Article by Larry Jock
The season is in full gear with good tuna fishing inshore, billfish deep in the canyons and improved flounder action on ocean structure and in the bay.
Heading into the weekend, the weather forecast wasn’t hateful, but not spectacular. Luckily, it turned out much better than forecasted and many of those that ventured into the Atlantic returned with nice catches.
Tuna
Although the excellent yellowfin and bluefin tuna bite in Massey’s Canyon looked like it was going to peter out in the middle of last week, the weekend bite came on strong, especially for boats that were able to get out there early. The couple of days when the bite was extremely good, the best action took place from sunrise to around mid-morning.
To make things challenging last week, the fish were bunched up, and if you happened to find them on your screen, you were able to anchor or set-up a drift and crush them. However, you could have been only a few hundred yards away from a boat that was into them, and you would come up empty.
We saw many double-digit catches come in from boats returning from Massey’s. The charter boat, “Marli” had a couple of fantastic catches, ending up with 18 yellowfins on Tuesday, 12 on Saturday and 17 on Sunday. Other notable catches came in on the “Jade II” (15) “C-Boys” (13), “Rhonda’s Osprey” (13), Skattebol (12) and the “Spring Mix II” (9). Early morning on Sunday was especially good and hopefully it will continue into this week.
Billfish
White marlin, blue marlin and sailfish were all caught and released by anglers trolling deep outside the canyons. Late in the week, “The Chaser” returned from 1,000 fathoms outside the Baltimore Canyon with a Grand Slam consisting of 1 white marlin, 1 blue marlin and 2 sailfish.
The “Billfisher” also had good days trolling in 1,000+ fathoms outside the Baltimore Canyon, returning with 9 white marlin releases on Monday, 8 on Tuesday and 3 on Wednesday.
On Sunday, “Big Billin” was fishing deep outside the Poor Man’s Canyon and recorded a blue marlin release.
Dolphin
Excellent catches of dolphin came out throughout the week from boats trolling and chunking for tuna at Massey’s Canyon, the Lumpy Bottom and also at the Twin Wrecks. Most of the fish continue to be in the 9 lb. range, but a few tipped the scale closer to the upper-teens. Roy Tribble boated a bull that weighed 24 lbs. while fishing at the Lumpy Bottom.
Tilefish
We saw some good catches of both golden and blueline tilefish coming in from offshore boats who have broken up their day of tuna fishing with some deep dropping in both the Baltimore and Washington Canyons. Last week, the “Marli” returned with 2 golden tilefish and 50 bluelines after dropping in the Baltimore Canyon.
Striped Bass
Stripers are quietly being caught, among the bluefish, around the Rt. 50 Bridge. We did see a nice 38-incher caught by Kevin Gordon while tossing a Rattletrap from the southwest side at night.
Flounder
Although flounder fishing, both on ocean structure and in our bay, hasn’t been stellar this season, it is beginning to show some signs of improved life.
If you are looking to head to an ocean reef or wreck, the top spot continues to be at the Old Grounds off the coast of Delaware. Anglers on the charter boat, “Fish Bound” had a couple of outstanding trips there last week, returning with 26 flatties on Tuesday and 32 on Sunday.
In the bay, the best flounder bite was behind Assateague Island in back of Castaway’s Campground for anglers drifting squid, Gulp! Swimming Mullet or minnows. Anglers had to weed through a lot of short fish to get their keeper, but they were definitely there. Both charter boats, “Lucky Break” and the “Get Sum” had good days drifting behind the campground.
The largest flounder we saw last week was a 7 pounder caught by the famous flounder fisherman, George Henning while fishing on the headboat, “Morning Star”. In the bay, the largest flattie was a 24-incher that weighed an even 6 lbs., caught by Jeff Pinca while drifting a white Gulp! Swimming Mullet behind the Ocean City Airport.
Although, minnows, squid and Gulp! artificial baits continue to be top producers, anglers dropping strips of sea robin are having fantastic results.
Weakfish
We have hardly seen any weakfish this season, but early last week, Finn McCabe caught a 23-inch, 3 lb. 10 oz. weakie while fishing off the beach at Gudelsky Park.
Bluefish
Anglers trolling small spoons at the Bass Grounds have gotten into good catches of smaller, snapper bluefish mixed in with some Spanish mackerel. Capt. Corey Kennington called in on Saturday to report that it was all the snappers you wanted a little further north on Fenwick Shoal. We also saw quite a few small and medium-size bluefish caught by fishermen tossing bucktails and swim shads around the Rt. 50 Bridge. One of the largest bluefish caught this season came in on Friday when Sonny Layton stopped by the office to have his picture taken with the 12 pounder he caught while fishing from the shore on the west side of the bay, just south of the Rt. 50 Bridge. Amazingly, Sonny was fishing with a Roy Rig with 7 lb. test line on a freshwater rod.
Triggerfish
Although I haven’t seen any pictures to validate claims of caught triggerfish, I have heard from reliable sources that anglers are getting into them at both Fenwick Shoal and down at Winter Quarter Shoal.
Upcoming Tournament
This weekend is the Big Fish Classic at the Talbot Street Pier. The tournament starts on Friday with weigh-ins from 4:00 PM to 9:00 PM on Friday and Saturday and 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM on Sunday. With lines in the water at 7:00 AM on Friday and Saturday and out the following day by 3:00 PM, boats are able to fish their choice of 32 hour trips.
The Talbot Street Pier is a fun place to have a fishing tournament with anglers having the opportunity to get close to the action, so head on over and check it out.
See you at the scales!
