “drumheads” out there get to feel that head shake this fall…
As I mentioned earlier, the last day of the Maryland flounder season is September 13, and I for one think it’s a damn shame when an angler can’t go out and bring at least one fish home to eat. So to honor all the environmental extremists, the incompetent fisheries managers, the spineless politicians and the ineffective fishermen’s lobbies, let’s all make it a point this week to go out and kill a flounder…a legal one, of course…
Contact Dale Timmons at [email protected] or call
410-629-1191.
