Article by Larry Jock
You couldn’t have asked for a nicer weekend for fishing. Sunny skies and flat seas made it nice for everyone, especially the lady anglers in the Poor Girls Open who historically battle nasty seas during the 3-day tournament.
Marlin
The white marlin bite was good in the Baltimore Canyon over the weekend with several boats returning with high single-digit releases. An incredible day was posted by the anglers on the “Wound Up” who ventured out on an overnight trip to the Norfolk Canyon on Friday and started trolling early on Saturday morning. Their first bite was a blue marlin, estimated at 300 lbs., that was released after being hooked on a TLD 20. Only 15 minutes later, they released a white marlin and then a sailfish 10 minutes after that. They finished off their Grand Slam day with another white marlin before heading in at 11:00 AM. Nothing like catching a Grand Slam in their first hour of fishing. Congratulations to the entire “Wound Up” team and Bill Florance for his 1st sailfish.
With the weekend bite centering in the Baltimore Canyon, early in the week we saw most of the marlin releases coming in from the Poor Man’s and Washington Canyons.
A few blue marlin releases were recorded last week. Congratulations go out to Maddie Pettolina who released her first blue marlin while fishing out of Ocean City. Maddie was fishing on the “Last Call” in the Baltimore Canyon. In addition, anglers on the “Gina Lisa” and “Rhonda’s Osprey” also recorded blue marlin releases last week.
Tuna
Bigeye tuna are still snapping in the Washington Canyon with a few also coming in from the Baltimore Canyon as well. On Wednesday, the “Restless Lady” boated their 29th bigeye of the season during a trip to the Washington Canyon. On Thursday, the “G-FORCE” returned from the Bigeye Hole with a pair of eyeballs weighing 145 and 168 lbs. On Friday, the “Gina Lisa” boxed 4 bigeyes in addition to recording a blue marlin release and 10 white marlin releases during an overnight trip.
The best action continues to be between 7:00 PM and after dark while trolling naked or skirted ballyhoo.
Yellowfins looked like they were going to show up strong after a long absence, but the action didn’t last. On Tuesday, the “Marli” boated 13 yellowfins in 250 fathoms in the Washington Canyon. After that, a couple of yellowfins were caught but it pretty much died over the weekend.
Dolphin
With the poor yellowfin bite, marlin and dolphin saved the day for many boats over the weekend. Dolphin are being caught all over the canyons and just a couple of miles off the beach. Gaffers were definitely on the increase although most boats returned with boxes filled with small bailer dolphin.
Wahoo
The wahoo bite came alive around the 30 Fathom Line. On Sunday, the “Cindy Sue II” out of the Indian River Marina caught 3 wahoo while trolling between the Hot Dog and the Tea Cup with their heaviest weighing in at 60.1 lbs. The “JoJo” out of Indian River also boated a wahoo with theirs coming in at 64 lbs. Also on Sunday, the “Fine Line” returned from an overnight trip to the Washington Canyon where they caught a 55 pounder in 30 fathoms.
In the Poor Girls Open, a pair of wahoo were caught with the winning 42.3 pounder coming in on the “Reel Passion” while fishing in 40 fathoms in the Baltimore. Second place went to the lady anglers aboard the “Joint Venture” for their 41 lb. speedster.
Flounder
Anglers drifting Gulp! artificial baits and minnows in the bay behind Ocean City are finding a lot of throwback flounder with a few keepers mixed in. Water temperatures are hovering between 73-degrees on the incoming tide up to 78-degrees on the outgoing tide.
With the beautiful weather we had last week, many anglers had a chance to take advantage of the incredible flounder fishing we are seeing on ocean reefs and wrecks. The Old Grounds, African Queen and the Bass Grounds have all produced limits of flatfish for many anglers over the last few weeks, and it doesn’t look like it is stopping anytime soon. The average fish caught on ocean structure is in the 19-inch range, but several fish in the mid-20’s have shown up on local scales. Dropping 4 oz. bucktails tipped with flounder belly is a great way to nab yourself a doormat, but any cut bait will do right now. Mahi belly is especially effective when dropped on a bucktail or just a plain flounder hook.
We did receive some bad news today (Monday) regarding next years flounder season. The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the Atlantic States Fisheries Commission has recommended to NOAA that both the recreational and commercial quotas be reduced next year by 26.5%. The coastwide recreational quota is recommended to go from 7,380,000 lbs. in 2015 to 5,420,000 lbs. in 2016. This is all based on the 2015 stock assessment that indicated that summer flounder were overfished in 2014 and the fishing mortality rate was 16% above the threshold. All a bunch of bunk in my opinion. The governments method for estimating the number of fish being caught has been flawed for years and the new, supposedly improved method rolled out a few years ago is worse than the method it replaced. Bring on President Trump to get this mess fixed!!
Striped Bass
We haven’t seen any keeper size striped bass show up in a very long time, but on Friday night, Anatoli Georgiev captured a 33-incher while tossing a Gotcha plug off the Rt. 50 Bridge. We also saw a few legal size stripers caught in the Indian River Inlet last week by anglers fishing with fresh spot and casting Bass Assassins.
Cobia
On Sunday, Mike McGardey and Charlie Donohue were returning from a flounder fishing trip in the ocean and spotted a large school of bunker 3 miles off the coast. After snagging a bunker on a flounder rod, they left it in the water when they saw a cobia cruising along the surface. The cobia took the bait and after a 30 minute fight, the 46 pounder was in the boat.
Croaker
We still haven’t seen a large influx of croaker into the bay behind Ocean City. Hardheads are scattered, with the majority found at the mouth of the Commercial Harbor and in the West Channel off Martha’s Landing.
Sea Bass
Sea bass fishing has been poor, and we received this week that the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Management Commission have recommended no change for the 2016 quota of 2,330,000 lbs.
In the Surf
Fishing from the beach off Assateague Island and Ocean City is in the typical summer slump right now. A few croaker and kingfish are being caught, but most of the action is coming from sharks and rays.
Upcoming Tournaments
This issues comes out mid-week of the big MidAtlantic tournament run out of both Cape May, NJ and Ocean City, MD. The tournament runs until Friday with weigh-ins at Sunset Marina nightly from 5:00 to 9:00.
On Saturday, August 22nd, the M.S.S.A. Beach N’ Boat Tournament will be held with weigh-ins at Atlantic Tackle from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM. Anglers can fish from 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Cost is only $50 per angler plus any calcuttas you want to enter
See you at the scales.
