Article by Larry Jock
What an exciting week of fishing, especially if you either fished in, or were at the scales of the Mid-Atlantic $500,000. This tournament is run out of both Cape May, NJ and Ocean City, MD. There were 135 boats entered in the tournament with 41 sailing out of Ocean City.
Those 41 boats really did Ocean City proud. Of the $1,781,550 in prize money, our boats took home $1,570,134 or 88% of the total awarded. Quite a showing!
In the White Marlin Division, the “Billfisher” arrived on opening day with an 88 pounder that held on to 1st place all week until, on the final day, another local boat, the “Lady Luck V”, threw an 88 lb. white marlin on the scale to tie the “Billfisher”. This is the third consecutive year that a local boat created a leaderboard change on the final day of the tournament.
There was excitement in the Tuna Division as well, when on the final day, the “Reel Chaos” weighed a 105 lb. yellowfin tuna, the largest in Ocean City this year, and held onto 1st place for ninety minutes when the “Impulse IV” landed a 177 lb. bigeye to win the division. Local boat, the “Fin-ness”, continued their hot streak, taking 3rd place with an 84 lb. yellowfin.
The Dolphin Division also saw some excitement when local boat, “American Lady” arrived with a 56 pounder caught by Vincent Baiocco. This fish not only won the Dolphin Division, but set a new tournament record as well.
The Wahoo Division was also won by a local boat. The “Shelly II”, winner of the 2010 White Marlin Open, took 1st place with a 49 lb. speedster.
Overall, it was another great tournament with 571 billfish hooked and 538 released (94.2%).
Congratulations to all of the Ocean City boats who participated in the tournament. You really made us proud!
Marlin
As you can see from the tournament results, it was quite a week for billfishing.
Most of the action occurred deep between the Poor Man’s and Baltimore Canyon in
800-1,000 fathoms. There were also some white marlin found in the Washington Canyon where the “Shark Attack” released 15 on Monday and the “Billfisher” released 7 on Friday.
A few blue marlin were also hooked throughout the week. On Tuesday, the “Fin-ness” released 2 blue marlin in the Norfolk Canyon and on Wednesday, the “Miss Jane II” released a blue marlin in the Washington Canyon. Finally, on Friday in the Mid-Atlantic $500,000, the “Lady Luck V” hooked a 375 lb. blue marlin on a black and white Moldcraft Super Chugger in 500 fathoms outside the Washington Canyon. The fish came up dead, so it was weighed at the tournament scales but did not meet the 400 lb. minimum size needed to qualify.
Over the weekend, the white marlin bite continued. On Saturday, the “Cyntinory” released 5 whites in the Baltimore Canyon and the “Pumpin Hard 58” released 3 in the same canyon. On Sunday, a few boats ventured out in rough conditions and were rewarded with excellent numbers of billfish releases. The action was deep outside the Baltimore Canyon, where the “Playmate” released 13 whites and the “Marli” and the “Billfisher” each released 11.
Just think, it’s not even September when, historically, the white marlin bite really heats up. Could we see a new record number of white marlin released in a single year by a local boat?
Tuna
With so many boats looking for marlin, the tuna numbers have definitely taken a hit over the last couple of weeks. As mentioned earlier, the largest yellowfin we have seen all year was caught on Friday by the “Reel Chaos” during the tournament. The 105 lb. yellowfin was hooked in 1,000 fathoms between the Baltimore and Poor Man’s Canyons (170 line).
A few boats were able to pick up longfins late in the week. The “Jade II” caught 5 on Friday in the Washington Canyon, where the “I-Cart-er” also caught a longfin. On Saturday, the “Jade II” ventured back out and landed another longfin.
Bluefins are nonexistent.
Dolphin
Boats trolling in the canyons or throwing cut bait closer to shore are really catching some dolphin, both in good numbers and in size.
The highlight of the week was Vincent Baiocco’s 56 pounder caught during the tournament. However, we saw some other nice size mahi caught during the week by anglers fishing deep outside the canyons. In the tournament, the “Fin-ness” weighed a 35 pounder and the “Legasea” landed a 39 lb. dolphin, both in 1,000 fathoms outside the Norfolk Canyon. The “Fin-ness” came back on Friday with a 42 pounder caught in 1,000 fathoms outside the Baltimore Canyon.
Several boats arrived at the dock last week with good catches of small, bailer dolphin caught closer to shore. The “Jezebel”, fishing in 50 fathoms inside the Washington Canyon on Friday, had 60 dolphin in the box. Many other boats had double digit catches throughout the week including the “Angler”, a headboat that sails from the Talbot Street Pier. Capt. Chris had several days where his anglers landed a number of dolphin less than 16 miles off the beach. Their largest of the week weighed 22 lbs.
Wahoo
It looks like the wahoo bite may be heating up. Actually, with all the warm water out there, we have been surprised the numbers haven’t been better sooner.
During the week, in addition to the wahoo boated by the “Shelly II”, the “Double Trouble” landed a wahoo at the Rockpile on Thursday and the “Amnesia” hooked a 24 pounder in 50 fathoms inside the Washington Canyon on Friday. Over the weekend, Alex Campbell hooked a 14 pounder near the Chicken Bone and the “Jade II” landed 3 near the Hot Dog. The largest of the 3 weighed 52 lbs.
The surprise wahoo catch of the week goes to the headboat “Morning Star”. In all of the years Capt. Monty has been fishing out of Ocean City, this was the first wahoo ever landed on his boat. The 28 lb. wahoo was caught on a cedar plug while Capt. Monty was trolling towards the Great Eastern Reef.
Flounder
I wouldn’t say that flounder fishing is red hot, but some nice fish are being caught. We are starting to see more and more fish caught in the Inlet, although the East Channel, West Channel and around Harbour Island are still the top spots for flatties. Live bait seemed to be the ticket last week with anglers using peanut bunker and spot to land the big ones.
Andrew McMullen was fishing in the West Channel, off Gudelsky Park, when he hooked a 7.2 pounder. A couple of other flounder, weighing over 5 lbs., were caught in the Inlet, with one being hooked right along the North Wall.
This time of year, when the water is at its warmest, it is important to look for deep holes in the bay. Drifting a live bait or Gulp! artificial bait over these holes will give you the best shot at a keeper.
On Monday, when this report was being written, I received a report from Tom O’Connell, Maryland’s Fisheries Services Director, regarding 2010 flounder catches. By the DNR’s count, we have caught 12,000 flounder this year through June, compared to 24,000 fish last year. This means that it doesn’t look like the flounder fishery will be closed early, like it was in 2009. This is great news, especially for those of us who love the early fall flounder fishing found in our bays and on ocean wrecks and reefs. This also means that we could, quite possibly, see a smaller size limit on flounder next year. Stay tuned.
Sheepshead
Andrew McMullen not only caught a 7.2 lb. flounder on Saturday, he also landed an 11 lb. sheepshead, the largest we have seen in Ocean City this year. The fish was caught on a green crab at the South Jetty.
Sea Bass
This is another fishery that isn’t exactly red hot right now, but there are signs that it is coming back to life. This week, the “Morning Star” returned with a few fish over 4 lbs. According to a biologist with the DNR, sea bass are spawning now, so they tend not to be very hungry. This should change soon, and the fish should be snapping like crazy.
See you at the scales.
