Article by Capt. Lance Smith
In my last column I basically discussed what was available to catch around town this time of year. Even though it’s been two weeks since then, things haven’t changed too much. Sure, the first offshore species like tuna, mahi and mako sharks were caught, and the number of small striped bass seems to have dwindled, but we are still in an early to mid-spring pattern. So if you’re looking to stretch your line and maybe even bring home some dinner, bluefish, flounder and tautog are still going to be your best bet. Oh, and let’s not forget that by the time you read this, sea bass season will have opened on May 15! Now that we know what to target, we need to figure out how to target them, and believe me when I say that each species is different.
Let’s start with something new that I learned last week. Bluefish have always been one of my favorite fish to catch. Not only do they put up a terrific fight, often leaping clear of the water, they will usually bite any offering that you put in front of them. So after finishing up from working on the boat early one day last week, I stopped by the 3rd Street Bulkhead to try my hand at some tautog fishing. By the way, the 3rd Street Bulkhead is a free fishing area on the bayside where you are not required to have a fishing license and there is usually plenty of parking. When I arrived, I was a bit disheartened to see that someone was in my favorite little spot. This gentleman was catching some undersized tautog with his rods simply propped against the railing (a technique I have still yet to figure out) while he was casting and retrieving another rod. On this rod, he was bouncing a frozen shiner and a strip of squid with an egg sinker about 16-inches up the line. What I would call a traditional “Old School” method of flounder fishing. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that most flounder this time of year are up on the flats in shallow water trying to warm up, not in the deep, colder water of the East Channel. All of a sudden, his “flounder” rod doubles over with an obviously large fish on the other end. I knew immediately that it was one of the large chopper bluefish that have invaded the bay, so I helped him net it and he gave it to me for mako shark bait.
I decided to give the “leaning my tog rod on the railing” technique a go and I picked up another rod and began to throw every lure that I have ever caught a bluefish on out into the channel. While the man next to me caught another bluefish, I proceeded to miss one tautog bite and tie on about 20 different lures over an hour period. I then noticed a group of guys about 50 yards away using bluefish surf rigs. These are the rigs you see in tackle shops with the little orange or yellow floats on them to keep the crabs off of your bait while fishing from the beach. I kind of chuckled to myself until I realized that their poles were constantly bent with huge bluefish! So the one fish I could always count on to eat absolutely anything at any water depth would only go for bait on the bottom this particular day! This is why it is always important to watch what other people are doing, even if you think they are googans. I quickly tied on the heaviest bucktail I had (1 1/2 or 2 oz.), filleted one side of the bluefish I had been given, and cut it into 6-inch elongated strips. Putting my bucktail hook through the fatter end of a strip only once, so that it would dangle enticingly, I made my first cast. I let the bucktail sink for a few seconds, jigged it twice, and BOOM! Fish on! It was pretty simple from then until it got dark and I had to call it a day. The next day, I stopped by the bulkhead again and the fisherman using surf rigs had two blues on at once and a pile of about ten lying behind them. I guess you really can learn something new every day, and if you happened to read my last column, bluefish can be quite tasty if prepared properly.
So bluefish can be caught just about anywhere in the bay, off the beach or in the inlet. What about these goofy looking tautog that have become so popular in recent years? Well, you can either hop onboard one of the many headboats around town to take you out to the wrecks (although they may be concentrating on sea bass by the time you read this), you can become a member of the Ocean City Reef Foundation and get access to all of the nearshore wreck locations and take your own boat offshore or you can fish from any of the locations in the bay that have heavy structure. Areas such as the North Jetty, the 3rd Street Bulkhead and the deep water of the Rt. 50 Bridge are a few good places to start. Basically, anywhere you can get snagged, there may be a tautog or two waiting.
Tautog love crabs. You can use either the commonly sold green crabs or sand fleas, or find the secret whitelegger crabs that everyone seeks from up north. A 2 to 4 oz. sinker at the end of your line with a pre-snelled blackfish hook about 12-inches above is the simplest rig to use. Just make sure you are using a rod heavier than your normal flounder rod with heavier line because these bulldogs will drag you right down into the rocks and hang you up if your tackle is too light.
Tautog bite with a series of taps, attempting to extract the meat from the shell of your crab. It is only with much patience and practice that you can learn exactly when to set the hook. Strike too early and you will miss. Wait too long and your hook will be bare. Please remember that any overly dark colored fish with a distended stomach is a female with eggs, so even if she is over the 16-inch limit, please return her to spawn.
Now early season flounder are another story. Do not waste your time fishing the deep waters of the East Channel or in the inlet. These early fish are shallow. Eight feet of water or less is where you should be fishing. I prefer anywhere from 4 to 6 feet actually, but the same baits and rigs used throughout the summer will still work. Live minnows or frozen shiners tipped with a strip of squid will always produce, but the Gulp! Swimming Mullet, rigged either on a plain jig head or a small bucktail, will often out-produce the tried and true minnows and shiners. Just remember that when you are using Gulp! that it is best to keep you rig as close to the boat as possible and always keep it moving. Some days the flounder prefer a slow jigging action with long hops off of the bottom, and other days (when the water is a bit warmer) they prefer a more fast paced short and quick jigging motion.
While fishing from your own boat any of these fish are available. Bluefish and tautog can be caught from shore until the weather really heats up. If you are really new to fishing in and around Ocean City, your best bet may be to choose from one of the many smaller charter boats here in the pages of the Coastal Fisherman that specialize in fishing the back bay. They can teach you all that you need to know and usually send you home with enough for a dinner or two!
See you all in two weeks when conditions have changed a bit.
Lance Smith is an outdoor writer and Captain of his family’s boat, ‘Longfin”. His column appears every other week in the Coastal Fisherman.