Article by Larry Jock
I’m happy to report two things. First, the National Marine Fisheries Service increased the bluefin retention limit. Effective June 1st, recreational anglers can now keep two bluefin tuna per trip. One must measure between 27 inches to less than 47 inches and the other needs to be between 47 inches to less than 73 inches.
Second, our new website launched on June 1st at www.coastalfisherman.net. The new site contains current and past issues, photos, videos, recipes, tournament schedules and a host of various fishing information. I hope you like it!
Now to the fishing. You can feel it in the air. The season is picking up steam with some nice fish hitting the scales.
SHARKS
What do you get when you have good weather, rising water temperatures, bluefish roaming the ocean and boats out fishing? You get plenty of sharks hitting the docks, and that’s what we had this weekend.
On Saturday Eddie Valasquez on the “Give Um Da Bird” returned with a 258 lb. thresher shark caught on a bluefish fillet, east of “DB” Buoy. Funny thing is, just the previous day I was commenting to another angler about no one catching a thresher shark yet around “DB” Buoy, a common spot for anglers to do so. It just seemed odd.
On Sunday, Mike Weber on the “Fine Line” caught a 350 lb. thresher at the Fingers, another popular shark fishing spot. The third thresher we saw over the weekend came from anglers on the “Gag Order” who brought back a 289 pounder, weighed after being gutted. This shark was caught east of the Jackspot.
On the mako front, catches were made at the Sausages, the Marine Electric and in 20 fathoms behind the Jackspot.
Most shark fishermen reported an incredible number of blue sharks roaming the ocean around the Marine Electric, the Hambone and the Sausages. Some boats in search of makos and threshers actually had to change locations to escape them. Most effective baits were split 50/50 between bluefish and mackerel fillets.
All of this is just in time for the Mako Mania Shark Tournament held at Bahia Marina on June 5th, 6th and 7th. After that, the next big shark tournament is the South Jersey Shark Tournament held in Cape May, NJ from June 11th to the 14th. The Ocean City Shark Tournament is scheduled for June 18th to the 20th at the Ocean City Fishing Center.
BLUEFIN TUNA
I heard bluefin tuna were spotted busting the water in the Hambone area and Jenn Pettolina managed to hook into one just south of the Hambone at the Pork Chop.
FLOUNDER
It was a really good week for flounder fisherman with nice weather and very, very clean water. I received numerous reports from anglers who commented that the water was cleaner than they had ever seen it.
The best bite seemed to center around the bay behind Assateague, near the airport and at the north end of the East Channel, near Harbor Island.
Some small flounder were reported by surf fishermen fishing off Assateague Island.
Anglers fishing with minnows, flounder belly (yes, it’s legal) and the Gulp! Alive swimming mullet are having the most success.
SEA?BASS
We saw good numbers of sea bass caught this week by anglers fishing the ocean wrecks. The “Ursula Priscilla” came back on Saturday with 80 fish, caught on the Solvang Wreck, also known as the Terror Wreck. The “Morning Star” also had several sea bass this week weighing between 4 and 5 lbs. Anglers using clams for bait seem to be outfishing those using squid.
BLUEFISH
Finally, bluefish in good numbers are being caught in our local waters. Small blues are roaming the bay while the larger choppers are being caught around the Hambone and by surfcasters off the beach. It doesn’t really matter what bait you are using when the gators are in good numbers because they will hit practically everything.
STRIPED BASS
There has been a great bite around the tip of the South Jetty. Anglers drifting the point with bucktails tipped with curly tails are doing extremely well.
Ron Humphress reported that the striper bite on Assateague was really good on Saturday morning. Ron and his wife Michelle caught 4 stripers larger than 40-inches. There was also a 50-incher caught off Assateague on Thursday evening. Bunker heads continue to be the bait of choice.
As mentioned earlier, this weekend is the Mako Mania Shark Tournament at Bahia Marina. The tournament is Friday, Saturday and Sunday with scales opening at 4pm each day. I hope to see your there!
