Article by Larry Jock
It’s been more than a tough spring for fishermen this year, but it looks like things are ready to bust open. Water temperatures in the bay are on the rise and surf temperatures have finally risen above 50-degrees. It should only get better in the coming weeks.
Sharks
The big news of the week was the 214 lb. mako shark caught on Friday by Hayden Christoff on the charter boat, “Restless Lady”. This was the first shark caught in 2014 and Capt. Todd Kurtz had to travel 68 miles to 700 fathoms outside the Poor Man’s Canyon to find it in 59 1/2-degree water. The anglers also hooked 4 blue sharks during the trip.
Just a reminder, the Ocean City Shark Tournament moved their dates up to May 29th to 31st. Historically, the tournament was held on Father’s Day weekend, but organizers felt that the new date would provide for better shark fishing.
Weakfish
On Wednesday, Craig Hocker was tossing a Storm lure off the North Jetty and hooked into a 29-inch, 7 lb. 13 oz. weakfish.
Flounder
We are starting to see “some” life with the flounder bite. On Thursday, Dick Miller stopped by the office with his limit of 4 flounder caught in the bay behind Frontier Town Campground (see picture above). This was the only individual limit we saw this week. Another notable catch came in on the charter boat, “Get Sum” on Friday when anglers returned with 4 keepers in the box after drifting in the South Bay behind Frontier Town.
The bite in the Thorofare was not very good last week, with only a few catches being reported. The bite in the bay behind Assateague, from behind the Ocean City Airport down to the duck blinds, looked like the better location when the water was clean.
Speaking of clean water, Sunday was a disaster with dirty water throughout the bay. Chuck Wenzel did find clean water on the outside of the South Jetty and ended up with a fat, 22-inch flounder in the box.
Most of the action this week seemed to come on Gulp! Swimming Mullets, with white and pink being the most productive colors.
Tautog
Head boat and charter boat anglers continue to find nice size tautog on ocean structure. The largest tog of the week went to Donald Knox with his 18 lb. 3 oz. blackfish caught while fishing outside the First Lump on the charter boat, “Fish Bound”. Donald and the 4 other anglers on the boat ended up with their 4 fish per person limit.
On Saturday, Capt. Jason Mumford guided his anglers to an action packed day of tog fishing around the South Jetty. His group released over 40 tog and kept a pair measuring 17 and 18-inches. Capt. Jason reported the water temperature at 62 degrees during the bottom of the outgoing tide and dropping to 57 degrees during the incoming tide.
We also saw some tog being caught off Gudelsky Park in the West Channel by Mike Snedaker who caught 4 on Thursday measuring 17, 18, 20 and 21-inches.
Sea Bass
Nothing to report except sea bass season opens on May 19th!!
In the Surf
The action from the beach continues to be sporadic, but it should only be a matter of days before things start heating up. The bite is several weeks behind what we normally see this time of year, but anglers who fished Virginia’s barrier islands last week reported good schools of nice size stripers heading our way.
Stripers and black drum are both being caught in the suds, just not in any numbers. On Saturday, Hugh Cropper joined his dad, Hugh, and daughter, Myra, for a morning of fishing off Assateague Island and ended up with 2 nice stripers, measuring 34 and 38-inches, along with a 21-inch black drum.
On Sunday, Sue Foster at Oyster Bay Tackle sent in a couple of pictures of anglers with black drum caught off the beach in North Ocean City on Fishbite bloodworms.
Also on Sunday, Jeremy Miller stopped by with a 43-inch striper he caught while fishing off Assateague with fresh bunker at slack tide.
There was a report of a fisherman kayaking off Assateague on the Virginia line who came across a school of big, bull red drum a ways off the beach, but he had no luck hooking one.
Upcoming Tournament
We are less than 2 weeks away from the first tournament of the season, the Marlin Club Bluefish Tournament on May 24th and 25th.
See you at the scales!
