Article by Larry Jock
Marlin
If you walked down the docks last week, especially “C” dock at Sunset Marina, you saw a lot of white marlin flags flying. There were also a few blue marlin releases last week as well.
The charter boat, “Billfisher” continues to stack up the white marlin releases, with 15 on both Monday and Tuesday. All of the fish were hooked in the Washington Canyon where, on Tuesday, they also released a blue marlin.
The seas were rough over the weekend, so only a couple of boats ventured out on Sunday, but quite a few fished on Saturday. As with most of the week, the best action seemed to take place between the Rockpile and the Washington Canyon where water temperatures reached upwards of 80-degrees. There were also a few whites released in the Wilmington Canyon as well.
As mentioned earlier, we saw a few blue marlin releases recorded last week. In addition to the “Billfisher” releases on Tuesday, “Rhonda’s Osprey” also released a blue marlin near the Rockpile on the same day. On Thursday, the “Marli” released one near the Rockpile and the “D.A. Sea” let one go in the Washington Canyon. On Friday, the “White Lightning” headed to the Washington Canyon where they released a blue marlin and 4 white marlin.
Tuna
Tuna fishing is extremely tough right now, especially for yellowfins. Not much is going on anywhere, except for in the Wilmington Canyon where unfortunately the bite dried up on Sunday.
Although most of the boats catching tuna in the Wilmington last week came out of New Jersey, the “Restless Lady” did head up there on Wednesday for an overnight trip and boated an amazing 6 bigeyes and 4 yellowfins. The bigeyes weighed between 110 and 181 lbs. Their largest yellowfin tipped the scale at 75 lbs. Of the 6 bigeyes, 3 were caught on the greenstick, 2 on trolled ballyhoo and 1 while live baiting tinker mackerel.
On Friday, the “Foolish Pleasures” also took the trip to the Wilmington Canyon and returned on Saturday with 2 bigeyes, weighing 161 and 180 lbs., in addition to 4 dolphin and a white marlin release.
Dolphin
Last week was a bad one to be a dolphin with many fish boxes filled to the brim. Almost all of the mahi were caught in the Washington Canyon with a small percentage hooked from the Poor Man’s up to the Wilmington. We also saw dolphin caught along weed lines in 400-500 fathoms behind the Poor Man’s.
On Sunday, the charter boat “Moore Bills” headed to the Poor Man’s in very sporty seas and returned with a large 42 lb. dolphin.
Cobia
The big news last week was the 3rd cobia caught this season that was heavy enough to beat the current Maryland state record.
On Friday, Jack Latimer captured a 79 pounder after he spotted the fish swimming on the surface, 1 mile directly off the Ocean City Inlet. Jack tossed the cobia a bucktail and fought the fish for 20 minutes before the fish put a few unwanted bends in the gaff. Ironically, Jack was fishing with Steve Magassy, who was also on the boat when Jon Henry caught 2 cobia earlier in the summer that beat the current state record.
Red Drum
It was this time last year that we began to see fantastic red drum action in the Ocean City Inlet and it looks like this bite is quietly getting better each week. Look for the area around the North and South Jetties for your best bites.
Flounder
Warm water temperatures and dirty water conditions put a damper on bay flounder fishing last week. Water temperatures were in the 75 to 76-degree range at the end of the incoming tide so anglers needed to look for the deeper holes for keeper flatties.
The best bite behind Ocean City was around Bird Island and in the Fish Bowl, north of the Rt. 50 Bridge. Gulp! artificial baits and cut bait, such as flounder and dolphin belly, outproduced live spot and mullet last week.
Flounder fishing on ocean structure continues to impress but word has it that boats are traveling a little further off the beach to find them. The Old Grounds, African Queen and Sites 10 & 11 off the coast of Delaware have all been top producers.
On Sunday, the Bahia Marina Flounder Pounder was held and a 5 lb. 2 oz. flattie caught by B.J. Truitt took top honors. B.J. hooked the winning flounder in the bay behind Frontier Town on a Gulp! and minnow combination. The 2nd place fish was caught by Kathryn Hopkins who landed a 4 lb. 15 oz. flounder in the East Channel on a live mullet. The tournament had 86 anglers registered and we saw fish come in from spots as far south as the Assateague Bridge and as far north as the Thorofare.
Bluefish
Snapper bluefish are all over the bay and larger bluefish are being caught by anglers around the Rt. 50 Bridge.
In the Surf
Surfcasters continue to find the typical summer varieties of sharks, skates and rays but kingfish and snapper bluefish have also entered the mix.
Upcoming Tournament
The 13th Annual Ocean City Fishing Center Spot Tournament will be held on September 11th. This tournament is awesome, especially for kids, and it is also very inexpensive so you can enter an entire family for a night of fun. All the action takes place right at the docks at the Fishing Center.
This weekend is the Ocean City Marlin Club Challenge Cup which pits the Ocean City club against the Cape May Marlin & Tuna Club. After losing the cup in 2010 and 2011, the Cape May team was victorious in 2012 and 2013, so this year should be interesting given that the trophy is retired given to the club after 3 consecutive wins. I will go out on a limb and predict a big win this year for the Ocean City team!
See you at the scales!
