Article by Capt. BJ Pietryak
It was Fireman’s Week in Ocean City last week as well as the finale of Senior’s Week. Moving forward, we will see a big influx of tourists and our waters will become very crowded. Decent catches of sea bass are still around, but many juvenile fish are mixed in making keepers harder to find.
Sea Bass & Flounder
Sea bass brought tons of small fish. Many boats reported catching dozens of fish with only a handful of keepers to bring home. Captain Chris Mizurak of the headboat “Angler” reported that the fishing was a mix of sea bass and flounder. Captain Chris said that fishing was fair with some keepers coming over the rail mixed in with lots of small ones. Flounder were also caught, including fish up to 5 lbs. The flattie was caught by Peter Chung. Squid and clam combo was the bait of choice. Chris also reported they caught their biggest sea bass last week. The knothead was 4 lbs. For those of you looking to get out in the ocean and have a great day on the water, Chris has been a captain for many years and has a great crew. The “Angler”, like all headboats in the area, are great for novice anglers as well as serious hardcore veterans. The Bass Grounds gave up a lot of fish last week, however keepers were hard to come by. The African Queen site did a little better for keepers, but the star of the week was the deeper Great Eastern Reef. The deeper water and further ride out kept pressure down on these wrecks. Anglers that fished the deeper water were rewarded with much better catches of keeper fish. Fresh clam is still the best bait, but squid and sand fleas are also doing well. Jig fishing for sea bass has slowed down, with not as many big fish are around after the last few weeks of fishing. Flounder has really turned on this week with some big fish coming over the rails. A number of anglers are using squid strips with minnow and finding success. Gulp baits are also working well. Looking to the bay, John Lewis of the “Happy Hooker” reported that the fishing was hit or miss. The water clarity has been up and down with the thunderstorms. The dirty water had slowed the bites. John also said that the bridge fishermen were catching some small stripers.
Mark Berry reported he and his buddy were on the bulkhead and caught several nice flounder while drifting live spot.
Michael Marisa reported a great day flounder fishing in Ocean City, returning home with a nice limit of big fish. Pete Renzi of “Fish Frenzi” reported a few keeper sea bass with lots of throwbacks to keep anglers busy.
Blake Gunther and Vince Cannuli were also out for flounder this week and returned to the docks with a boat load of limits and tons of smiles. Vince is on the charter boat “Running Tides”. The Thorofare was the hot spot of the week with the back side of Assateague Island being a close second. This coming week is currently calling for calmer winds, so hopefully the bay area will start to see cleaner water. Long strips of squid and minnow combos are your best bait for targeting flounder in the back bays. Live spot are also around and are a fantastic bait for big flounder. If you don't have a boat, the bulkhead along 2nd Street is a great place to do some fishing from the shore. Staying with the bay the Rt. 50 Bridge is still seeing good catches of bluefish and small rockfish. Cut bait and swim jigs are the ticket when fishing the pilings of the bridge. On the bridge itself, fish the down current side and drop your bait right along the pilings to the bottom, and then let the current take the bait away and out into the open bay. Offshore flounder are staging on the down current side of wrecks and will attack a bait coming off the wreck onto the sandy bottom below. Expect to lose a few rigs due to the longer leaders of flounder rigs. The loss of rigs is worth it as many of the biggest flounder each year come off the near shore wrecks. Big Gulp are a great bait for this type of fishing as they can be rigged fairly weedless and won't hang up as much as squid strips. Bucktails are another great bait choice when targeting wreck flounder.
Ribbon fish are also around the wrecks and I've heard they are the thickest we have seen in years. Matt from the “Ocean Princess” said they started catching some this week, and with the slow sea bass catch, it was a welcome catch. A few bluefish are also coming off the wrecks, so keep a rod rigged up with a bucktail to capitalize on these fish passing by.
Bluefish, Spadefish & Cobia
Fenwick Shoals have also been good for slow trolling. Small spoons and mahi style plugs are working well for spanish macs as well as bluefish. This style of fishing is just beginning and often overlooked by anglers. For those not wanting to run offshore and troll for pelagics, this is a good alternative. Many new anglers who want to get some experience in how to troll will learn a lot from this style of fishing. If the bluefish and macs are around, they will charge your spoons and plugs. Not many cobia have been seen this far north as of yet, however with Virginia on fire now it's only a matter of days before these fish venture into our waters.
The Fenwick Shoals as well as the shoals just south of the OC Inlet are great spots to target the “man in the brown suit”. Live eels and mullett heads are a great bait for targeting moving cobia. Chumming is also a great too, however, be ready for tons of near shore sharks to attack your baits.
This week also saw a few sheepshead caught off the rocks at the inlet. Sand fleas are a top bait on a small circle hook.§
Until next week...
Tight lines and fins up
