Article by Larry Jock
We are in our typical, late summer fishing mode where bites can get tough, especially for those looking for yellowfin tuna. However, that doesn’t mean that all is lost with good marlin and dolphin action keeping offshore anglers busy, and larger flounder putting smiles on the faces of inshore and bay fishermen.
Poor Girl’s Open
The 18th Annual Capt. Steve Harman’s Poor Girl’s Open was held at Bahia Marina this past weekend. The tournament was up 9 boats and 42 anglers when compared to last year.
On the first day of the tournament, the lady anglers on the “Osprey” released 6 white marlin in the Baltimore Canyon and hung on to win first place in the Billfish Release Division.
On Friday, the “Give It Away” released 3 white marlin and a blue marlin in the Baltimore Canyon, ending the tournament in 3rd place in the Billfish Release Division. Sunset Marina Dockhand Extraordinaire Devynn Maurer landed a 51.6 lb. yellowfin tuna to win 1st place in the Tuna Division.
On the final day of the tournament, Nancy Jannuzzio muscled in a 31.1 lb. dolphin outside the Baltimore Canyon to take the Dolphin Division.
The big winner in the tournament was the American Cancer Society, which received a check for $54,000 to go towards breast cancer research.
Marlin
The white marlin bite throughout the week was fairly steady for boats venturing offshore. Early in the week, boats centered on the Washington Canyon where they were able to release one to four whites during their trip. On Thursday, boats shifted their focus to the Baltimore Canyon and were rewarded with two to six white marlin releases. The bite stayed in the Baltimore through the weekend, when the “Pumpin’ Hard” recorded 6 releases on Friday, the “Billfisher” had 8 releases on Saturday and the “Attitudes” released 10 white marlin on Sunday.
There were also a few blue marlin caught during the week. On Tuesday, the “Rude Awakening” took a trip to the Wilmington Canyon and released 2 blue marlin. The following day, “Grandé Pez” released a blue marlin in the Washington Canyon, where the “Sea Slammer” also released a blue marlin estimated at over 700 lbs. On Friday, the “Pumpin’ Hard 66” released a blue marlin in the Baltimore Canyon, where on Saturday, the “Singularis” also released a blue marlin. All this action is just in time for this week’s Mid-Atlantic $500,000 at Sunset Marina. Last year, the Ocean City fleet dominated the tournament and we have an additional 9 boats fishing out of Ocean City this year, so it should be interesting.
Tuna
With the Gulf Stream far offshore and no major eddies spinning off in our direction, the tuna bite has been far from good. In the middle of the week, a few boats ran across whales in the Baltimore Canyon and were successful hooking a few bigeye tuna. The largest bigeye came in on the “Restless Lady”, when Aaron McAdoo single handedly muscled in a 236 pounder. On the same day, “That’s Right” returned with a 150 pounder. On Thursday, the “Sore Subject” also boated a bigeye in the Baltimore Canyon.
Dolphin
Mahi-mahi once again dominated the offshore action last week. Most of the bites were in the Baltimore Canyon where boats were in search of white marlin. The dolphin aren’t huge, but nice fish none the less. The largest mahi of the week was caught on the “Family Tree” when they boated a 35 pounder in 50 fathoms in the Baltimore Canyon.
We haven’t heard of any dolphin being caught in our bays, but we did see a peanut dolphin caught at the Sea Buoy, one mile off the beach.
Wahoo
On Sunday, a couple of speedsters were hooked. The “BBQ Express” captured one while trolling around the Hot Dog, and “Attitudes” hooked into one a little south of the Baltimore Canyon.
Flounder
Anglers are still needing to weed through a lot of throwbacks to get a keeper flounder in the box, but we are seeing bigger flounder starting to hit the dock. The fish are beginning to stage for their run to offshore reefs and wrecks. Typically, this creates a good bite around the Cement Plant, north of the Rt. 50 Bridge, along the north wall of the O.C. Inlet and around the South Jetty.
This past week, the bite definitely improved in the East Channel, especially south of the Rt. 50 Bridge near the Coast Guard Station. We also saw fish coming in from around Harbour Island, along the houses in the Thorofare and even a few in the West Channel, north of Hooper’s Crab House.
However, the larger flounder weighed last week definitely came from anglers fishing the inshore reefs and wrecks. Russell’s Reef and the African Queen produced quality flatties for quite a few anglers fishing with live bunker and Gulp! Swimming Mullets.
Croaker
Unfortunately, it looks like another dud of a year for croaker fishing in our bays. A few small fish continue to be hooked in the East Channel and around the mouth of the Commercial Harbor, and some are being caught by anglers just off the beach and in the Delaware Bay.
Sea Bass
Sea bass fishing is inconsistent right now. According to Capt. Monty Hawkins on the “Morning Star”, you can fish an ocean structure one day and have a fine day catching sea bass. Go back the next day and there is nothing. Anglers are also being frustrated with the large number of throwbacks being caught.
In the middle of the week, young Collin Hurley took a trip with some anglers up to the Old Grounds and returned with a nice catch of sea bass. Collin’s largest measured 20-inches and was caught on a strip of squid.
Striped Bass
Anglers drifting live spot or tossing bucktails around the tip of the South Jetty have been able to hook up with some striped bass although the vast majority are too small to keep.
In the Surf
Sue Foster at Oyster Bay Tackle reports, “More and more snapper blues are being reported from the surf. Kingfish, Norfolk spot, croaker, sand perch, sea trout, big rays and sand sharks are the mixed catch. I'm hearing there are less Norfolk spot than there were the weeks before. The best bite is early in the morning. At night, we're seeing sand sharks, larger toothy sharks, skates, rays and snapper bluefish. Remember, you cannot keep a sand tiger, sand bar or dusky shark. If in doubt, always release any sharks with teeth.”
Upcoming Tournaments
There are no local tournaments on the calendar for this weekend. The next tournament is the 53rd Annual Ocean City Marlin Club Labor Day White Marlin Tournament on September 2nd - 4th.
After that is the Ake Marine Flounder Pounder on September 11th.
See you at the scales... in a couple of weeks.
