Article by Larry Jock
What a week of fishing in Ocean City we had last week! The fish cleaners were busier than a one armed paper hanger with wheelbarrows filled with fish lined up at the cleaning stations. It was quite a sight.
Flounder
The highlight of the week was the 12 lb. 6 oz. monster flounder landed on Thursday by local angler, Bob Gummer. Bob really puts his time in and was understandably ecstatic about catching this once-in-a-lifetime fish. The 30-inch flattie was hooked on a live spot off the bulkhead on 1st Street, a hot spot for local flounder snipers, and was the largest flounder we have seen caught in Ocean City in the last 8 years.
Outside of Bob’s catch, flounder fishing continues to be tough, although it looked like we had a glimmer of hope over the weekend when several boats came to the scale with nice catches. The most surprising catch came in on Sunday when the “Jack Attack” captured 7 nice flounder in the West Channel at the top of the tide. One of the anglers told me that they all hit within 45 minutes, so it wasn’t a steady bite all day. They were just in the right place at the right time.
Elsewhere, anglers tossing live spot or Gulp! artificial baits at the South Jetty also came away with some nice fish. Doug Curtiss caught a 24-incher on Thursday at the Jetty on live spot and other anglers picked at them all week.
Some flounder fishermen had luck fishing in the bay behind Assateague Island, especially behind the Ocean City Airport and Castaway’s Campground. On Sunday, in the Small Boat Tournament, Rob Thompson landed a 5.6 lb. flounder behind the Airport and his son caught a 2.8 pounder, both on live spot.
Several of the flounder charter boats had good days fishing in the East Channel, both north and south of the Rt. 50 Bridge, in the Fishbowl and also behind Assateague Island towards the mouth of the bay.
Obviously, from the report you see that live spot gives you the best shot at a keeper, but the Gulp! Swimming Mullets are holding their own. Anglers are starting to switch to the larger, 6-inch Gulp! bait to target larger fish. White seems to be the color of choice right now.
Bluefish
We are starting to see larger, chopper bluefish wreaking havoc all around the bays behind Ocean City, in addition to showing up on ocean structure.
Junior angler Hugh Thomas Cropper had the crowd on its feet at the Small Boat Tournament when he arrived with a 15.4 lb. gator. Hugh Thomas was fishing with his dad, Hugh Cropper and Jeff Greenwood at the Tea Cup when the big bluefish ate their trolled, horse ballyhoo.
Other larger bluefish were caught last week by anglers fishing around the Rt. 50 Bridge with either live spot or tossing metal jigs.
Sea Bass
Anglers hitting the reefs and wrecks off the coast of Ocean City are returning with nice catches of sea bass, typically running in the 2 lb. range. The throwback ratio continues to run very high, with 10 fish needing to be hooked to get your 1 keeper. However, if you put your time in, there are plenty of keepers to be caught. Squid and clams are the preferred baits when looking for knotheads.
Tuna
The yellowfin tuna bite continues to have everyone happy as a lark. Like I said in the opening paragraph of this report, the wheelbarrows were lined up at the fish cleaning stations over the weekend, filled with yellowfin tuna coming in primarily from 50 to 75 fathoms in the Baltimore and Wilmington Canyons.
All week long, boats arrived with an average of 6-12 yellowfins. A few boats had monster days, like the “Moore Bills”, who returned on Friday with 17 yellowfins from the Baltimore Canyon. Also on Friday, the “Marli” had their best day of the year, capturing 22 yellowfins, totaling 913 lbs., in the Baltimore Canyon.
A few bluefin tuna showed up at the scales last week, mostly from boats that spotted them in 20-40 fathoms on their run back to the dock. Acres of bluefins were spotted north of Ocean City, up towards the Dump Site, Chicken Bone, 19-Fathom Lump and in Massey’s Canyon. With the shorter run, I would expect to see more anglers targeting bluefins over the next few weeks.
The docks were really buzzing last week when some bigeye tuna arrived at the scale. On Friday, Ocean City angler Pat Hurley bested a 227 lb. bigeye while fishing on the east wall of the Wilmington Canyon aboard the “Double Trouble”. Amazingly, Pat said it only took 20 minutes to get the beast into the boat. On Sunday, the “Lady Luck” captured 3 bigeyes while fishing in 300 fathoms in the Washington Canyon during the M.S.S.A. Tuna-Ment. The fish weighed 176.1, 196.0 and 207.9 lbs. Angler Steve Ramsey reported having 4 on at one time and only losing one. The next day, “Fix It” returned from an overnight trip to 100 fathoms in the Washington Canyon with a 223 pounder that measured 65.5-inches. They had 3 bigeyes on at one time and unfortunately lost one to a shark and the other one came loose.
All of this has anglers excited about the possibility of these larger tuna sticking around for the Tuna Tournament in a couple of weeks.
Wahoo
A few wahoo showed up last week, led by the 77 pounder caught by Nunzio Litterio on the “Clear Shot”. The speedster was caught on a trolled ballyhoo at the Hot Dog.
Other wahoo were caught in the Baltimore and Wilmington Canyons.
Marlin
Both white and blue marlin showed up in the spreads of anglers trolling for tuna in the Baltimore and Wilmington Canyons.
On Friday, both the “Espadon” and the “White Lightning” released blue marlin in the Baltimore Canyon.
On Sunday, the “Muff Diver” and the “Bimini” each released a white marlin between the Wilmington and Baltimore Canyons. The “Billfisher” and the “Dawg Haus” each released a blue marlin in the Wilmington.
Upcoming Tournament
This weekend is the 30th Annual Canyon Kick-off hosted by the Ocean City Marlin Club. Fishing will be held on Friday, Saturday and Sunday with weigh-ins at Sunset Marina from 5:00 PM to 7:30 PM. This tournament is free for all OCMC Boat Members.
See you at the scales!
