Article by Larry Jock
As this report is being written on Monday morning (we go to press on Monday evening), the town is buzzing in anticipation of the 41st Annual White Marlin Open. This year, 288 boats will be competing for over $2,600,000 in prize money, which is 26 boats and $125,000 more than last year. The final day of weigh-ins is Friday, and it usually is an exciting one, so you may want to head on out to Harbour Island and check it out.
Make sure you pick up next weeks Coastal Fisherman for full coverage and pictures of the tournament.
Marlin Club Ladies Tournament
The 6th Annual Ocean City Marlin Club Ladies Tournament was held on Friday and Saturday. The weather over the weekend wasn’t that great, especially on Saturday when many boats turned around due to rough sea conditions.
Of the 29 boats, a tournament high, 18 fished on Friday. The “Grande Pez” ventured down to the Rockpile where Tamara Sears boated a pair of yellowfins weighing 57.2 and 63.8 lbs. and held on to win 1st and 3rd place in the Tuna Division.
Bernadette Mumford on the “Knot Again” arrived at the scale with an impressive 49.6 lb. dolphin from the Baltimore Canyon and won 1st place in the Dolphin Division. Fellow angler, Maria Baiocco caught an 18.4 lb. mahi to win 2nd place in the Division.
Monica Freese and Brenda Goodhart on the “Brenda Lou” was next up at the scale with 3 white marlin releases and a blue marlin release. Unfortunately, the mandatory photo or video of the blue marlin was inconclusive, resulting in the blue marlin being recognized as a white marlin and putting the “Brenda Lou” in 2nd place. They ended up losing a tiebreaker to the “Jenny Poo” who also had 4 white marlin releases.
Corky Mock on the “Slaughterhouse” caught a 62.8 lb. yellowfin at the Rockpile to win 2nd place in the Tuna Division.
Finally, on day 1, the always dangerous lady anglers on the “Sea Slammer” arrived at Sunset Marina with 5 white marlin releases to take the top prize in the tournament. The whites were caught and released in the Norfolk Canyon.
On Saturday, only 2 boats came to the scale with anything to weigh. The “Last Call”, who after turning around due to rough seas decided to hit the Twin Wrecks where Jen Ott boated a 17 lb. dolphin to move into 3rd place in the tournament. The “Marli” also came to the scale with a 56.4 lb. yellowfin caught at in the Washington Canyon that barely missed 3rd place in the Tuna Division.
Overall, it was another great tournament with some excellent catches in several divisions and more importantly, a lot of smiling faces at the scale.
Ocean Pines Chamber of Commerce Flounder Tournament
On Saturday, we also had the 6th Annual Ocean Pines Chamber of Commerce Flounder Tournament with 231 anglers competing for $2,600 in prize money. This tournament is the only one that goes by length of fish and not weight. Baron Daiker’s 21 7/8-inch flounder weighed 5.09 lbs. and broke a 1st place tie with Greg Donahue’s fish of the same length, but Greg’s only weighed 4.07 lbs. Both fish were caught in the West Channel. Third place went to Shane McCormick with a 21-incher caught behind Harbour Island.
A bad weather forecast prevented this fast growing tournament from having even more anglers, so mark it on your schedule for next year. It really is a lot of fun!
Billfish
We saw numerous white marlin releases up and down the line last week from boats trolling in 60 to 100 fathoms from the Norfolk Canyon up to the Wilmington Canyon. We even saw a few caught around the Hot Dog. On Tuesday, the “Let It Ride” had 7 white marlin releases in the Washington Canyon.
Some blue marlin were also hooked throughout the week. On Tuesday, the “White Lighting” was trolling in the Washington Canyon where they released an estimated 500 lb. blue marlin. On Wednesday, the “Nontypical” released one estimated at 700 lbs. outside the Washington Canyon. Also on Wednesday, the “Offshore Outlaw” brought a 514 pounder back at the dock after it died during the fight in the Poor Man’s Canyon.
A sailfish was released by Matt Long on Wednesday during a trip to just outside the Fingers and a spearfish was caught and released in the Baltimore Canyon on the “Knot Again” during the Ladies Tournament.
Tuna
Bigeyes continue to be boated in the Washington and Wilmington Canyons, which should make it interesting for those in the White Marlin Open.
The big catch of the week came on the “Fish Whistle” when, during an overnight trip to the Wilmington’s East Notch on Tuesday and Wednesday, anglers boated 5 bigeyes weighing between 137 and 194 lbs.
On Wednesday, the crew on the “Marli” also had a memorable trip with 4 bigeyes hooked in the Washington.
Most of the other bigeyes we saw during the week came from the Washington Canyon, except for a few caught in the Wilmington.
Yellowfins and longfins were also caught in the Wilmington Canyon but the better bite was in the Washington where a couple of boats had double digit days on the troll and the chunk.
The bluefin bite around the Hot Dog and the Hambone looks to have petered out.
Dolphin
We are seeing dolphin all over the ocean and one angler even caught a baby dolphin in the bay.
As mentioned earlier, the 49.6 pounder caught in the Ladies Tournament in the Baltimore Canyon is the largest one caught in Ocean City so far this year. We also saw nice size dolphin caught in all the canyons in addition to around the Jackspot, the Bass Grounds, the Hot Dog and the Twin Wrecks. The Jackspot, in particular, has produced some really nice size dolphin over the last couple of weeks.
Sharks
We don’t have much to report on shark catches, but the news that had everyone stirring in Ocean City was the 1,000 lb. tiger shark cruising the bay waters behind Ocean City. The tiger shark, named Septima, was tagged by a non-profit organization called OCEARCH back in May 2014 off the coast of Hilton Head, South Carolina. After heading up the Atlantic Coast and spending some time off Virginia, Septima entered the Ocean City Inlet on Friday, August 1st and sent a satellite transmission at 2:29 in the afternoon from behind 44th Street. It doesn’t look like it didn’t stay very long with it’s last transmission coming on Monday at 6:14 AM off the coast of Atlantic City.
I haven’t heard many reports of actual sightings of the fish, but I’m sure many will develop over the next few weeks.
Flounder
In the bay behind Ocean City, flounder fishing was not bad last week. We are in our typical summer mode with a good number of fish being caught but dominated by fish too small to keep. Some keepers were found in the West Channel and in the Middle Channel, north of the Rt. 50 Bridge. A hot spot continues to be along the west side of the bay, just on the south side of the Rt. 50 Bridge. Now is the time to fish the deeper holes in the bay where larger flatties are lurking.
I’m hearing that minnows are producing more keeper flounder than Gulp! artificial baits which had been a strong performer so far this season.
Anglers venturing outside the inlet and hitting ocean structure are really tearing up big flounder. Capt. Monty on the headboat, “Morning Star” reported “ferocious” fishing on some days and Capt. Chris on the headboat, “Angler” and Capt. Kane on the charter boat, “Fish Bound” also had some great days as well.
Croaker
Croaker fishing is still strong all over the bay behind Ocean City and Assateague Island. Baiting up with Fishbites is the best way to bend a rod, especially for kids who love the non-stop action croaker fishing can provide.
Upcoming Tournaments
With the White Marlin Open ending on Friday, we actually have an open weekend for tournaments. The next one on the schedule is the world famous, Capt. Steve Harman’s Poor Girls Open at Bahia Marina. This is the largest ladies only billfish tournament in the world and is a blast to watch at the scales. Weigh-ins will be held on Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 4:00 PM to 7:30 PM. Proceeds from the tournament go to benefit breast cancer research.
See you at the scales!
