Article by Sue Foster
“How long have you been writing Driftin’ Easy?”
People have been reading my articles since before we opened Oyster Bay Tackle in 1980. I graduated from high school in 1974 and I just loved to write and took every creative writing class I could. Back then, these classes were often called “Independent Studies.” That meant you sat out in the hallway with a legal pad, wrote and wrote, and then got the teacher to critique it step by step, one on one! One teacher, Terry Sterner, helped me out a lot. My principle was Gladys Burbage, who is the mother of my best friend’s boss, Kurt Burbage of Burbage’s Funeral Home. She always encouraged me to write. She was the principle of Stephen Decatur High School from 1968 to 1987 and was a great principle who really cared about each of us. (Apple never falls far from the tree they say…)
Anyway, after I graduated from High School I asked Dale Timmons of the Coastal Fisherman if I could write for the paper. I believe this was in 1976. My first articles needed a lot of his guidance and several edits but I’ve been doing them ever since! I also wrote a monthly fishing report in the Entertainer Magazine, a fictional story called “Jake the Flounder” about the “big one” that always got away!
My previous High School teachers, Sharon and John Mick, published the Entertainer Magazine. I had previously gone with them on a study group for a six-week tour of Europe when I was 16! Boy, they had their hands full! I also wrote a weekly fishing report in the Oceana Magazine and in the MD/NJ Fisherman Magazine for a while. Some articles were published in the Fishing In MD magazine as well. A lot of these articles were written on an old fashioned electronic typewriter, before the Internet! I had to write them, type them, and drop them off at their door! Thank goodness for the Internet!
The first time the late Dan Smith of http://atbeach.com asked me to write a fishing report on the Internet, I didn’t even know what the Internet was. I bought my first Gateway Computer and life has never been the same! Now I post my weekly fishing report every week with the help of Svetia Encheva of Atbeach.com who does a wonderful job maintaining my Internet site.
Now I strictly write my Driftin’ Easy article for Larry Jock in the Coastal Fisherman every week and post a weekly fishing report on my website (www.oysterbaytackle.com) every Monday. I spend a lot of time answering e-mail questions, which is a form of writing of course! I love my work and love answering questions! If you have any questions or if you would like me to write an article on a certain subject, shoot me an e-mail at: [email protected].
So this week, I’m going to answer one of the questions I received this week and I hope it helps you too!
“My girlfriend is very interested in trying her luck at fishing at Ocean City this coming week. We will need fishing licenses and some tackle/bait etc. We have never fished at Ocean City so we don’t know where we can fish from shore and have a good chance of catching something. Any suggestions? Also, what baits or lures do you recommend? Can we catch blues or stripers from shore casting lures? What lures. If fishing with bait, what bait do you recommend? And what type of rig or set up? I think I have heard of the Indian River Inlet? Is that or would that be a good spot? Is there a place to park to access the fishing area? Would you recommend a better place? “
Where to fish from the shore, is of course the most asked question in our stores. Anglers without boats have only so many choices, but there are some good ones. The Oceanic Pier (410) 289-2602) is always a good choice this time of year, especially if you are a novice. It is a pay pier at the very end of Philadelphia Ave (710 S Philadelphia Ave) that does have a blanket license, so you do not have to buy a Maryland Fishing License to fish there.
By day, the bait of choice would be live minnows or frozen shiners tipped with a strip of squid on either a single or high/low type bottom rig. Size #1 to #1/0 Wide Gap type hooks are the norm. Usually two to three- ounce bank sinkers are needed to hold the bottom. Pre-made rigs are always available in our stores. Most of the time, the best fishing at the Oceanic Pier is during the incoming tide, 3 hours before high tide and two hours after high tide. During the day, flounder will give you most of the action along with the possibility of bluefish. Bluefish will take bottom baits during the day. If you fish the very left hand corner of the Pier with green crabs or sand fleas you can fish for tautog. This is kind of a specialty type of fishing, so buy a pre-made tautog rig and give it a try if you like. Plan to lose some tackle though cause tautog love the rocks!
At night, under the lights, fishing is different because you need to fish with lures such as Spec Rigs, Got-cha Plugs and maybe ½ ounce Rat-L-Traps! Anglers cast the lures under the lights and catch blues, trout, shad and short stripers. It is a lot of fun! You can tip your spec rigs with shiners or squid and try for bottom fish if you want.
The other pay pier where you don’t need a license is the Ocean Pier. This pier is connected to and extends beyond JOLLY ROGER AT THE PIER AMUSEMENT PARK. It juts directly out into the ocean! You fish this pier like you do the surf. Snapper bluefish rigs are probably your best bet right now, tipped with squid or cut mullet. Kingfish rigs with bloodworms or Fishbite Bloodworms will also work for kingfish. Use bank or pyramid type sinkers in the 2 to 4-ounce range.
The Route 50 Bridge is a good place to fish if you don’t mind the road traffic noise. Flounder fishing with high/low rigs and shiners, minnows and squid is what most people do during the day. Bluefish come through periodically, and when they do, I jig my bait rigs up and down and lure them to my baits! Tautog only bite during the day. If you want to try for them, fish near the pilings of the bridge near the draw with green crab or sand fleas. You’ll see others there doing it as well. You’ll need more weight for tautog fishing so go with 3 to 6-ounce bank sinkers!
After dark, just like the Oceanic Pier, you need to break out the lures. Use Spec Rigs, Got-cha Plugs, Swimming Shad Lures and Rat-L-Traps and jig them under the lights.
There’s also the Bulkhead between 2nd and 4th Streets where you don’t need a fishing license and you fish it similar to the Oceanic Pier during the day. Your best bets off the bulkhead are flounder and tautog. Fish your line straight down or you’ll get hung up a lot. The only time you can cast out is when the tide is slacking.
You can also check out the 9th Street Pier. You do need a license and you can fish for flounder and blues during the day just like you would from the Oceanic Pier. Bloodworms and smaller size #6 hooks work well for pufferfish and maybe an early croaker or spot.
You don’t need a license to fish at Northside Park at 125th Street, but it a little slow on the fishing front right now although crabbing is good. Anglers need to use little pieces of worms on tiny hooks and try for spot or sand perch.
As for the Indian River Inlet, yes it is a good place to fish. You will need to stop by our Fenwick Tackle location and get a Delaware Fishing License. Casting lures is productive with most anglers using bucktail jigs with plastic worms, Gulp! jig heads tipped with Gulp! Swimming Mullets, Swimming Shad Lures and any lead head with soft bodies like Fin-S Fish in 5 to 5 ¾ inches. It’s a little hard to bottom fish up there because of swift, deep water and rocks. The tautog season is closed in Delaware until July 18th. If you do bottomfish in the Indian River Inlet, go to the north side, closer to the Coast Guard Station, and throw out shiner and squid combos for flounder and bluefish. If anglers are lure fishing, you need to get away from them so you don’t get tangled. Locals are very protective of their “rocks” up there. Yes, there is plenty of parking but you do have to pay the fee to get in the park. For a total novice, I’d stick to Ocean City!
If you need a Maryland Fishing License, stop by our Oyster Bay Tackle location in North Ocean City right next to the Green Turtle, bayside.
Plug our address into your GPS: 11615 Coastal Highway. It’ll get you there!
Good fishing…
Sue Foster is an outdoor writer and co-owner of Oyster Bay Tackle in Ocean City, MD and Fenwick Tackle in Fenwick, DE.
